Rodney Hide
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Parliament | Electorate | List Position | Party |
| 45th, 1996-1999 | (List) | 6 | ACT |
| 46th, 1999-2002 | (List) | 5 | ACT |
| 47th, 2002-2005 | (List) | 2 | ACT |
| 48th, 2005- | Epsom | 1 | ACT |
Rodney Hide (born 16 December 1956), a New Zealand politician, became leader of the political party ACT New Zealand in 2004. Since 2005 he has represented the electorate of Epsom as its Member of Parliament.
Hide first entered Parliament in 1996 as a list MP. He won the party parliamentary leadership role in a closely-contested primary after the retirement of Richard Prebble in 2004. He then went on to win the Epsom electorate from sitting National Party MP Richard Worth in 2005 with the campaign message "ACT is back".
Hide has a reputation for strong views, for his media profile, and for his confrontational style. Some commentators dubbed him the "leader of the opposition" when he still sat on the back benches. His supporters often describe him as one of the most effective opposition MPs, and praise him for his motivation and commitment. Some critics have accused him of abandoning the ideological approach promoting ACT's neoliberal economic agenda in favour of populist attacks and mud slinging.[citations needed]
Contents |
[edit] Early life
Hide was born in Oxford in Canterbury. His father, Philip Hide, owned a small mixed-farm at Cust and also drove trucks. In 1960, due to sickness, Philip Hide sold the small farm and moved to Rangiora, continuing to drive trucks until his retirement. Rodney Hide gained a degree in zoology and botany from the University of Canterbury. After completing his degree, he travelled overseas, eventually finding himself in Scotland. He worked for some time on oil rigs in the North Sea. Hide eventually returned to New Zealand by way of Romania, Egypt, India, Bangladesh, and Malaysia. In Malaysia, he re-met Jiuan Jiuan, with whom he had flatted in Christchurch - the two married in 1983 (in 2007 they separated [1]). On returning to New Zealand, Hide returned to university, gaining a degree in resource management from Lincoln College, Canterbury. He then took up a teaching position, first in resource management and later in economics. He completed his masters degree in economics from Montana State University in record time.
In 1993 Alan Gibbs, an Auckland businessman, offered Hide a job as an economist. He accepted, and also began working at a radio station owned by Gibbs. Later, Hide also met Roger Douglas, a former Minister of Finance whose radical economic reforms had made a considerable impression on him.
When Douglas established the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers (which later formed the ACT New Zealand party), Hide had close involvement as the organisation's first chairman and president.
[edit] Entry to parliament
Hide held the seventh place on the ACT party list for the 1996 elections. ACT received enough votes for Hide to enter Parliament, making him one of the party's "founding" MPs. He gradually rose through the party's ranks, reaching second place in the ACT list for the 2002 elections.
In his maiden speech, Hide made a specific attack on "perks" enjoyed by MPs, and this "perk-busting" has become a characteristic of his political career ever since. Hide has developed a substantial reputation for finding and exposing "scandals", whether they relate to MPs' perks or to other governmental matters. Hide's critics often claim that his "scandals" rely on sensationalism and exaggeration, and have as their only purpose the gaining of media attention; but his supporters believe that Hide's constant scrutiny "keeps the government honest" and ensures that the administration does not waste taxpayers' money.
Roger Douglas himself has emerged as one of Hide's more prominent critics, referring to Hide's "stunts" as detracting from ACT's core economic message, shifting focus to populist issues of law and order and to provocative race relations policies. At a party conference, Douglas condemned MPs "who run any fickle line capable of grabbing short-term votes and attention", a comment allegedly directed at Hide or at his supporters. Hide acknowledges the criticism, but defends himself on the grounds that a focus on pure economic theory will not attract interest: "the problem is that the so-called stunts are particularly well-reported and my work explaining free market ideas disappears without trace." The tension between Douglas and Hide increased when Hide made a bid for the vice-presidency of ACT in 2000: supporters of Roger Douglas interpreted this action as a challenge to Douglas' organisational authority within the party. Both Douglas and Hide stood down from their roles as President and Vice-President, suggesting an uneasy truce between these two factions.
