Rodney Hide

Infobox Person
name = Rodney Hide


image_size = 150px
birth_date = Birth date and age|1956|12|16|df=yes
birth_place = Oxford, New Zealand
occupation = Member of Parliament

Rodney Hide (born 16 December 1956) is a New Zealand politician who became leader of the political party ACT New Zealand in 2004. Since 2005, he has represented the electorate of Epsom as its Member of Parliament.

Early life

Hide was born in Oxford in Canterbury. His father, Philip Hide, owned a small mixed-farm at Cust and also drove trucks. In 1960, due to sickness, Philip Hide sold the small farm and moved to Rangiora, continuing to drive trucks until his retirement. Hide gained a degree in zoology and botany from the University of Canterbury. After completing his degree, he travelled overseas, eventually finding himself in Scotland. He worked for some time on oil rigs in the North Sea. Hide eventually returned to New Zealand by way of Romania, Egypt, India, Bangladesh, and Malaysia. In Malaysia he re-met Jiuan Jiuan, with whom he had flatted in Christchurch - the two married in 1983 (in 2007 they separated [ [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10428206 Rodney Hide's marriage ends after 23 years] ] ). After returning to New Zealand, Hide gained a degree in resource management from Lincoln College, Canterbury. He then took up a teaching position at Lincoln, first in resource management and later in economics. He completed his master's degree in economics from Montana State University in record time.

In 1993, Alan Gibbs, an Auckland businessman, offered Hide a job as an economist. He accepted, and also began working at a radio station owned by Gibbs. Later, Hide also met Roger Douglas, a former Minister of Finance whose radical economic reforms had made a considerable impression on him.

When Douglas established the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers (which later formed the ACT party), Hide had close involvement as the organisation's first chairman and president.

Member of Parliament

Hide first entered Parliament in 1996 as a list MP. He won the party parliamentary leadership role in a closely-contested primary after the retirement of Richard Prebble in 2004. He then went on to win the Epsom electorate from sitting National Party MP Richard Worth in 2005 with the campaign message "ACT is back".

Hide has a reputation for strong views, for his media profile, and for his confrontational style. Some commentators dubbed him the "leader of the opposition" when he still sat on the back benches. His supporters often describe him as one of the most effective opposition MPs, and praise him for his motivation and commitment. Some critics have accused him of abandoning the ideological approach promoting ACT's neo-liberal economic agenda in favour of populist attacks and mud-slinging.Facts|date=February 2007

Entry into Parliament

Hide held the seventh place on the ACT party list for the 1996 elections. ACT received enough votes for Hide to enter Parliament, making him one of the party's "founding" MPs. He gradually rose through the party's ranks, reaching second place in the ACT list for the 2002 elections.

In his maiden speech, Hide made a specific attack on "" enjoyed by MPs, and this "perk-busting" has become a characteristic of his political career ever since. Hide has developed a substantial reputation for finding and exposing "scandals", whether they relate to MPs' perks or to other governmental matters. Hide's critics often claim that his "scandals" rely on sensationalism and exaggeration, and have as their only purpose the gaining of media attention; but his supporters believe that Hide's constant scrutiny "keeps the government honest" and ensures that the administration does not waste taxpayers' money.

Roger Douglas himself has emerged as one of Hide's more prominent critics, referring to Hide's "stunts" as detracting from ACT's core economic message, shifting focus to populist issues of law and order and to provocative race relations policies. At a party conference, Douglas condemned MPs "who run any fickle line capable of grabbing short-term votes and attention", a comment allegedly directed at Hide or at his supporters. Hide acknowledges the criticism, but defends himself on the grounds that a focus on pure economic theory will not attract interest: "the problem is that the so-called stunts are particularly well-reported and my work explaining free market ideas disappears without trace." The tension between Douglas and Hide increased when Hide made a bid for the vice-presidency of ACT in 2000: supporters of Douglas interpreted this action as a challenge to Douglas' organisational authority within the party. Both Douglas and Hide stood down from their roles as President and Vice-President, suggesting an uneasy truce between these two factions.

ACT Party leadership

Many people had known for some time that Hide saw himself as a potential parliamentary leader of the ACT party, and he himself showed no reluctance in saying so. Critics, both inside and outside the party, resented this open ambition, with many believing that it undermined the party as a whole. At several points, rumours circulated that Hide planned to challenge party leader Richard Prebble for his position, although such a challenge never emerged. When Prebble eventually announced his retirement, his critics claimed that this had been brought about by secret campaigning by Hide. However, Prebble himself has denied this claim and it appears more likely that he stood down for personal reasons, as he publicly claimed.

