I valued my association with Rodney Hide, in the early days of ACT, when I was an active member of the Party. He was an affable colleague and a memorable expositor of social and economic policy. Later, I collaborated with him in a persistent but, ultimately unsuccessful bid to get the truth about the shooting, in East Timor, of New Zealand army private, Leonard Manning. I was impressed by his work ethic and his persistence. By this time, I was no longer a member of the Party. Later, again, I noted (from a distance) his effort to remake himself physically, which cumulated in his high profile participation in ‘Come Dancing’. It is deeply ironic that this admirable project also provided an incident that gave his political opponents endless opportunity for mockery. But, ultimately, it was the failure of the ACT Party under his leadership to make any progress in the opinion polls with another election looming that brought the final humiliation this week. I hope he will leave Parliament, at the end of the year, with the appreciation of his colleagues, and of Party members, and I hope that his obvious talents will find a suitable outlet from that point on.
When prime minister Key returned home from smoodging and rubbing shoulders with the world’s royalty and social elite he found a very changed political landscape by brash acts to his right and left.
