Don Brash
Encyclopedia
Donald "Don" Thomas Brash (born 24 September 1940), a New Zealand politician, was Leader of the Opposition
, parliamentary leader of the National Party
(the country's main Opposition party at that time) from 28 October 2003 to 27 November 2006 and the leader of the ACT Party for 28th April 2011 - 26 November 2011. Before entering politics, Brash was Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand
for 14 years.
At the New Zealand general election
on 17 September 2005, National under Brash's leadership made major gains, and achieved what was at the time the party's best result since the institution of the mixed member proportional
electoral system in 1993, compared to their worst result ever in 2002 under the leadership of his predecessor, Bill English
. Final results placed National two seats behind the incumbent New Zealand Labour Party
, with National unable to secure a majority from the minor parties to form a governing coalition.
In late November 2006 Brash resigned as leader of the National Party, and then from Parliament in February 2007. In October 2008 Don Brash was appointed as an Adjunct Professor of Banking in the Business School at the Auckland University of Technology
, and an Adjunct Professor in the School of Economics and Finance at La Trobe University
in Melbourne, Australia.
On 30 April 2011 Don Brash became the leader of ACT New Zealand after his bid for its leadership was accepted and he was confirmed as leader by the ACT caucus and board. He resigned later that year on the 26th of November 2011, as his party gained insufficient votes to have another seat for him in the The New Zealand Parliament
.
, a Presbyterian minister and son of prominent lay
leader Thomas Brash
, and Eljean Brash (née Hill), in Whanganui
on 24 September 1940.
His family moved to Christchurch
when he was six. He attended Cashmere Primary School and Christchurch Boys' High School
before going to the University of Canterbury
where he graduated in economics, history and political science
. He continued his studies in economics, receiving his master's degree in 1961 for a thesis arguing that foreign investment damaged a country's economic development. The following year he began working towards a PhD (again in economics, at the Australian National University
), which reached the opposite conclusion.
In 1964 Brash married his first wife, Erica, with whom he had two children. In the 1980s he and his Singaporean secretary, Je Lan Lee, entered into a relationship. Both were married at the time. He separated from his first wife in 1985 and four months after they were divorced he married Lee. In 2007, his second marriage also broke up, following an affair with Diane Foreman, then Deputy Chair of the Business Round Table. Brash and Lee had one child together.
. However, he returned to New Zealand in 1971 to become general manager of Broadbank Corporation, a merchant bank
.
Brash's first entry into politics came in 1980 when the National Party selected him to stand as its candidate in the by-election
in the East Coast Bays
electorate. Brash's attempt at the seat, however, failed – some believe that this resulted from the decision by Robert Muldoon
, National Party Prime Minister
, to raise tolls on the Auckland Harbour Bridge
, an important route for East Coast Bays residents. The seat went to Gary Knapp
of the Social Credit Party
. Brash again failed to win the seat at the general election of 1981
.
In 1982 Brash became managing director at the New Zealand Kiwifruit Authority, which oversaw the export of kiwifruit
(he grows kiwifruit as a hobby). In 1986 he became general manager of Trust Bank, a newly-established banking group.
, a position which he held for the next 14 years. Brash consistently met Government-set targets to keep inflation within 3% during his time as Governor, and during his tenure interest-rates dropped from double-digit to single-digit percentages.
Aside from monetary policy
, Brash presided over significant changes in banking supervision, with the New Zealand approach emphasising public disclosure by banks regarding the nature of their assets and liabilities. Under his Governorship, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand established a new model of the relationship between government and central bank – not totally independent, like the Bundesbank in Germany, and not dominated by government, as was typical of most central banks at the time, but one where government and central bank agreed in public about the inflation rate to be delivered by the central bank, where the central bank had full independence to run monetary policy to deliver that, and where the central bank's Governor was held accountable for the inflation outcome. It was the Reserve Bank Act 1989 which established this contractual relationship (based on price stability targets) between the Bank and the Government, rather than giving direct control to Ministers of Finance.
Changes took place in the currency used in New Zealand during Brash's tenure, notably the introduction of polymer
banknotes, and the replacement of Queen Elizabeth
's face on most of the banknotes. Many banknotes in circulation carry the signature of Brash from his term as Governor.