When Prebble announced his retirement, Hide quickly indicated that he would seek the caucus leadership. Prebble, however, appeared unenthusiastic about the prospect of Hide succeeding him, and in a speech praising each of the new leadership contenders, pointedly dwelled on the others. The succession method chosen by Prebble also appeared to disfavour Hide: rather than a simple caucus vote, which a conventional leadership challenge would have called, a four-way election involved all ACT party members (although the election remained only "indicative"). Many people consider that the party organisation, in which Douglas has considerable influence, dislikes Hide.

Hide campaigned against Stephen Franks, Ken Shirley, and Muriel Newman for the ACT party parliamentary leadership. In the race he claimed that his high public profile and his image of strength would prove crucial to ACT's political survival. Stephen Franks, seen as the primary "anti-Hide" candidate, had the backing of Roger Douglas and of other economic purists. In the end, however, Hide prevailed, and the party introduced Hide as its new leader on June 13 2004.

Post-2005 General Election

Under Hide's leadership, the vote in the September 2005 elections severely reduced ACT's party parliamentary representation. ACT's share of the party vote dropped from over 7% of the total to around 1.5% and its representation in Parliament fell from nine MPs to two. As a consequence, ACT has received a significant cut in taxpayer-funded Parliamentary resourcing, which may also hamper its ability to operate in the post-2005-election environment.

The subsequent reduction in ACT's size has seen Rodney Hide shut down his high-profile electorate office in Remuera and consolidate his electorate office with that of the ACT Party's head office in a less visible spot in Newmarket.

As a post-election strategy, Rodney Hide has focused on his high-profile attacks on prominent Labour Party MPs. His campaign against alleged abuse of schoolchildren by Labour Party minister David Benson-Pope continued to make headlines in late 2005. However, despite the fact that ACT now has parliamentary representation on a different basis (due to its winning the seat of Epsom), polling for ACT has not perceptibly improved: the party continues to poll around the 1% mark. Hide commenced his political year in 2006 by voicing speculation on the leadership cadre of the National Party, a strategy which gained him headlines but which has raised the ire of National parliamentarians, complicating the once co-operative relationship between ACT and National.

Hide announced in late April 2006 that he would appear in the celebrity-based "Dancing with the Stars" television series, paired off with a professional dancer and competing against other celebrities, with the funds raised through his performance going to St John's Ambulance. Hide stated that he appeared on the show as a personal challenge, having never danced before.

Hide danced his way to fourth place on the show, despite harsh criticism from the show's judges.

Hide has also sought to reposition the party. While not moving away from ACT's key tenets of freedom, choice and personal responsibility, Hide has said that provided the governing Labour Party promise (amongst other things) significant tax-cuts, ACT could provide the centre-left party with support. Many see this as a departure from ACT's positionFact|date=February 2007 of providing the National Party with staunch support. Others see ACT as a centre-right liberal party (as opposed to National, a conservative party) and, as such, sharing many areas of agreement with Labour (seen as more liberal than National).

This new approach by the ACT Party has emerged, at least publicly, since Rodney Hide and deputy leader (and fellow MP) Heather Roy returned from a privately-funded tour of Europe. During this trip, Hide and Roy met with a number of political parties, including the Irish Progressive Democrats and the German Free Democrats, both parties with similar ideologies to ACT but substantially better electoral records.

Publications

:*citation |title=Closing the gaps: policy papers |place = Wellington, [N.Z.] |publisher=ACT New Zealand Parliamentary Office |year=2001 |isbn=0-958-21781-5

:*"Hide's contribution is entitled" "Taking the brake off business."

:*citation |title=Old values, new ideas |place = Wellington, [N.Z.] |publisher=ACT New Zealand Parliamentary Office |year=2002 |isbn=0-477-01964-1

:*"Hide's contribution is entitled" "Free trade: route to poverty or growth?"

