Final ACT for Roy?

Written By: - Date published: 7:19 am, August 17th, 2010 - 35 comments
Categories: act, rodney hide - Tags: ,

Trevor Mallard picked it over at Red Alert yesterday. And Audrey Young at The Herald is carrying the story this morning:

Minister faces axe after new Act revolt

Act minister Heather Roy is facing the axe from John Key’s Administration today, after she is dumped by her parliamentary colleagues as deputy leader of Act.

First-term Act MP John Boscawen is expected to take her jobs as deputy leader and a minister.

Mrs Roy is said to again have been trying to rally party opinion against Rodney Hide.

This looks like the culmination of a long running feud between Hide and Roy. We have covered earlier instalments here and here.

So, John Boscawen eh. Well well well. A man with such broad electoral appeal that he came in a good strong fourth in Mt Albert. He should turn ACT’s fortunes around don’t you think? But what of Heather Roy? I wonder if she will split off and form a new party of the right? Fight ACT for that 1.5% of the vote? Go Heather, go!

35 comments on “Final ACT for Roy? ”

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  1. peter 1
    17 August 2010 at 7:53 am

    I wonder, Is there a correlation between the % of the NZ population that voted for ACT and the [wrong and offensive...RL]

  2. Cnr Joe (sniping) 2
    17 August 2010 at 8:14 am

    Oh joy, they’ve taken to eating their own.

  3. mickysavage 3
    17 August 2010 at 8:27 am

    Garrett was obviously the swing vote. How would you feel being backed by him?

    • Tigger 4.1
      17 August 2010 at 9:18 am

      Methinks they will need to amend this document formally. Or could Roy rely on it to stop herself being ousted from a portfolio (if Key dumps her he’s breaking the agreement)?

      • Pascal's bookie 4.1.1
        17 August 2010 at 9:37 am

        Don’t know. But it’s interesting in that the agreement is that ‘MP Heather Roy’ gets the Ministerial roles rather than ‘The ACT deputy leader’, or even ‘an ACT MP’ which is not really reflected by the Herald’s reporting…

        That leaves only Mr Boscawen or Mr Garrett to fill the second post, which is guaranteed as part of the confidence and supply agreement with National.

        A vote against Mrs Roy by her party colleagues would be effectively a vote of no-confidence in her, and Mr Key would be obliged to sack her from the Administration.

        So I guess you are right that they will amend it. What’s the process for that?

        ‘Just do it’ I guess.

        • Draco T Bastard 4.1.1.1
          17 August 2010 at 2:18 pm

          We’re talking RWNJs – there is no process…or accountability or morality or…

      • Blighty 4.1.2
        17 August 2010 at 12:37 pm

        could be the basis of a court case if Roy chooses.

        Poor drafting by Nat and Act

        • felix 4.1.2.1
          17 August 2010 at 12:54 pm

          “Poor drafting by Nat and Act”

          Or perhaps “diplomatic drafting”.

          ‘Cos if they’d said what they really meant, instead of “MP Heather Roy” it would’ve said “Anyone but that fucking maniac Roger Douglas”.

  5. Julie 5
    17 August 2010 at 8:52 am

    What will be particularly interesting to see is who gets Roy’s Associate Education role, which was focused on Special Education (and I think maybe some stuff around private schools too?) Not sure Boscawen has any interest or expertise in the area and they have been doing a major review of Special Education with a big report due soon iirc. Can’t really reshuffle it back to Tolley, she’s already got more than she can handle.

  6. Marty G 6
    17 August 2010 at 9:00 am

    interesting that Key is reported about being concerned about the quality of Roy’s performance in associate defence.

    must be pretty bloody poor considering how useless bennett and brownlee et al are.

    • Lanthanide 6.1
      17 August 2010 at 9:40 am

      Yes, and to get Key ‘concerned’ about something it must be very grave indeed. Normally he’s ‘relaxed’ about everything.

    • Draco T Bastard 6.2
      17 August 2010 at 2:24 pm

      Considering that she’s in the Army Reserves you’d think that would be one area where she’d do her work.

  7. gobsmacked 7
    17 August 2010 at 9:32 am

    This may seem like a comic opera, or “two bald men fighting over a comb”, but it’s a lot more important than it first appears.

    National no longer have their useful idiot, Richard Worth. So Rodney Hide is going to be the de facto National candidate in Epsom. ACT have been very useful for John Key: allowing him to play “centrist” while the Kiwiblog Right rant and rave, but ultimately stay in the tent, by voting ACT.

    If ACT are in meltdown, where do the social conservatives (polite term for Garrett’s rednecks) go?

