  |
|||
 
|
  Note: All transcripts are copyright to Front Page Ltd but may be used PROVIDED attribution is made to TVONE and Agenda
GUYON ESPINER GUYON Okay I'd just like to see where you might take it as a party. One of the avenues for investigating this whole scenario is with the Privileges Committee, will the ACT Party take this up with the Speaker? RODNEY Well that’s for an individual MP to take, so any individual MP can write to the Speaker, the issue here is Pecuniary Interest Bill because it would appear that Mr Peters has benefited. We haven’t had a case to the Privileges Committee on that bill before on those rules, I myself sit on the committee so I'd rather be sitting on the committee and therefore I'm hoping that some other MP will raise the issue with the Speaker. GUYON Perhaps your other MP Heather Roy? RODNEY Perhaps. GUYON So you're considering that? RODNEY Well it's not for me, my job will be on the Privileges Committee, it'll be for another MP and there are 48 National MPs, any one of them could take a complaint. GUYON Alright, let's turn to your own party, let's look at your 20 point plan. Now you're saying that under the changes that you would make on an economic strategy people would be $500 a week better off. Now the first measure that you mention in that programme is cutting government spending, you say that if we had it at Australian levels we would be $50 a week better off on the average wage alone, how does that possibly work? RODNEY Well it's over time, and let's understand what's happening in New Zealand. The private sector, households, families, are being squeezed, they're being squeezed because there's been this massive increase in government spending and as they’ve got squeezed we've seen the economy start to falter and it's now only looking at one percent growth. We've become so inured with sort of Labour socialist thinking that we think the only money we get is money that government hands out, how it carves the cake, the point that we're making is actually we need to grow the cake bigger, if we do that we can actually get an extra $500 a week over time. That’s the difference Guyon between growing an economy at one or two percent growth versus growing it at five six or seven. Now there are economies around the world that are doing that we should be adopting best practice we should be trying to bake a bigger cake then we can actually have the wages and the standard of living that we want. GUYON Okay, that all sounds good, let's look at this in some more detail. You're saying that if we close the government departments that we don’t need and we cut the public services, we could add an extra $25 a week more to that $50. Let me put that in context for people who are listening to this. Michael Cullen spent 10.6 billion dollars on tax cuts over four years, gave the average worker $16 a week, you're saying that by closing a few government departments you can add alone an extra $25 a week, how does that possible stack up? RODNEY No, well unfortunately you’ve missed the point. Yes you need to cut government spending, yes you need to control government spending, yes you need to make government smaller, but what you're failing to address is it's not that saving that gives people the extra money, it gives them a little bit, that's carving up the cake that we have now. What actually makes a difference is the investment, the increased business activity, you create the jobs, and you grow the economy. GUYON We understand that. RODNEY Well I don’t think you do. GUYON Which government departments do you want to close? RODNEY Oh, which ones do you want to keep. We've had a massive expansion in size of the State, we've seen government expenditure grow in the last ten years by 80%. GUYON Okay, two government departments. RODNEY Oh well how about Women's Affairs, Pacific Island Affairs, Youth Affairs, the Families Commission and I've hardly started. We have government departments. GUYON They should all be closed down? RODNEY I think so what use do they do? That money would be better off in those people's pockets so that it's theirs to spend, be better for the economy, better for the families. Just looking at what this Labour government has spent over and above inflation is $200 for each family, that’s $200 a week for each family, that’s just money taken off them but imagine Guyon if we hadn’t have taken that money we'd have taxes lower, we wouldn’t be looking at one percent growth we'd be looking at three or four percent growth. GUYON This sounds very good but haven’t you just cooked this up and put the figures against these things, because you look at your privatisation policy, it says we sold state businesses where a private company would better serve those customers, that would add $25 a week to the person on the average wage, how did you calculate that figure? RODNEY What we did was we got – Roger came on board, I went and saw Roger over Christmas and I said look the country's not going anywhere we're actually slipping behind, and he said well what we need to do is set a goal a big goal. I said well what would be like a goal that you'd set for the country, he said beat Australia by 2020, economically, socially, politically… GUYON it sounds great in theory but answer that question and I want to know how I could add $25 a week to someone who's on $45,000 by closing some state businesses, you can't tell me that. RODNEY …how about that is that a deal – so we went out and we talked to business leaders, commentators, admittedly we talked to the ones that favour the market, we didn’t talk to the left wing ones, and amazed how much agreement there was, we came up with the 20 point plan and honestly it's the best estimate of these people, what each of those changes would make to economic growth, so this one would add quarter percent to GDP growth, this one would add half a percent, it is a best estimate but there's no doubt at all that if you have good economic policy, if you have good social policy you'll actually grow the cake, and you grow the cake – that actually means $25 a week, if you sit there Guyon like this Labour government does and you say okay we're gonna fund people by carving up what we've got, you're only going to get a block of cheese, and you’ve got caught in that…. GUYON And you’ve called it the biggest – what does it say? RODNEY That’s right, I've called it the