:*citation |first1 = Peter |last1 = Ackroyd |first2 = Rodney P. |last2 = Hide |first3 = Basil M. H. |last3 = Sharp |title=New Zealand's ITQ " [Individual Transferable Quota] " System: prospects for the evolution of sole ownership corporations |place = Wellington, [N.Z.] |publisher=MAFFish |year=1990

:*citation |first1 = Peter |last1 = Ackroyd |first2 = Rodney P. |last2 = Hide |title=The midwife and his apprentice: an inquiry into the political philosophy of natural resources management |place = Lincoln, [N.Z.] |publisher=Centre for Resource Management, University of Canterbury and Lincoln College |year=1989

:*citation |first1 = Terry L. |last1 = Anderson |first2 = Peter J. (eds.)|last2 = Hills (eds.) |title=The privatization process: a worldwide perspective |place = Lanham, [MD.] |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |year=1996

:*"Hide's contribution (co-authored with Owen McShane) is entitled" " Can privatization succeed in a western democracy? Lessons from New Zealand"

:*citation |first1 = Terry L. |last1 = Anderson |first2 = Rodney P. (eds.)|last2 = Hide |title=Bromley on property rights: a critique of Property rights and the environment: natural resource policy in transition |place = n.p. |publisher=n.p. |year=1989

:*citation |first=Dave |last=Henderson |title=Be very afraid: one man's stand against the IRD |place = Christchurch, [N.Z.] |publisher=FTG Trust |year=2007 |isbn= 9780473127510

:*"Hide contributed a "foreword" for this book. This book originally appeared in 1999 - published by "Alister Taylor IRD Press" (with the ISBN 0-908-57872-5), and also with a foreword by Hide.

:*citation |first=Rodney P. |last=Hide |title=Insect pest resistance: technological, biological and economic dimensions " [M.Sc - University of Canterbury] " |year=1984

:*citation |first=Rodney P. |last=Hide |title=Property rights and natural resource policy [Studies in resource management; no. 3] |place = Lincoln, [N.Z.] |publisher=Centre for Resource Management |year=1987 |isbn=1-869-31050-0

:*citation |first=Rodney P. |last=Hide |title=Property rights and land management |place = Lincoln, [N.Z.] |publisher=Centre for Resource Management |year=1988

:*citation |first=Rodney P. |last=Hide |title=Who owns natural resources?: an introduction to private property, liability rules and environmental policy |place = Auckland, [N.Z.] |publisher=New Zealand Centre for Independent Studies |year=1988 |isbn=0-908-81605-7

:*citation |first=Rodney P. |last=Hide |title=The power to destroy : shocking revelations of IRD harassment and abuse |place = Christchurch, [N.Z.] |publisher=FTG Trust |year=1999 |isbn=0-473-06371-9

:*"The "foreword" for this book was provided by "Dave Henderson (see above)

:*citation |first=Rodney P. |last=Hide |title=My year of living dangerously |place = Auckland, [N.Z.] |publisher=Random House New Zealand |year=2007 |isbn=9781869419356

:*citation |first1 = Rodney P. |last1 = Hide |first2 = Peter |last2 = Ackroyd |title= Property rights and hazardous substances policy: report to the Ministry for the Environment, 17th February 1988 |place = Christchurch, [N.Z.] |publisher=Centre for Resource Management, Lincoln College |year=1988

:*citation |first1 = Rodney P. |last1 = Hide |first2 = Peter (eds.)|last2 = Ackroyd |title= Depoliticising fisheries management: Chatham Islands' Paua (Abalone) as a case study |place = n.p. |publisher=n.p. |year=1990

:*citation |first1 = Rodney P. |last1 = Hide |first2 = Basil M. H.(eds.)|last2 = Sharp |title=A critical examination of subsidy to catchment works and proposals for reform |place = Lincoln, [N.Z.] |publisher=Centre for Resource Management, University of Canterbury and Lincoln College |year=1987

:*citation |first1 = Stephen I. |last1 = Levine |first2 = Nigel S. (eds.)|last2 = Roberts |title=The baubles of office: the New Zealand general election of 2005 |place = Wellington, [N.Z.] |publisher=Victoria University Press |year=2007 |isbn=9780864735393

:*"Hide's contribution is entitled" "ACT - survival in Epsom."

:*citation |first1 = Richard et al. |last1 = Prebble |title=Liberal thinking |place = Wellington, [N.Z.] |publisher=ACT New Zealand Parliamentary Office |year=2003

:*"Hide's contribution is entitled" "The classical liberal view."

References

External links

* [http://rodneyhide.com/ Rodney Hide] (personal website and blog).
* [http://act.org.nz/ ACT New Zealand]