There is a range of opinion on Brash's performance as Reserve Bank Governor. The New Zealand Association of Economists describe Brash's success in establishing an independent central bank with an inflation target and in reducing inflation as a highlight of his career. Documentary maker Alister Barry described Brash as "an extremist, an idealist" who's "ideal world is where the free market reigns supreme". Barry considered that Brash manipulated public opinion towards neo-liberal economics and gave as examples Brash's advocacy for abolishing the minimum wage and his Hayek Memorial Lecture to the Institute of Economic Affairs in London.
, Brash resigned as Reserve Bank Governor to stand as a candidate for Parliament on the National Party list. The Party ranked him in fifth place on its party list – exceptional treatment for a newcomer from outside the House of Representatives. Most unusually among National candidates, he stood as a list candidate without running for an electorate seat
. Though National had its worst performance ever, gaining only 21% of the party vote, Brash's high place on the party list assured him of a seat in Parliament.
Brash immediately joined National's front bench as its spokesman on finance. This placed him opposite the Labour Party
's Michael Cullen, the Minister of Finance
and Deputy Prime Minister
. Commentators generally praised Brash for his knowledge of economics, but expressed criticism of his inexperience in terms of political leadership
.
In October 2003, Brash publicly challenged Bill English
for the position of Parliamentary Leader of the National Party. English had gradually lost support within the party, but Brash's victory in any leadership-contest against English seemed by no means guaranteed. Brash's decision to make his challenge public caused some criticism, with some party supporters perceiving that an open leadership dispute could damage the party's image
. However, by breaking with the tradition of operating secretly, Brash calculated that people would see him as an honest "anti-politician" – a notion central to his personal brand
.
vote on 28 October 2003, making him leader of the National Party Caucus (and thus Leader of the Opposition
) after one year as a Member of Parliament. He remained National's finance spokesman, appointing the equally new MP John Key
as his deputy finance-spokesman, and eventually appointing Key the primary finance-spokesman after a Caucus reshuffle in August 2004.
Rotary Club
, north of Auckland
, expressing opposition to perceived "Māori racial separatism
" in New Zealand:
Though the sentiments expressed in the Orewa speech differed little from established National Party views (as voiced previously by Bill English
, for example), these comments resulted in National receiving an unprecedented boost in a public opinion poll. National gained 17 percentage points in the February 2004 Colmar Brunton
poll for Television New Zealand
, taken shortly after the speech. The surge in National support marked the biggest single gain by a political party in a single poll in Colmar Brunton's polling history. In the months that followed, changes of emphasis in Labour's policy agenda became apparent as Labour attempted to recoup the ground lost to National in the February poll.
Shortly after the delivery of the Orewa speech, Brash fired his Māori Affairs spokesperson Georgina Te Heuheu
because she would not publicly support his speech.
After the February peak, National suffered a steady decline in public opinion polls, leaving it 11 points behind Labour at the end of 2004.
In 2004, following a political speech given by the Prime Minister Helen Clark
inside the Christchurch Cathedral, Brash wrote to the Dean of the Cathedral, Peter Beck
. In his letter he criticised Ms Clark's use of a church-venue for delivering a political speech, and he raised questions over her views on religion and on the institution of marriage. After Clark retaliated, Brash apologised for any offence that his comments had caused to her, and revealed that his Chief of Staff, Richard Long, had written the letter, not Brash himself.
On 25 January 2005 Brash made his third speech to the Orewa Rotary Club (his first had come in the final week of January 2003, while still National's finance spokesman). This time Brash focussed on "Welfare Dependency: Whatever Happened to Personal Responsibility?" Brash pledged to reduce the number of working-age beneficiaries from the current figure of 300,000 to 200,000 over ten years, and he dedicated a significant part of his speech to the Domestic Purposes Benefit
. At the time approximately 109,000 single parents received the DPB, costing taxpayers about $1.5 billion a year. Brash noted that since the inception of the DPB in 1974, the population of New Zealand had increased by 30% while the numbers receiving the DPB had increased almost ninefold. Brash used the speech to highlight his views on both the fiscal and social costs of entrenched welfare-dependency:
Brash proposed a number of ways to reduce welfare dependency and to refocus the DPB back to its original intent of giving aid to single-parent families in need or in danger. These proposals included enforcing child-support payments from absent fathers, requiring single parents to work or perform community services once their children reached school age, and introducing penalties for women seeking the DPB who refused to name the father of their child. He also acknowledged adoption as an acceptable option, particularly for teenage girls, and drew attention to the growth in numbers of single mothers giving birth to additional children while already receiving the single-parent DPB benefit.