biggest election bribe ever. GUYON Okay, and why aren’t people going for it, why are you polling at 1%, I mean who wouldn’t want $500 bucks a week, but they don’t believe you and they think that your party just 1%.... RODNEY And I've got a big job to do, and we all have a big job to do in ACT because what we have to do is get this across to New Zealanders, explaining the policies, and I find by the way, I was out delivering in Greenhithe, actually in John Key's electorate yesterday, I find when I talk to people they get it, but the key thing I have to do is this, is explain MMP and say look there's a change of government coming, you’ve got a party vote, if you vote for the National Party yeah you'll get a change of government but you'll get no change of policy, no change of direction, if you actually agree with these policies, if you agree with the ambition of beating Australia, if you think these policies are good, then you give your party vote to the ACT Party. Now I've got a big job to do over the next three or four months. GUYON You have got a big job to do but given that John Key has moved so far to the centre ground, I mean you’ve said yourself he's copied Labour on so many things that the room on the right of the political spectrum is wide open, haven’t you completely failed to actually capitalise on that? RODNEY Well not yet, I will have failed if we fail to do it on election night and I mean so what I'm going is flat out between now and the election and I mean I look at the polls now, yes I find them disappointing but what I find bitterly disappointing is the National Party, they're riding high in the polls and what is it, there's no ambition, there's no goal, there's no plan, there's not policy, what they're saying is vote for us and we'll do exactly what Helen Clark's doing. Well if we do that we'll get the same old results and New Zealand will continue to slip behind. What I've gotta do is get this out, Roger Douglas, Heather Roy, our candidates, we've got 60 candidates now, actually start talking about it and it'll be election night, that'll be the determinate. GUYON You’ve got 60 candidates, you say in your book 'My Year of Living Dangerously' that ACT has only 1,645 members and that you want to add five thousand to that, have you achieved that? RODNEY No, I've got to about two and a half thousand and I'm disappointed I haven’t done better, so I got to the conference, what I had done by then though was get Roger on board and I was busy with the 20 point plan and I decided well what am I gonna do, I'm gonna go heck for leather for this election because the question for New Zealanders is this – do they want just a change of government or do they want a change of direction, do they want policies that are gonna lift economic growth and make our lives better, or do they want the same old same old. If you want lives to be improved Guyon it's a party vote to the ACT Party. No one else will do it. GUYON Isn't it true though that what drove you as a politician was almost an investigative journalist's drive to uncover scandals and now that that has changed and you’ve lost that you’ve actually lost your value as a politician? RODNEY Well that'll be for people to decide, it's certainly true that I'm a completely different politician to what I was and I turned up to parliament and I just took on what everyone else did which was to be an opposition MP, to expose the scandals, to knock over if you like a minister, and I did that and I learnt to do it quite well, it didn’t particularly get the ACT Party anywhere or help the country, and so I decided having won Epsom in 2005, again written off always by the journalists and the commentators but we're still here, I decided actually I had a bigger job to do, that my job was to come up with policies and implement policies that would make a difference to people's lives, and knocking over a minister or exposing a particular scandal made no difference, and in that regard I accepted Roger Douglas's criticism of me. GUYON Can I just ask you finally, do you want to be a Minister in a National led government? RODNEY I'd love to be a minister in a National led government. GUYON There aren’t many places though are there cos your policy's for 12 people in Cabinet, it doesn’t leave many does it? RODNEY That’s right, but what I'd love to do, my personal favourite, would be to get Roger Douglas as Minister of Finance because I think we are heading for some rough times economically and we need a man that actually has some vision and some guts and some principles and can make decisions, and my personal favourite for me would be Associate Education or something in Education because what I'd love to do is introduce School Choice to New Zealand so that parents can send their children to the Gifted Education Centre or the Corelli School of the Performing Arts and actually have the money that they're saving the government by going to a private school go to that child so they don’t have to pay twice. I'd love to achieve that for New Zealand. GUYON Okay perhaps the panel can pick up on that, back to you Rawdon. RAWDON We're now back with the panel Deborah and David, we'll pick up with you David. DAVID FARRAR – www.kiwiblog.co.nz RODNEY Oh I think there's no doubt that the members will put him very high/ DAVID Two, three? RODNEY Oh he'll be in the top three I'm sure. DAVID Where will you vote to have him No.2 or No.3? RODNEY Oh look I've gotta talk to the board I've gotta talk to the membership, but there's no doubt that Roger Douglas if we get three MPs he'll be in parliament, and that’s the important thing because it was one thing to get Roger to stand but to have him agree to go back to parliament that was huge. RAWDON What if you only get two MPs? RODNEY Well we'll only have two MPs, but I don’t think in the negative, I tend to think of the opportunities that we have as a country and the opportunity and job I have to do as a politician, and I guess this is the difference between being a politician and a commentator, it's my job to get out there and explain our policies, explain MMP, why giving a party vote to ACT is so important, and that’s the way I look at it, I don’t sit there and say ooh what if I fail, I'm actually out there to achieve the result. RAWDON But you also have to be realistic, what if you do only have two MPs? RODNEY Well actually I don’t think