Don't Rob Roy
25/08/2010 4:18:00 p.m.
LAST week’s abysmal treatment of our Assistant Minister of Defence sent the willies up every spine in Wellington.
Apparently, as Act Party leader, Rodney Hyde feels it’s his right to just “go through the Minister’s drawers” (as some hack put it) and uplift any papers he likes while she’s out on a job.
Next, Heather’s voted out as Deputy Leader of the party and stripped of all portfolios. In all this, no acceptable explanation was given to us. The most illustrative statement in the whole sad saga was Mr Hyde’s response to whether or not he was a bully: “Everyone who knows me knows I’m not.” [Don’t laugh. It’s a direct quote.]
But by far the worst ratiocination of all came from the media. Some probing little reporter suggested that Heather Roy might have been getting a bit too big for herself and was shaping for a leadership challenge. He also suggested people like her should remember they wouldn’t even be in Parliament if Rodney hadn’t won his electorate seat of Epsom.
And like a bunch of gormless oafs following the donkey with the loudest bray, all other media went along with this reasoning. Wellingtonians will recognise why it’s flawed.
Wellington Central, one recalls, is the first seat Act ever won. In 1996, Richard Prebble became our MP after Jim Bolger quite clearly “endorsed” him even ahead of the National Party candidate.
And in the last election, National didn’t even put up a candidate against Rodney in Epsom, so it was “gifted” to him rather than won by feat of arms. And just because four Act MPs are “off the list” does not lessen their legitimacy.
In fact, in some ways, list MPs should carry more clout because they are in a sense elected by voters in all electorates throughout New Zealand. That includes a healthy swag of Wellingtonians. And voters, while trying to choose between the irresistible parties on offer, consider the whole list, not just the leader’s name at the top.
Many will have voted for Act precisely because Heather Roy was No. 2 on the list. They wanted her then and, one would imagine, they want her now.
Heather Roy is a tough unit. Outside of parliament, she’s a soldier, a physiotherapist and a mother of five kids. Consequently, she’s one of the few people who could smash every bone in your body with a rifle butt, massage you back to health with her healing hands, and then kiss your head and send you off to school with a neatly packed lunch. We need more like her.
You don’t have to agree with her ideas, but at least she has ideas. She is steady under fire, and loyal to election promises. If she decides to leave next week or Rodney, in his infinite wisdom, pulls the pin on her, Act is going to be all over the place. And parliament will lose another vertebra from its increasingly misogynistic spine.
Apparently, as Act Party leader, Rodney Hyde feels it’s his right to just “go through the Minister’s drawers” (as some hack put it) and uplift any papers he likes while she’s out on a job.
Next, Heather’s voted out as Deputy Leader of the party and stripped of all portfolios. In all this, no acceptable explanation was given to us. The most illustrative statement in the whole sad saga was Mr Hyde’s response to whether or not he was a bully: “Everyone who knows me knows I’m not.” [Don’t laugh. It’s a direct quote.]
But by far the worst ratiocination of all came from the media. Some probing little reporter suggested that Heather Roy might have been getting a bit too big for herself and was shaping for a leadership challenge. He also suggested people like her should remember they wouldn’t even be in Parliament if Rodney hadn’t won his electorate seat of Epsom.
And like a bunch of gormless oafs following the donkey with the loudest bray, all other media went along with this reasoning. Wellingtonians will recognise why it’s flawed.
Wellington Central, one recalls, is the first seat Act ever won. In 1996, Richard Prebble became our MP after Jim Bolger quite clearly “endorsed” him even ahead of the National Party candidate.
And in the last election, National didn’t even put up a candidate against Rodney in Epsom, so it was “gifted” to him rather than won by feat of arms. And just because four Act MPs are “off the list” does not lessen their legitimacy.
In fact, in some ways, list MPs should carry more clout because they are in a sense elected by voters in all electorates throughout New Zealand. That includes a healthy swag of Wellingtonians. And voters, while trying to choose between the irresistible parties on offer, consider the whole list, not just the leader’s name at the top.
Many will have voted for Act precisely because Heather Roy was No. 2 on the list. They wanted her then and, one would imagine, they want her now.
Heather Roy is a tough unit. Outside of parliament, she’s a soldier, a physiotherapist and a mother of five kids. Consequently, she’s one of the few people who could smash every bone in your body with a rifle butt, massage you back to health with her healing hands, and then kiss your head and send you off to school with a neatly packed lunch. We need more like her.
You don’t have to agree with her ideas, but at least she has ideas. She is steady under fire, and loyal to election promises. If she decides to leave next week or Rodney, in his infinite wisdom, pulls the pin on her, Act is going to be all over the place. And parliament will lose another vertebra from its increasingly misogynistic spine.