Some elements of the speech put his Social Welfare spokesperson, Katherine Rich, at odds with Brash, and he fired her from the portfolio, promoting the MP for Clevedon, Judith Collins
, in her place.
in welcoming international visitors:
In September 2006 Brash stated that:
These comments received a negative response from other political leader
s, who portrayed focussing on blood quantum as divisive and as harking back to racist laws, and who suggested the appropriateness for Maori themselves to determine how to define themselves.
Brash questioned whether Māori remained a distinct indigenous group because few "full-blooded" individuals survive. This drew criticism from a range of his adversaries, including Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia
, who cancelled a dinner with him in protest. In a statement to explain his position on 30 September 2006, Brash said that the Government had no responsibility to address the over-representation of Māori in negative social statistics. "If Māori New Zealanders die more frequently from lung cancer than non-Māori do, for example, it is almost certainly because Māori New Zealanders choose to smoke more heavily than other New Zealanders do".
announced that a General Election would take place on 17 September. At that time Brash and the National Party led by a slim margin in the opinion-polls. But by mid-August both Brash and National had declined in popularity. Commentators attributed this trend to a series of announcements of new spending programs by Labour, and to confusion as to whether National could form a stable coalition government with New Zealand First
and/or ACT New Zealand.
The National Party advertising campaign aimed at rebutting arguments brought up by Labour about a variety of themes: Brash's stand on national security issues (he favoured greater co-operation with "traditional allies"), his commitment to social security programmes (including healthcare), as well as his ideas on the perceived drift towards "racial separatism" dividing Māori from other New Zealanders. One of Brash's most significant and widely publicised policy announcements foreshadowed the introduction of tax-cuts for working New Zealanders. Brash's party embarked on a targeted billboard-advertising programme, which later (post-election) won two advertising-industry awards.
In his first party-political election-campaign broadcast Brash mentioned a number of aspects of his life
that he believed had attuned him to the political centre-ground in New Zealand:
On 27 August a weekend newspaper published a series of leaked documents, including private emails, showing that members of the ACT party and of the Business Round Table had advised Brash during his bid for the leadership of the parliamentary National Party. Continuing leaks over following weeks appeared designed to cause the National leader embarrassment. Furthermore, confusion bedevilled National's potential coalition options: New Zealand First
showed reluctance to reveal whether it would support National or Labour post-election, whilst ACT (often seen as National's natural coalition partner due to the similarities in some of their policies) criticised National for not openly supporting ACT leader Rodney Hide
's bid to win the electorate seat of Epsom.
On 16 November 2006 Brash obtained a High Court injunction
prohibiting the distribution or publication of the private emails allegedly unlawfully taken from his computer, following ongoing rumours that his opponents would publish a series of his personal emails as a book, and he confirmed that the police had commenced a criminal investigation into the alleged email-theft.
Pamphlets distributed by members of a Christian sect
, the Exclusive Brethren
, in early September caused further embarrassment for Brash; although they were not anonymous, they did not refer to the Exclusive Brethren but were authorised in the names of individual church members. Brash initially denied National had anything to do with it, but later admitted that the Brethren had told him at a meeting some months earlier that they planned to run a campaign opposing the direction of the Labour Government. Brash has maintained his position that the pamphlet-campaign took place on the Exclusive Brethren's own initiative.
The General Election on 17 September produced a close result, with initial election-night figures from rural areas favoring National (in accordance with tradition and previous patterns); but by the end of the evening Labour had won 40.7% of the vote to National's 39.6%. Following the counting of the special votes the gap widened, with Labour taking 41.1% of the vote to National's 39.1%. Dr Brash conceded defeat on 1 October after weeks of electoral uncertainty while the major parties sought to secure the support of minor coalition partners. His only realistic scenario for becoming prime minister would have involved a coalition between National, ACT and United Future, with confidence and supply from New Zealand First and the Māori Party. This appeared highly unlikely on several counts. New Zealand First's involvement in such a coalition would have run counter to its pre-election promise to deal with the biggest party. The Māori Party's supporters overwhelmingly gave their party-votes to Labour, and National had indicated it would abolish the Maori seats
if it won power.
Essentially National had failed to make up enough ground in the cities but swept the electoral votes in the provinces, clawing back a number of seats from Labour and defeating New Zealand First founder-leader Winston Peters
in his electorate (Peters remained in Parliament as a list MP). Apart from in Auckland, National's support centred mainly in rural and provincial areas.