    Yes, Winston Peters is a “great statesman”, has been “misunderstood” and will be a “first rate Foreign Minister” (John Key, election night 2011).

  8. roger nome 8
    17 August 2010 at 9:37 am

    haha – Boscawen! Is this what the out new-right has been reduced to in NZ? Any of them that have half a brain left from the 1980s have gone closet in the National Party. Boscawen is bound to provide some D4J-like lolz moments however *rubs hands together in anticipation of Boscawen’s first far-right looney media blunder*.

  9. toad 9
    17 August 2010 at 9:49 am

    If Boscawen gets the job I think there will be a lot more scrutiny of his wingnut pronouncements on climate change. He has been running the Parliamentary side of the NZC”S”C cranks’ campaign against NIWA.

  10. tc 10
    17 August 2010 at 9:51 am

    This should be fascinating….whilst Roy’s no genius (you’re in ACT so part of your brain must be AWOL) she at least comes across as alot more palatable than dead set barking loons like Boscawen and Garrett.

    Go wodney……draping some more ‘trusting’ sycophants at your feet should work well for you.

  11. Bored 11
    17 August 2010 at 10:02 am

    Is this what the out new-right has been reduced to in NZ? Unfortunately not, the rest of the new right sit on the Treasury Bench, theres also a few secreted away in the Labour ranks.

  12. Anne 12
    17 August 2010 at 10:02 am

    toad you beat me to it.

    Cooking up a storm around Winston Peters in 2008 saved Rodney Hide’s skin. Needs a new political storm for 2011. NIWA. Convenient to have parliament’s nuttiest Climate Change denier as his new deputy. So what do we do. Create a scene with the incumbent and have her removed from office. Claim she’s incompetent and can’t do her job properly. Get the boss-man snake to express concern about her. Bob’s your uncle. Oldest trick in the book!

  13. felix 13
    17 August 2010 at 10:14 am

    Boscowen may be barking mad, and he may be wrong about almost everything, but I’ve always had a sense of a certain sort of honesty and principle about him (not that I claim to be a great judge of character mind you – even my friends would admit that and they’re awful people).

    Anyhoo pass the popcorn. Should be more of a comedy than a drama.

  14. millsy 14
    17 August 2010 at 11:08 am

    John Key could quite easily use this to call a snap election…

    Highly unlikely, but more likely than usual, if you know what I mean.

    • Blighty 14.1
      17 August 2010 at 11:22 am

      that would cost him 10% in the polls. Kiwis don’t like early elections, they don’t like the cynicism. And Key would have to defend his record as the economy starts tanking again.

      • millsy 14.1.1
        17 August 2010 at 11:24 am

        Apparently he thought about calling one when Roy wanted a leadership spill late last year though, and he is riding high in the polls so I wouldnt rule it out.

  15. Lats 15
    17 August 2010 at 11:25 am

    Reporters on the news are saying this is an internal squabble between Hide and Douglas, and that Heather Roy is one of Douglas’ pawns. Any confirmation that this is the case?

  16. Melissa 16
    17 August 2010 at 12:21 pm

    I think you have underestimated John Boscawen. He is a very effective MP and managed to get a massive amount of coverage on the ETS. He has had far more leverage in the media since he entered parliament than Heather Roy has.

  17. Anne 17
    17 August 2010 at 12:26 pm

    That sounds right Lats. There has never been any love lost between Hide and Douglas. I can imagine Roy being a Douglas supporter. Btw, both Douglas and Roy will know where many of the bodies are buried and be rest assured there’s quite a few of them!

  18. randal 18
    17 August 2010 at 12:49 pm

    Well at least the chief panjandrum will have nothing to do with Woger.

  19. gobsmacked 19
    17 August 2010 at 1:07 pm

    ACT Press Conference scheduled for 1.15.

    (not to be confused with the later press conference by the ACT Popular Front – splitters!)

  20. Pascal's bookie 20
    17 August 2010 at 1:46 pm

    Mr Hide said Mr Boscawen would become Minister of Consumer Affairs and also take on Mr Hide’s associate commerce portfolio.

    Mr Hide said he was taking on the associate education portfolio and that Act had dropped the associate defence portfolio “to focus on core Act issues, most notably education.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10666723

    There’s a strange wee subtext in that article too, re Key and Hide and who’s ‘the decider’.

    Hide: Quotes above and “At my request the Prime Minister subsequently advised the Governor-General to accept Heather Roy’s resignation from ministerial office.”

    Key : “He said he “absolutely” had a say in who would replace Mrs Roy if she was ousted as deputy leader.

    “And constitutionally it’s my responsibility.”

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