Geoffrey Miller

New Zealand geopolitical analyst & Arabic/Russian learner

Tagged: Derek Quigley

Politics

Conference 2009: the broad church?

If you work in a large organisation, I’m sure you’ll be familiar with the “general reminder” e-mail or memo sent out to all staff. “Could all staff please remember that in future….?” or “Just a friendly note that….” and so on. In my experience, these messages are usually directed at just one or two colleagues, but are sent out in a cloaked fashion to all employees in order to avoid broaching the specific issue with the person in question. Like the not-so-subtle reminders to employees, ACT’s decision to adopt a conscience-vote model for all bills is a general one, but...

Politics

Update: Simon Walker

I mentioned Simon Walker in my post on targeting New Zealand voters abroad. Walker was included in ACT newsletters during its start-up phase in the mid-1990s as the party’s London contact. Walker edited the 1989 book Rogernomics: Reshaping New Zealand’s Economy, a collection of articles in favour of the economic reforms began five years earlier by the then Minister of Finance and later ACT co-founder, Sir Roger Douglas. Mr. Walker has since contacted me to say that he is still an ACT party member and supporter. Indeed, he appears to still be living in London and is the Chief Executive...

Politics

Kenneth Wang – a dream candidate?

The results of the Douglas to Dancing online poll are in. Of course, I don’t claim that the poll results are in any way scientific. The fact is that 13 people responded. While this is by no means a high number, this is a niche blog! So let’s look at the results as an indication of the people most interested in ACT – they might not be ACT voters (although I’m sure many will have been), but they’re keen enough to vote in an online poll. It seems that Kenneth Wang is the preferred dream candidate of respondents. Wang is...

Politics

The real home of ACT – and Derek Quigley

This week I’ve been in Australia and I can’t get over how much stuff in the papers there is on ACT. Much more than the Herald. The “Roger Douglas Fan Club” (as a journalist described ACT in 1996) must have definitely found a home across the Tasman, right? Well, although ACT likes to highlight its “global heritage”, I’m afraid this is not the case. For those who did not see through my feeble attempt at humour, I’m referring to the Australian Capital Territory. But on a more serious note, former ACT (New Zealand!) MP Derek Quigley moved to the Australian...

Politics

Ron Smith and nuclear power

In the latest issue of the New Zealand International Review (November/December 2007, pp. 2-5), there is an article by Dr. Ron Smith, who is head of international relations at the Political Science department at the University of Waikato. Smith is a regular contributor to the Review and his latest article advocates the introduction of nuclear power to New Zealand. Here is the ACT connection: in the party’s formative phase, Smith was foreign affairs spokesman and was quoted in some media reports around 1996. Although I don’t have exact figures on hand at the moment, I believe he was ranked at...

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