Rumours of an extramarital affair came to the public's attention around this date after National MP Brian Connell
allegedly confronted Brash in a caucus-meeting about the rumours. Details leaked to the press, and in the weeks that followed the National Party caucus suspended Connell from membership of the caucus.
On Saturday 23 September, Brash appeared on Television New Zealand
's Agenda news-programme and acknowledged that he had met with Exclusive Brethren
representatives after the 2005 New Zealand general election.
Dr Brash indicated his intention to remain the leader of the National Party and to contest the next election in that role. However, it became increasingly clear that the caucus preferred Finance Spokesman John Key, whose rating steadily rose in "preferred Prime Minister" polls. Key made no move publicly, but Brash's reputation for honesty and political competence eroded when, for example, broadcast footage showed him walking a plank, and when allegations appeared of his having an affair with an Auckland businesswoman, Diane Foreman – a charge he has never denied. Despite these setbacks, when asked by an interviewer for an article published in the United Kingdom on 18 November 2006 if he planned to remain leader of his party, "...the Clark Kent of Kiwi politics [Brash] turned to me and smiled gently. 'That's my intention,'..."
containing leaked emails (amongst other allegedly damaging revelations). Brash filed a delaying injunction with regard to the publication of the e-mails, which he regarded as stolen; however he claimed he had no awareness of and did not wish to stop the publication of the Hager book.
As part of his resignation announcement, Brash also announced he had cleared the way for the book's release by providing copies of his emails to Hager, and stated it had nothing to with his resignation.
Brash also claimed that the publication of the book did not contribute to his decision to resign as National Party leader, although most observers see it as the straw that broke the camel's back. The book, The Hollow Men: A Study in the Politics of Deception
, details Brash's rise to power in the National Party as assisted by an "informal network of people from the right of New Zealand politics", including a number of ACT members. It also documents that senior National Party figures, including Brash, knew of the Exclusive Brethren
's pamphlet campaigns in May 2005, although Brash denied knowledge of this until August.
On Thursday 30 November 2006, just one week after resigning as leader of the party, Brash resigned from Parliament after the National Party's new parliamentary leader, John Key, declined to offer him a senior portfolio. He set no official date, but he stated he would not return in the new year.
Brash then made his valedictory speech on Tuesday 12 December 2006. On 7 February 2007, Katrina Shanks
took his place as a National Party list MP.
board as Rob McLeod retired from the board to return to his accounting practice. He also chairs Huljich Wealth Management, an independent, specialist funds-management
company based in Auckland
, New Zealand. In late 2008 he was lecturing in economics at the Auckland University of Technology
In April 2009 Brash was appointed as a director of the electricity grid operator Transpower.
In late April 2011, Brash, still a National Party member, announced that he would like to lead the ACT Party which would require incumbent leader Rodney Hide
to step down. Hide dismissed any talk of a leadership challenge to him but Brash was quoted "I'd like to say to the board that, under my leadership, I believe Act has a much better prospect of not only getting back into Parliament but having a significant number of MPs."John Key
also would not rule out working with Brash if it came down to a tight decision.
, announced that he was stepping down as leader in favour of Brash who had joined the party that morning. His membership was ratified by the party board on Saturday 30 April and the ACT party parliamentary caucus confirmed him as leader the same day. The party board re-convened later that day to ratify his leadership. Rodney Hide will remain in Parliament until the election. Brash will remain a leader outside Parliament till the election and former Auckland City
mayor John Banks is likely to be his running mate and standing in Epsom
. The Listener compared Brash's successful bid for the leadership of the ACT Party to a hostile takeover. Brash hoped to get ACT 15% of the vote in the 2011 election, instead it only managed 1%. Brash resigned on election night.
banning street prostitution. However, Brash did vote against the Civil Unions Bill because he backed a public mandate for any change to the law. He has also called for the decriminalisation of cannabis.
Leader of the Opposition (New Zealand)
The Leader of the Opposition in New Zealand is the politician who, at least in theory, commands the support of the non-government bloc of members in the New Zealand Parliament. In the debating chamber the Leader of the Opposition sits directly opposite the Prime Minister...
, parliamentary leader of the National Party
New Zealand National Party
The New Zealand National Party is the largest party in the New Zealand House of Representatives and in November 2008 formed a minority government with support from three minor parties.-Policies:...
