Audacious action with surgical precision is as much the flavour of the week for the United States as it is for New Zealand. Former Reserve Bank governor and National Party’s previous leader Don Brash’s daring raid on the Act Party challenging the entrenched leadership of Rodney Hide was as audacious and surgically precise as the US Navy Seals’ Operation Geronimo in Abbotabad. Both raids produced spectacular results.
Any skepticism around his capability to successfully carry out the raid that existed when Dr Brash announced the leadership challenge a few days earlier, quickly evaporated when he forcefully yet deftly neutralised Mr Hide, smothering him with criticism that unquestionably resonated well with most observers. Adding to that audacity was the fact that he initiated his action even before he became a member of the party.
Dr Brash quite cleverly leveraged his gravitas, knowledge, seniority smarts and above all his deep conviction that New Zealand’s economic policymaking was losing its way, to create a package that would deliver him close to centrestage via the Act Party vehicle.
He factored in people’s obvious disenchantment with Mr Hide’s brand of leadership, as was evident in the opinion polls. His handling of matters in the run up to the supercity, the bad press he copped after revelations of his travel expenses and his perceived abrasive style saw his popularity plunge, with nothing on the horizon that showed any indication that things would improve in the weeks leading up to the election.
But what really propelled Dr Brash’s desire to come back into the thick of things was obviously his conviction on what needed to be done to get New Zealand’s economic policy back on track – and the slights he received from the National government.
As leader of the 2025 Taskforce, which mandated him to investigate how best New Zealand could catch up with Australia over the next 15 years, he and his team would have seen at close quarters how much needed to be done and the political will needed to do it.
Prime Minister John Key as well as some commentators thought some of the taskforce’s recommendations were excessive and Mr Key was quite openly and publically critical of some of these, even terming them extreme measures.
While it is one thing to make recommendations from a purely rationally economic standpoint, the compulsions and contradictions of realpolitik can change all that. The view from within the government, while one actually handles the levers of power is very different from what it looks from the outside, especially while making a call based on statistical studies – a thing, which no doubt Dr Brash will quickly realise if he manages to secure a position of power in the government.
The National government’s continual soft-pedaling on a number of issues it had promised to deal with drastically before it came to power is testimony to what the compulsions of realpolitik can do the most determined and rational of leaders, more particularly so in a tail-wagging-the-dog type of coalition situation.
But whether Dr Brash will be uncompromising on ideology and what he believes is best for New Zealand irrespective of political repercussions when he jockeys himself into a position of power in this government or the next remains to be seen.
However, for now, he has touched a raw nerve in New Zealand’s beleaguered business community that has suffered nine years of anti business policies under successive Labour governments and then reeled amid the fallout of the global economic crisis only to be faced with a slew of new hurdles and hoops under National.
Dr Brash’s vocal opposition to the ETS (emissions trading scheme) will undoubtedly go down well in the business community. So will his stand on what is widely seen as appeasement of Maori especially through National’s handling of the foreshore and seabed issue.
And of course his views on rationalising welfare – something that needs to be done forthwith, without delay and which will need extreme political courage, which is clearly lacking in the present National government – will doubtless add to his fan following, especially among the well heeled.
If he continues in the same vein as his famous raid into Act’s citadel, his expectation of garnering 10 to 15% of the vote is a far greater possibility than New Zealand catching up with Australia in 2025.