NZ Politics Daily: 28 April (liberation)

It’s over. It seems newbie MP Hilary Calvert switched support to Brash last night and Hide was, literally, “gone by lunchtime”. There are many blow by blow accounts of the final days - plenty of material for a “Downfall” parody on YouTube. Derek Cheng (NZH: Brash-Hide: Seeds of a leadership coup) has a day-by-day account but it has been hanging out there for all to see. Reaction was swift from Labour (NBR: Goff says Key/Brash extreme team will hurt mainstream NZ) who have finally caught a couple of lucky breaks. Firstly, it has got their bungling off the front page and, more importantly, provided them with a potent line of attack on “Teflon John”. If Brash is successful, Act will take votes from National and make a future Key led government reliant on Brash, a prospect sure to frighten the swing voters Labour so desperately needs and something David Farrar (Kiwiblog: Hide resigns) continues to warn about. John Hartevelt (Stuff: Brash’s stab-in-the-front coup) thinks that, despite Hide’s gracious resignation, Act will be even more divided now. He also highlights the inevitable tension between the government’s current coalition partners:

‘Consider the picture for a future National-led government. Can you really imagine Tariana Turia signing on to a government that includes Brash? In September 2006, Turia cancelled a scheduled engagement with Brash over comments he made questioning whether Maori were a distinct indigenous group because few ''full-blooded'' individuals were still around’.

Morgan Godfrey (Maui Street: What Brash means for the Maori Party) agrees but also thinks that a reinvigorated Act means the Maori Party is expendable to National.

For the most entertaining read you can’t go past Cactus Kate (ACT The Sequel). A proud and true acolyte, she has two-ticked Act at every election. While the post-coup form is for a chorus of ‘for they are a jolly good fellows’ she isn’t having any of it and lets rip on Act MPs and staff, current and past. Her advice to Brash is not to trust anyone who helped him become Leader and she obviously has serious doubts about the Don himself:

‘I doubt any of Hide's team will want to stay on to assist what is effectively a National take-over of ACT. That's right, the Party was taken over by Brash, a Nat and his mostly National supporters because ACT people couldn't collectively keep their shit together and stop infighting. I thought it would be a cold day in hell before Douglas passed the parcel to a true Nat. But there you go’.

The changes in Act and the splintering of the Maori Party give John Key a good excuse to call an early election according to Guyon Espiner (TVNZ: Key should call snap election), although it seems that Hone Harawira may be thinking along the same lines in Te Tai Tokerau (Claire Trevett, NZH: Harawira weighs up forcing early vote).

In other articles Q+A Producer Tim Watkin (TVNZ: Asking ‘why’ of Aghanistan) defends the right to question the rights and wrongs of military intervention without being labeled as disloyal. Dene Mackenzie (ODT: OECD report spurs English) reports as Bill English cherry picks an OECD report to support the upcoming budget, while the CTU (Stuff: OECD super advice 'badly timed', says CTU) says following the advice could lead us back into recession. [Continue reading below for a full list of the highlights of NZ Politics Daily]

Below are the internet links to all the NZ politics material from the last 24 hours that are either informative, insightful, interesting or influential. This list and the links are taken from a fuller document, NZ Politics Daily, which is emailed out, Monday to Friday, to various researchers, academics, journalists, MPs and so forth. The document is purely for research purposes only, and if you would like to be on the subscription list, please email: [email protected]

Act leadership

Adam Bennett, Paul Harper and Hayden Donnell (NZH): Rodney Hide resigns as Act leader

Derek Cheng (NZH): Brash-Hide: Seeds of a leadership coup

Audrey Young (NZH): Audacious Act takeover an issue for National

Dan Satherley (TV3): Rodney Hide resigns, makes way for Brash

TVNZ: Brash the lead act after Hide quits as leader

John Hartevelt (Stuff): Brash’s stab-in-the-front coup

Tracy Watkins and Imogen Neale (Stuff): ACT leadership stoush: Rodney resigns

NBR: Goff says Key/Brash extreme team will hurt mainstream NZ

David Farrar (Kiwiblog): Hide resigns

Tracy Watkins and Vernon Small: (Stuff): ACT leadership stoush: Rodney Hide set to resign

Dan Satherley/Duncan Garner (TV3/NZPA): Brash to take over as ACT leader