(the country's main Opposition party at that time) from 28 October 2003 to 27 November 2006 and the leader of the ACT Party for 28th April 2011 - 26 November 2011. Before entering politics, Brash was Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand
Reserve Bank of New Zealand
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is the central bank of New Zealand and is constituted under the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act 1989. The Governor of the Reserve Bank is responsible for New Zealand's currency and operating monetary policy. The Bank's current Governor is Dr. Alan Bollard...
for 14 years.
At the New Zealand general election
New Zealand general election, 2005
The 2005 New Zealand general election held on 17 September 2005 determined the composition of the 48th New Zealand Parliament. No party won a majority in the unicameral House of Representatives, but the Labour Party of Prime Minister Helen Clark secured two more seats than nearest rival, the...
on 17 September 2005, National under Brash's leadership made major gains, and achieved what was at the time the party's best result since the institution of the mixed member proportional
Mixed member proportional representation
Mixed-member proportional representation, also termed mixed-member proportional voting and commonly abbreviated to MMP, is a voting system originally used to elect representatives to the German Bundestag, and nowadays adopted by numerous legislatures around the world...
electoral system in 1993, compared to their worst result ever in 2002 under the leadership of his predecessor, Bill English
Bill English
Simon William "Bill" English is the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Minister of Infrastructure of New Zealand.English entered parliament in 1990 as a National party MP representing the Wallace electorate...
. Final results placed National two seats behind the incumbent New Zealand Labour Party
New Zealand Labour Party
The New Zealand Labour Party is a New Zealand political party. It describes itself as centre-left and socially progressive and has been one of the two primary parties of New Zealand politics since 1935....
, with National unable to secure a majority from the minor parties to form a governing coalition.
In late November 2006 Brash resigned as leader of the National Party, and then from Parliament in February 2007. In October 2008 Don Brash was appointed as an Adjunct Professor of Banking in the Business School at the Auckland University of Technology
Auckland University of Technology
The Auckland University of Technology is a university in New Zealand. It was formed on 1 January 2000 when the Auckland Institute of Technology was granted university status. Its primary campus is on Wellesley Street in Auckland's Central business district...
, and an Adjunct Professor in the School of Economics and Finance at La Trobe University
La Trobe University
La Trobe University is a multi-campus university in Victoria, Australia. It was established in 1964 by an Act of Parliament to become the third oldest university in the state of Victoria. The main campus of La Trobe is located in the Melbourne suburb of Bundoora; two other major campuses are...
in Melbourne, Australia.
On 30 April 2011 Don Brash became the leader of ACT New Zealand after his bid for its leadership was accepted and he was confirmed as leader by the ACT caucus and board. He resigned later that year on the 26th of November 2011, as his party gained insufficient votes to have another seat for him in the The New Zealand Parliament
50th New Zealand Parliament
The 50th New Zealand Parliament will be elected at the 2011 election. It will contain 121 members , and will serve from 26 November 2011 until another election is called, no later than early 2015....
.
Childhood, education and marriage
Don Brash was born to Alan BrashAlan Brash
Alan Anderson Brash, OBE was a leading minister of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand, and of the worldwide ecumenical movement...
, a Presbyterian minister and son of prominent lay
Laity
In religious organizations, the laity comprises all people who are not in the clergy. A person who is a member of a religious order who is not ordained legitimate clergy is considered as a member of the laity, even though they are members of a religious order .In the past in Christian cultures, the...
leader Thomas Brash
Thomas Brash
Thomas Brash was a leading figure in New Zealand's dairy industry and one of only four lay moderators of the General Assembly in the history of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand...
, and Eljean Brash (née Hill), in Whanganui
Whanganui
Various places in New Zealand are called Whanganui:*Whanganui, a city at the mouth of the Whanganui River, also often spelled "Wanganui", Manawatu-Wanganui Region*Whanganui District, Manawatu-Wanganui Region*Whanganui Island, Waikato Region...
on 24 September 1940.
His family moved to Christchurch
Christchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
when he was six. He attended Cashmere Primary School and Christchurch Boys' High School
Christchurch Boys' High School
Christchurch Boys' High School is a single sex state secondary school in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is situated on a 12 hectare site between the suburbs of Riccarton and Fendalton, 4 kilometres to the west of central Christchurch. The school also provides boarding facilities for 130 boys, in a...
before going to the University of Canterbury
University of Canterbury
The University of Canterbury , New Zealand's second-oldest university, operates its main campus in the suburb of Ilam in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand...
where he graduated in economics, history and political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
. He continued his studies in economics, receiving his master's degree in 1961 for a thesis arguing that foreign investment damaged a country's economic development. The following year he began working towards a PhD (again in economics, at the Australian National University
Australian National University
The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...