[edit] The path to ACT Party leadership
Many people had known for some time that Hide saw himself as a potential parliamentary leader of the ACT party, and he himself showed no reluctance in saying so. Critics, both inside and outside the party, resented this open ambition, with many believing that it undermined the party as a whole. At several points, rumours circulated that Hide planned to challenge party leader Richard Prebble for his position, although such a challenge never eventuated. When Prebble eventually announced his retirement, his critics claimed that secret campaigning by Hide had brought this about. However, Prebble himself has denied this claim, and it appears more likely that Prebble stood down for personal reasons - as he publicly claimed.
When Prebble announced his retirement, Hide quickly indicated that he would seek the caucus leadership. Prebble, however, appeared unenthusiastic about the prospect of Hide succeeding him, and in a speech praising each of the new leadership contenders, pointedly dwelled on the others. The succession method chosen by Prebble also appeared to disfavour Hide - rather than a simple caucus vote, which a conventional leadership challenge would have called, a four-way election involved all ACT party members (although the election remained only "indicative"). Many people consider that the party organisation, in which Roger Douglas has considerable influence, dislikes Hide.
Hide campaigned against Stephen Franks, Ken Shirley, and Muriel Newman for the ACT party parliamentary leadership. In the race he claimed that his high public profile and his image of strength would prove crucial to ACT's political survival. Stephen Franks, seen as the primary "anti-Hide" candidate, had the backing of Roger Douglas and of other economic purists. In the end, however, Hide prevailed, and the party introduced Hide as its new leader on June 13, 2004.
[edit] Since the 2005 General Election
Under Hide's leadership, the vote in the September 2005 elections severely reduced ACT party parliamentary representation. ACT's share of the party vote dropped from over 7% of the total to around 1.5%. The ACT Party in Parliament, which had had nine MPs, now had only two, and would have lacked any Parliamentary presence altogether had Hide not won the traditionally conservative electorate seat of Epsom from National MP Richard Worth. In consequence of the reduction of ACT's parliamentary representation, the ACT party has received a significant cut in taxpayer-funded Parliamentary resourcing, which may also hamper its ability to operate in the post-2005-election environment.
The subsequent reduction in ACT's size has seen Rodney Hide shut down his high-profile electorate office in Remuera and consolidate his electorate office with that of the ACT Party's head office in a less visible spot in Newmarket.
As a post-election strategy, Rodney Hide has focused on his high-profile attacks on prominent Labour Party MPs. His campaign against alleged abuse of schoolchildren by Labour Party minister David Benson-Pope continued to make headlines in late 2005. However, despite the fact that ACT now has parliamentary representation on a different basis (due to its winning the seat of Epsom), polling for ACT has not perceptibly improved: the party continues to poll around the 1% mark. Hide commenced his political year in 2006 by voicing speculation on the leadership cadre of the National Party - a strategy which has gained him headlines but which has raised the ire of National Parliamentarians, complicating the once co-operative relationship between ACT and National.
Hide announced in late April 2006 that he would appear in the celebrity-based Dancing with the Stars television series, paired off with a professional dancer and competing against other celebrities, with the funds raised through his performance going to St Johns Ambulance. Hide stated that he appeared on the show as a personal challenge, having never danced before.
Hide danced his way to fourth place on the show, despite harsh criticism from the show's judges.
Hide has also sought to reposition the party. While not moving away from ACT's key tenets of freedom, choice, and personal responsibility, Hide has said that provided the governing Labour Party promise (amongst other things) significant tax-cuts, ACT could provide the centre-left party with support. Many see this as a departure from ACT's position[citation needed] of providing the National Party with a staunch ally. Others see ACT as a centre-right liberal party (as opposed to National, a conservative party) and as such sharing many areas of agreement with Labour (seen as more liberal than National).
This new approach by the ACT Party has emerged (at least publicly) since Rodney Hide and deputy leader (and fellow MP) Heather Roy returned from a privately-funded tour of Europe. During this trip, Hide and Roy met with a number of political parties, including the Irish Progressive Democrats and the German Free Democrats, both parties with similar ideologies to ACT, but with substantially better electoral records.
[edit] External links
- Rodney Hide - personal website and blog
- ACT New Zealand
[edit] References
| New Zealand political party leaders | |
| Rodney Hide (ACT) | Jeanette Fitzsimons & Russel Norman (Greens) | Helen Clark (Labour) | Tariana Turia & Pita Sharples (Māori) | John Key (National) | Winston Peters (New Zealand First) | Jim Anderton (Progressives) | Peter Dunne (United Future) |
