'THE NATION'

RICHARD PREBBLE
Interviewed by SEAN PLUNKET

Sean Well Rodney Hide's 15 year political career may be in a state of flux right now, but Dr Don Brash is feeling a lot more certain about his future in the ACT Party's top job, and he has the backing of a man who knows exactly what that job is all about. Former ACT Leader Richard Prebble is backing Dr Brash's move to seize the leadership, saying it's good for the party, and for voters too. Richard Prebble joins me now from Rotorua, kia ora, good morning to you Mr Prebble.

Richard Prebble – Former ACT Leader
Good morning.

Sean Richard listening there to Rodney Hide do you think he is going to go quietly come the election, or is he trying to get some redemption from the ACT Party and Don Brash?

Richard Oh I think you’ve gotta believe what a person says, he's got an important job for the next six months, I mean he is the Minister of Local Government, and let's not underestimate that. The Super City is the biggest reform in local government in my lifetime and I think it's probably the biggest reform of this Key government, and there's still quite a lot of things as the Herald editorial was pointing out, for Rodney to do.

Sean Okay so you're saying it is possible that he could redeem himself, stay on, stay associated with that after the next election?

Richard Well I don’t agree that he even needs to redeem himself. I'm saying to you, he's done the most significant local body reform in my lifetime.

Sean Okay but Don Brash says he's retiring from politics, we heard from Rodney Hide today that isn't necessarily the case.

Richard The fact that you're retired doesn’t mean that you need redeeming. I've retired. If I was to give Rodney some advice it would be look as a former leader you should think seriously about retiring. It's not easy to work in a team when you’ve been the boss, and if you look back over New Zealand's history and look overseas, leaders tend to retire and Rodney's still a young man, and my advice to him is look you can do other things in your life Rodney, move on. But I don’t accept that he hasn’t got significant achievements. He's probably the most successful Opposition MP of his generation. He was the person who kept Ministers awake at night. He won the Epsom electorate, and that’s a pretty amazing achievement too.

Sean So has Don Brash got it all wrong when he says he's toxic and his brand is tarnished then?

Richard No, the polls clearly show that the ACT Party under Rodney Hide was in trouble and I think the reason for that is the same reason that the Alliance and New Zealand First and the United Party, if you join the government it's very hard to keep your brand separate, and ACT's found it just as hard as New Zealand First did, and and that would have enabled Rodney to be able to speak out on this government's extraordinary expenditure. I mean the reason why Don Brash is striking a chord is that government's borrowing $300 per household per week, I mean that’s unsustainable.

Sean So Richard Prebble, if this strategy works, ACT gets back in either over the 5% threshold or wins again in Epsom you would advise it not to join National in a coalition government?

Richard but of course if Mr Brash achieves what he's setting out to do, and he might, and he gets more than 10% of the vote – in fact I think he might get 15, because even Labour voters are worried about government expenditure.

Sean No they're not Richard Prebble. Richard Prebble they're not worried about government expenditure and I know that many of you say that ACT will go back to its business, but people seem to be worried about the race card that Dr Brash has played all week, we haven’t heard a thing about economic policy from him since he's taken over. What we've heard about is a retread of the Orewa speech.

Richard Well actually I saw Don Brash on the other channel saying that I've heard him on radio many times, and as Rodney actually said to you, you just turn off when you hear economic stuff. Don Brash's principle reason for standing is because he is worried about the runaway expenditure under this government, and runaway expenditure doesn’t become right just because the National government's doing it, and I assure you there are even Labour voters who can see it's unsustainable to borrow $300 per household. Most people know they couldn’t do it in their own household, having the government do it for them doesn’t make it right and doesn’t make it sustainable, and Don Brash is the only politician that has a plan to do something about that.

Sean Alright, so you're saying it's either on the cross benches or if you get over 10% it's Don Brash as the Minister of Finance?

Richard Well I'd live to see that, and that’s a big achievement but I think it's one reason why a lot of people will suddenly say gee whiz I've gotta give my list vote to ACT.

Sean If the economic arguments are so strong, if Don Brash is so good on those things, why doesn’t he stop talking about race and start talking economics?

Richard Well I think it's partly actually the media. The media's been on about it. I mean the media has been talking to him about it and people have – and his opponents have been attacking him on it, but I think he's actually won that argument. It's pretty hard to call someone a racist who wants to treat everybody equally regardless of race.

Sean Would you consider going back to the ACT Party now that Don Brash is in control Richard Prebble?

Richard I'll never stop being a member but I most certainly am not going back into parliament. Mate I've done 30 years, that’s three life sentences, I've done my bit.

Sean Alright, what about John Banks, do you think he will get back in?

Richard Yes I do actually. The polling apparently is overwhelming, there's been three different polls saying that John Banks is the person that Epsom voters want as their MP. The ACT Party would be pretty ranche not to put up the candidate that the voters say they want. You know in a democratic process you have to accept the polls just like Rodney had to accept the polls that showed that under him ACT wouldn’t get back and under Don Brash it will. I mean if you go into politics you have to accept the vote.

Sean And I guess Richard Prebble if Rodney Hide played his cards right he could be sitting there as the wise old leader like you are right now in 10 or 15 years' time.

Richard He could be, and he's a young and talented man, you know when you're my age you can say that, and I would say to him look there's a lot of fun being out of parliament too Rodney and you’ve got a record to be proud of.

Sean Thank you very much indeed, that is former ACT Leader Richard Prebble.

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