), which reached the opposite conclusion.
In 1964 Brash married his first wife, Erica, with whom he had two children. In the 1980s he and his Singaporean secretary, Je Lan Lee, entered into a relationship. Both were married at the time. He separated from his first wife in 1985 and four months after they were divorced he married Lee. In 2007, his second marriage also broke up, following an affair with Diane Foreman, then Deputy Chair of the Business Round Table. Brash and Lee had one child together.
Early career
Brash went to Washington in the United States in 1966 to work as an economist for the World BankWorld Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
. However, he returned to New Zealand in 1971 to become general manager of Broadbank Corporation, a merchant bank
Merchant bank
A merchant bank is a financial institution which provides capital to companies in the form of share ownership instead of loans. A merchant bank also provides advisory on corporate matters to the firms they lend to....
.
Brash's first entry into politics came in 1980 when the National Party selected him to stand as its candidate in the by-election
East Coast Bays by-election 1980
The East Coast Bays by-election of 1980 was a by-election during the 39th New Zealand Parliament in the East Coast Bays electorate. It was prompted by the resignation of Frank Gill, a National Party MP, to take up a position as New Zealand's ambassador to the United States. It resulted in the...
in the East Coast Bays
East Coast Bays
East Coast Bays is the collective name for a series of small suburbs of North Shore City, in the Auckland metropolitan area of New Zealand, which line the northeast coast of the city along the shore of the Hauraki Gulf and Rangitoto Channel...
electorate. Brash's attempt at the seat, however, failed – some believe that this resulted from the decision by Robert Muldoon
Robert Muldoon
Sir Robert David "Rob" Muldoon, GCMG, CH served as the 31st Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1975 to 1984, as leader of the governing National Party. Muldoon had been a prominent member of the National party and MP for the Tamaki electorate for some years prior to becoming leader of the party...
, National Party Prime Minister
Prime Minister of New Zealand
The Prime Minister of New Zealand is New Zealand's head of government consequent on being the leader of the party or coalition with majority support in the Parliament of New Zealand...
, to raise tolls on the Auckland Harbour Bridge
Auckland Harbour Bridge
The Auckland Harbour Bridge is an eight-lane box truss motorway bridge over the Waitemata Harbour, joining St Marys Bay in Auckland with Northcote in North Shore City, New Zealand. The bridge is part of State Highway 1 and the Auckland Northern Motorway...
, an important route for East Coast Bays residents. The seat went to Gary Knapp
Gary Knapp
Garry Thomas Knapp was a New Zealand politician of the Social Credit Party.He became Member of Parliament for East Coast Bays in 1980 when he defeated National candidate Don Brash in the 1980 by-election in East Coast Bays caused by the resignation of the sitting National MP...
of the Social Credit Party
Social Credit Party (New Zealand)
The New Zealand Social Credit Party was a political party which served as the country's "third party" from the 1950s through into the 1980s. The party held a number of seats in the New Zealand Parliament, although never more than two at a time...
. Brash again failed to win the seat at the general election of 1981
New Zealand general election, 1981
The 1981 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the 40th New Zealand Parliament. It saw the governing National Party, led by Robert Muldoon, win a third term in office, although the opposition Labour Party, led by Bill Rowling, actually won the largest share of...
.
In 1982 Brash became managing director at the New Zealand Kiwifruit Authority, which oversaw the export of kiwifruit
Kiwifruit
The kiwifruit, often shortened to kiwi in many parts of the world, is the edible berry of a cultivar group of the woody vine Actinidia deliciosa and hybrids between this and other species in the genus Actinidia....
(he grows kiwifruit as a hobby). In 1986 he became general manager of Trust Bank, a newly-established banking group.
Reserve Bank Governor
In 1988 Brash became Governor of the Reserve Bank of New ZealandReserve Bank of New Zealand
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is the central bank of New Zealand and is constituted under the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act 1989. The Governor of the Reserve Bank is responsible for New Zealand's currency and operating monetary policy. The Bank's current Governor is Dr. Alan Bollard...
