Hide Rodney: Urgent Debates — Heather Roy—Ministerial Resignation 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hide Rodney: Urgent Debates — Heather Roy—Ministerial Resignation 
[Sitting date: 18 August 2010. Volume:665;Page:13220. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon RODNEY HIDE (Leader—ACT) 
: 
 I thank the co-leader of the Greens Dr Russel Norman for his contribution. I also congratulate Mr Darren Hughes who has given us the opportunity to have this urgent debate in the House. He had the wit to put the application in and get it across the line. I say to the member that with another 9 years in Opposition he will start to be a good Opposition MP. I also say to Mr Hughes that we welcome the opportunity to have this discussion about the Government. 
For the benefit of members opposite I would also like to contrast the incredible stability of the arrangement between the National Party the Maori Party United Future and the ACT Party with the arrangement between the Labour Party and the Alliance. What happened? It fell to bits. There was also the arrangement between the Labour Party and United Future. What happened? It fell to bits. Then there was the arrangement between the Labour Party and New Zealand First. What happened? It fell to bits. Here we have a Government made up of the National Party the ACT Party and the Maori Party. Yes we have our differences but we are working together extremely well. I put that down to Prime Minister John Key who has done a fantastic job as Prime Minister for the benefit of the country and of this Parliament. 
I say to members opposite that the ACT Party was elected and we had said before the election that we would support John Key as Prime Minister and would support a National Government. We said that again on election night and we have kept our word. The people of New Zealand know that they have a stable centre-right Government that is getting on with the business. As a consequence of the ACT Party we have the 2025 goal of catching up with Australia which is now exercising the Labour Party and so it should because it is important that we lift our economic performance. We have the task force to measure our performance. We are working with the Minister of Finance Bill English to get spending under control after the country was left in a disastrous state. We have red tape under control we have local government being reformed we have our “three strikes” legislation and we have our inter-party working-group on school choice. Let me address this matter. 
Phil Twyford 
: Where’s Heather? 
Hon RODNEY HIDE 
: Let me explain this I say to Mr Twyford. Yes it is the case that under our caucus rules we can change the leader and the deputy leader and we follow a process. As soon as— 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: Why change Heather? 
Hon RODNEY HIDE 
: I want to explain this because it will explain the difference between members on this side of the House and members on that side of the House and the difference between our Prime Minister and the previous Prime Minister. John Boscawen put it on notice in the ACT caucus that he would contest to become the deputy leader of the ACT Party. 
Hon Members 
: Why? 
Hon RODNEY HIDE 
: Because it was John Boscawen’s view that he would make a better contribution to the ACT Party as the deputy leader than he was making in his previous role. He was perfectly entitled to do that. As soon as John Boscawen lodged that application I told the Prime Minister about it. I told the Prime Minister 13 days ago—12 days before the vote—that John Boscawen had put forward his name to become the deputy leader of the ACT Party. That is the level of trust that we have as parties. We discussed it in detail. 
Then what happened was that I discussed with Prime Minister John Key what would happen— 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: And what did you say? 
Hon RODNEY HIDE 
: I tell Darren Hughes to be quiet for a minute and I will tell him. I discussed with the Prime Minister what would happen in terms of our confidence and supply agreement if there was a change of deputy leader in the ACT Party. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Did he ask why there’d be a change? 
Hon RODNEY HIDE 
: No we explained that it would be up to the caucus. We then discussed the situation. The Prime Minister explained that actually the ministerial position goes with being the deputy leader of the ACT Party. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: She’s named in the confidence and supply agreement. She’s named in it. 
Hon RODNEY HIDE 
: We had a discussion I say to Mr Hughes. The Prime Minister and I worked out our situation. We worked out the timing. The ACT members turned up to a caucus meeting. John Boscawen made his case to the caucus. Heather Roy made her case to the caucus. The ACT caucus had a vote and I informed the Prime Minister of the result. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Did he ask why? 
Hon RODNEY HIDE 
: Well I tell members that there is a funny thing about what the Labour Party does not get. I will tell members why they do not get it. It is called democracy I say to Mr Hughes. We do not live in a party that was known by the name “Helengrad”. The Prime Minister understands that in a democracy a caucus can have a vote. I know that that is a hard concept for Labour members to grasp but the ACT caucus can vote to change its leader and its deputy leader. I was then able to inform the Prime Minister of the result of the vote and we made the requisite changes. 
Mr Hughes has made a great play about transparency and accountability—a great play about transparency and accountability. We were absolutely transparent with the Prime Minister about what was going on. This was internal party business and it might have been that John Boscawen did not succeed. It might have been that John Boscawen did not succeed. In the event he succeeded and we had a democratic outcome in our caucus. 
Let me say this about Helen Clark—I looked over there and I do not know why but I thought of that other woman. Let me say this about Heather Roy. Members have never heard me say a bad thing about Heather Roy. Members have never heard me say anything bad about Heather Roy. I accepted the result of the caucus vote and I said to Heather that I thought it would be a good idea for her to take 2 weeks’ leave which she is doing. Unlike the Labour Party members we do not go and say of a respected member that we think he or she is mentally deranged which is what those members do. We do not have a member being chased around by people with cameras. We respect the members of our caucus. Heather is taking 2 weeks’ leave. We hope that Heather will come back—and I believe that this will be the case—and will continue to make a great contribution to the ACT Party as a caucus member. Why? Because it is important that ACT members work well together and that ACT supports this Government. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: This is the beginning of the end for ACT. 
Hon RODNEY HIDE 
: I say this to Darren Hughes— 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: This is the beginning of the end for the ACT Party. It will not be here at the next election and this man’s responsible for that. First to 2 percent; next to zero percent. 
Hon RODNEY HIDE 
: Let me ask Mr Darren Hughes a question. I ask whether he is one of the ones who think that Labour can win at the next election or whether he is with Mr Chris Carter who tells the truth. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: I guarantee that there will be no ACT Party. 
Hon RODNEY HIDE 
: Oh we are going to be toast at the next election. I have heard that being said for a long time. I was hearing that Mr Hughes when you were still in short pants. Actually come to think of it you are still in short pants. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Speaker is not today in short pants. He might wear them around the farm but not here in the House. 
Hon RODNEY HIDE 
: I apologise Mr Speaker. I was referring to Mr Darren Hughes being in short pants—perish the image. 
The ACT Party has emerged from this stronger—absolutely. I tell members that we have a stronger relationship with the National Government the Prime Minister the Deputy Prime Minister Bill English and indeed the Maori Party and United Future because we know that these things can occur in a democracy. We have a commitment to the Government the people of Epsom and the people of New Zealand to provide good stable Government which is something that Labour could never do. Thank you very much.