I have to be realistic in that sense because I've set my sights and my ambitions for New Zealand much higher than that and I think that is one of the problems we have in politics. I think we have actually set our sights so low that we debate sort of piffle and don’t actually achieve? I think we can achieve a lot more and I think the ACT Party can achieve a lot more. I am not scared of failure myself. I can imagine yes, we can get voted out, yes, that is the nature of a democracy but what I am thinking about is saying here is what I can do, here is the difference the that a party vote to ACT can make and to be quite honest a party vote beats National and Labour, yeah it will change the chairs but it won’t change the standard of living for the average New Zealander, it won’t change the opportunities, a party vote for ACT will. DEBORAH HILL-CONE - Columnist RODNEY I have to take responsibility for my own actions and is later I have to take responsibility for the ACT Party that is certainly true. But I tell you this yes I have gone out in the community, I have gone on shows. I have involved myself in Epsom, I have done things that other MPs have not done. What I have stopped doing is sitting around, bitching whining, I’ve stopped complaining about other MPs. I don’t go out and drink all night and party all night with the other MPs. Actually I have involved myself with the other MPs and I have become a much better person as a consequence, a much better politician. I am proud of what I have done. DEBORAH HILL-CONE - Columnist RODNEY No it hasn’t, we've had our dismal poll result before that and so it's not coincided so there you're actually wrong, but that’s true and I accept that, but again I see my job as getting out there and explaining our policies in MMP and I don’t think voters have clicked in you know the election, they're not thinking about the election, it's certainly been my experience when I was delivering pamphlets yesterday you know thinking oh I got two votes, I've got to explain that that party vote to ACT is what makes a difference, that’s what I have to do. I have secured Epsom, I've done my utmost to be the best MP that Epsom has ever seen and I'm proud of that because what that means is that every party vote for ACT will count, the Greens don’t have that confidence nor do New Zealand First. DEBORAH Yeah, although I guess the point though is it seems to me that since you’ve decided you don’t like the adversarial political system that you’ve opted out of it and actually has that really been successful for you, it hasn’t. Maybe you just need to realise that is the system we have and you have to play by the rules. RODNEY Sure, I don’t think it's fair to say that I've opted out, I mean what I have done is produced a 20 point plan, we've set a big goal for New Zealand, we've set out our policies. What other political party have done that? The National Party have 48 MPs they’ve been in Opposition for nine years, they actually haven’t been a very good Opposition in the adversarial sense, I feel like giving them some lessons, but more worrying to me, in fact bitterly disappointing for the country, it's great for National to say oh we'll just do what Helen Clark does, but it's very bad for the country because Helen Clark's been ripping up the economic and social fabric of New Zealand and the National Party haven’t come up with an alternative, and what I've done Deborah, what the ACT Party have done, is to go out there, develop the policy, set the plan, no other political party's done that, I'm proud of that. DAVID Rodney, I think most commentators do think you will win Epsom, of course that will be up to the voters, but if you're ambitious for three or more MPs, if at the end you're the only MP who returned do you think it would be fair to say it's basically game over for ACT as a party, you'll be the equivalent of Jim Anderton but on the right, a party that will probably die when you retire from that seat? RODNEY I never think like that David, I never ever think like that, and if I thought like that I wouldn’t have won Epsom last time because every commentator has written ACT off at every election campaign that we've stood in, no moreso than in 2005, and every commentator the day before election day said I wouldn’t win Epsom, well I did, so my goal and my thinking is to say okay what can I achieve, what do I need to do, I don’t sit there and say oh what does it mean if I fail. DAVID In terms then though if you do achieve and get in, what would be the one or two non negotiables for there to be a National Act government as opposed to a National government? RODNEY Oh I think Roger Douglas as Minister of Finance would be important. DAVID Important, but I would ask what role would you see for Bill English in a National Act government? RODNEY Well I think he's got a lot of roles to play but as a decision maker, as a Minister of Finance Bill English didn’t cut the mustard. There's a joke within the public service about when did Bill English ever make a decision, and I'm afraid what we need in this country is some tough decisions and what I like about Roger Douglas and that’s why I'm so proud he's coming back is there is a man a politician of demonstrated vision for the country, principle and guts to do it and to make the decisions and what we haven’t seen in our parliament or in our politics are politicians like that, that’s what we've missed, that’s what a party vote for ACT can deliver. DAVID Putting aside the people though, if you basically end up you get to have one or two policies that’s all you get for your share of the boat that’s how it goes, people will be another issue, what are those one or two policies if you can only deliver on two what would be those policies. RODNEY Well if there's only two and I hope there'd be more than that because I think the important thing about getting around the Cabinet is to put these ideas down on to the table. RAWDON Let's stick to the two, what would be the two? RODNEY And the problem that we've got now is that there aren’t any ideas on the table there's just a change of government. The two that I'd be keen on is Roger Douglas as Minister of Finance and School Choice, they'd be two but I want to achieve a lot more than that I can tell you. RAWDON Okay well we'll see where we go with that one, okay thank you very much for coming in Rodney.
|
||