, a position which he held for the next 14 years. Brash consistently met Government-set targets to keep inflation within 3% during his time as Governor, and during his tenure interest-rates dropped from double-digit to single-digit percentages.
Aside from monetary policy
Monetary policy
Monetary policy is the process by which the monetary authority of a country controls the supply of money, often targeting a rate of interest for the purpose of promoting economic growth and stability. The official goals usually include relatively stable prices and low unemployment...
, Brash presided over significant changes in banking supervision, with the New Zealand approach emphasising public disclosure by banks regarding the nature of their assets and liabilities. Under his Governorship, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand established a new model of the relationship between government and central bank – not totally independent, like the Bundesbank in Germany, and not dominated by government, as was typical of most central banks at the time, but one where government and central bank agreed in public about the inflation rate to be delivered by the central bank, where the central bank had full independence to run monetary policy to deliver that, and where the central bank's Governor was held accountable for the inflation outcome. It was the Reserve Bank Act 1989 which established this contractual relationship (based on price stability targets) between the Bank and the Government, rather than giving direct control to Ministers of Finance.
Changes took place in the currency used in New Zealand during Brash's tenure, notably the introduction of polymer
Polymer
A polymer is a large molecule composed of repeating structural units. These subunits are typically connected by covalent chemical bonds...
banknotes, and the replacement of Queen Elizabeth
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
's face on most of the banknotes. Many banknotes in circulation carry the signature of Brash from his term as Governor.
There is a range of opinion on Brash's performance as Reserve Bank Governor. The New Zealand Association of Economists describe Brash's success in establishing an independent central bank with an inflation target and in reducing inflation as a highlight of his career. Documentary maker Alister Barry described Brash as "an extremist, an idealist" who's "ideal world is where the free market reigns supreme". Barry considered that Brash manipulated public opinion towards neo-liberal economics and gave as examples Brash's advocacy for abolishing the minimum wage and his Hayek Memorial Lecture to the Institute of Economic Affairs in London.
Member of Parliament
On 26 April 2002, shortly before the 2002 general electionNew Zealand general election, 2002
The 2002 New Zealand general election was held on 27 July 2002 to determine the composition of the 47th New Zealand Parliament. It saw the reelection of Helen Clark's Labour Party government, as well as the worst-ever performance by the opposition National Party.Arguably the most controversial...
, Brash resigned as Reserve Bank Governor to stand as a candidate for Parliament on the National Party list. The Party ranked him in fifth place on its party list – exceptional treatment for a newcomer from outside the House of Representatives. Most unusually among National candidates, he stood as a list candidate without running for an electorate seat
Electoral district
An electoral district is a distinct territorial subdivision for holding a separate election for one or more seats in a legislative body...
. Though National had its worst performance ever, gaining only 21% of the party vote, Brash's high place on the party list assured him of a seat in Parliament.
Brash immediately joined National's front bench as its spokesman on finance. This placed him opposite the Labour Party
New Zealand Labour Party
The New Zealand Labour Party is a New Zealand political party. It describes itself as centre-left and socially progressive and has been one of the two primary parties of New Zealand politics since 1935....
's Michael Cullen, the Minister of Finance
Minister of Finance (New Zealand)
The Minister of Finance is a senior figure within the government of New Zealand. The position is often considered to be the most important Cabinet role after that of the Prime Minister....
and Deputy Prime Minister
Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand
The Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand is second most senior officer in the Government of New Zealand, although this seniority does not necessarily translate into power....
. Commentators generally praised Brash for his knowledge of economics, but expressed criticism of his inexperience in terms of political leadership
Leadership
Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". Other in-depth definitions of leadership have also emerged.-Theories:...
.
In October 2003, Brash publicly challenged Bill English
Bill English
Simon William "Bill" English is the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Minister of Infrastructure of New Zealand.English entered parliament in 1990 as a National party MP representing the Wallace electorate...
for the position of Parliamentary Leader of the National Party. English had gradually lost support within the party, but Brash's victory in any leadership-contest against English seemed by no means guaranteed. Brash's decision to make his challenge public caused some criticism, with some party supporters perceiving that an open leadership dispute could damage the party's image
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
. However, by breaking with the tradition of operating secretly, Brash calculated that people would see him as an honest "anti-politician" – a notion central to his personal brand
Personal branding
Personal branding is, for some people, a description of the process whereby people and their careers are marked as brands. It has been noted that while previous self-help management techniques were about self-improvement, the personal branding concept suggests instead that success comes from...
