Geoffrey Miller

New Zealand geopolitical analyst & Arabic/Russian learner

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Politics

Roger returns (part I): how the story unfolded

He’s back. If you’re reading this blog you have probably already read that Sir Roger Douglas, co-founder of ACT New Zealand (with Derek Quigley), is returning to the party fold by giving a speech to the Annual Conference on March 15. In this post, I look at how the story unfolded, while in subsequent posts I will discuss the implications and the conference itself. First, I want to acknowledge the several messages I’ve received wondering where my analysis of the story is. I’m a little annoyed with myself, as I had already my suspicions that Douglas would turn out to...

Politics

Douglas to Demolition

This from today’s ACTion! e-mail newsletter: Office Space Required in Newmarket – URGENTLY Can anyone help us find a new home in Newmarket as our current premises are due for demolition very soon. If you know of any office space for rental contact Margaret on…

Politics

Alan Greenspan and Roger Douglas

I’ve noted before that ACT has many international connections – perhaps more than any other New Zealand party. Much of this stems from the work of Roger Douglas as Minister of Finance during the 1980s, after which Douglas was recruited as an international consultant on economic reform. Moreover, ACT has often been keen to look abroad for policy proposals, such as when it became keen on the “Wisconsin Works” work-for-the-dole scheme during the late 1990s. More recently, in 2006 Rodney Hide and Heather Roy travelled to Germany and Ireland to look at how the German Free Democrats (FDP) and Irish...

Politics

Populism on the rise again – an opportunity for ACT?

Populism seems to be on the rise again in New Zealand politics. Today we had Helen Clark declaring a virtual war on tagging with draconian, yet ineffective policies to deal with spray-paint vandalism. The chances of this sort of policy, which includes banning the sale of spray-paint to youths under 18, actually working hover slightly above nil. But it’s a popular policy to push to the electorate: 1. Tagging is a bane of the (mostly white) middle class. It gets people riled in a way that banging on about “sustainability” never will. Tagging is emotional, as it gets to the...

Politics

Summer speeches 2008: Hide delivers up usual fare but gives some election year hints

Rodney Hide gave his Waitangi Day speech to supporters in Epsom yesterday. There’s not a lot new in the speech itself, unfortunately. It begins with the usual weight loss advice which is getting a bit tired now: I had the great fortune to meet the President of Remuera Rackets Nigel Nathan who made it his job to get me fit to be MP for Epsom. That has been my Everest. It was a big challenge. The Club here has been fantastic in providing me with facilities and support, advice and encouragement. Two years on and I am 40kgs lighter and...

Politics

Summer speeches 2008: Hide has knives out for Clark – but kid gloves for Key

The reaction from ACT to the speeches given this week by John Key and Helen Clark is extremely interesting. Soon after each leader had given his or her speech, ACT had a press release from Rodney Hide on its website – a rarity in itself these days, when one is more accustomed to seeing a digital stack of issues of Heather Roy’s Diary. First up, Hide commented on Key. It was the traditional “good, but not far enough” argument from ACT. Hide “welcomed” the “good” speech. Key’s “youth entitlement” was a “good” policy. The only problem was that the speech...

Politics

Summer speeches 2008: why it’s not the economy, stupid

First, a Dominion-Post/David Farrar-style evaluation of my “predictions” made a few weeks back on the highest trafficked post on this blog to date: The date was correct Duncan Garner reported for 3 News Even Hilary Barry was back from her holiday But apart from John Key being the man giving the speech, that’s about it. The speech was at Ellerslie, not Burnside, and the topic had nothing remotely to do with ACT. Quelle surprise! But Key’s speech on Tuesday morning nevertheless held some interesting talking points with regards to ACT. The media have universally reported the speech as being solely...

Politics

ACT’s “harsh feel” – the name change debate

I think ACT has got that harsh feel to it for me, like I find it quite a hard word to say, oh it sounds German, with the greatest respect to the German people. It sounds like “Achtung!”- “okay!”, whereas we want something warm – Rodney Hide, 30 August 2007* The one major fault I would have if I were one of Hide’s advisers with his on-air performance on Radio Live today was that he scarcely mentioned the word “ACT” in his programme. Now, maybe he was trying to be fair and not use the air-time as a campaigning vehicle,...

Politics

Epsom electorate background

Quest for Security has an excellent backgrounder on the history of the Epsom electorate and predicts Hide will win the seat by a landslide in 2008. Barring the unlikely scenario, such as Hide somehow blotting his copy-book in a big way with the “little old ladies” (Hide’s words, not mine) prior to the election, I agree 100% with this assessment. I think the voters of Epsom have got their money’s worth over the last couple of years, as far as Hide being a “good local MP” is concerned. It’s interesting how individual electorates such as Epsom and Tauranga still fascinate...

Politics

Rodney Hide on Radio Live and owning up to being a right-wing party

Today I was fortunate enough to tune into Radio Live just after the 1pm news to hear that Rodney Hide was going to be hosting the afternoon slot (1-4pm) solo. Last week reports to this blog said that he had been paired with Willie Jackson in a left-right battle. I was able to listen until 2 o’clock and I have to say that Radio Live made an inspired choice. It’s hard to imagine any other sitting MP being offered the chance to host his own programme for three hours, although having said that I recall Radio Live hired John Tamihere...

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