.
Leader of the Opposition
Brash won a caucusCaucus
A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a political party or movement, especially in the United States and Canada. As the use of the term has been expanded the exact definition has come to vary among political cultures.-Origin of the term:...
vote on 28 October 2003, making him leader of the National Party Caucus (and thus Leader of the Opposition
Leader of the Opposition (New Zealand)
The Leader of the Opposition in New Zealand is the politician who, at least in theory, commands the support of the non-government bloc of members in the New Zealand Parliament. In the debating chamber the Leader of the Opposition sits directly opposite the Prime Minister...
) after one year as a Member of Parliament. He remained National's finance spokesman, appointing the equally new MP John Key
John Key
John Phillip Key is the 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand, in office since 2008. He has led the New Zealand National Party since 2006....
as his deputy finance-spokesman, and eventually appointing Key the primary finance-spokesman after a Caucus reshuffle in August 2004.
Orewa speech
On 27 January 2004 Brash delivered his first Orewa speech on "Nationhood" at the OrewaOrewa
Orewa, a town in New Zealand's North Island lies on the Hibiscus Coast, just north of the base of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula and 40 kilometres north of central Auckland. Orewa's population was 7,326 in the 2006 Census, an increase of 1,692 from 2001. It is a popular holiday destination...
Rotary Club
Rotary International
Rotary International is an organization of service clubs known as Rotary Clubs located all over the world. The stated purpose of the organization is to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help...
, north of Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
, expressing opposition to perceived "Māori racial separatism
Separatism
Separatism is the advocacy of a state of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. While it often refers to full political secession, separatist groups may seek nothing more than greater autonomy...
" in New Zealand:
The topic I will focus on today is the dangerous drift towards racial separatism in New Zealand, and the development of the now entrenched TreatyTreaty of WaitangiThe Treaty of Waitangi is a treaty first signed on 6 February 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and various Māori chiefs from the North Island of New Zealand....
grievance industry. We are one country with many peoples, not simply a society of PākehāPakehaPākehā is a Māori language word for New Zealanders who are "of European descent". They are mostly descended from British and to a lesser extent Irish settlers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although some Pākehā have Dutch, Scandinavian, German, Yugoslav or other ancestry...
and Māori where the minority has a birthright to the upper hand, as the Labour Government seems to believe".[...]
Though the sentiments expressed in the Orewa speech differed little from established National Party views (as voiced previously by Bill English
Bill English
Simon William "Bill" English is the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Minister of Infrastructure of New Zealand.English entered parliament in 1990 as a National party MP representing the Wallace electorate...
, for example), these comments resulted in National receiving an unprecedented boost in a public opinion poll. National gained 17 percentage points in the February 2004 Colmar Brunton
Colmar Brunton
Colmar Brunton is an international market research agency. It is also Australia's largest independent market research agency.Its head office is in Sydney, Australia, with other offices in the Australian cities of Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra, as well as in New Zealand and...
poll for Television New Zealand
Television New Zealand
Television New Zealand, more commonly referred to, and stylized as TVNZ, is a government-owned corporation television network broadcasting in New Zealand and parts of the Pacific. It operates TV1, TV2, TVNZ7, TVNZ Heartland, TVNZ U and new media services....
, taken shortly after the speech. The surge in National support marked the biggest single gain by a political party in a single poll in Colmar Brunton's polling history. In the months that followed, changes of emphasis in Labour's policy agenda became apparent as Labour attempted to recoup the ground lost to National in the February poll.
Shortly after the delivery of the Orewa speech, Brash fired his Māori Affairs spokesperson Georgina Te Heuheu
Georgina Te Heuheu
Georgina Manunui te Heuheu QSO is a Māori descent of Tūhoe, Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa and Ngāti Awa. MP in the New Zealand National Party and a Cabinet Minister in the New Zealand Government.-Early life:...
because she would not publicly support his speech.
After the February peak, National suffered a steady decline in public opinion polls, leaving it 11 points behind Labour at the end of 2004.
In 2004, following a political speech given by the Prime Minister Helen Clark
Helen Clark
Helen Elizabeth Clark, ONZ is a New Zealand political figure who was the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand for three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2008...
inside the Christchurch Cathedral, Brash wrote to the Dean of the Cathedral, Peter Beck
Peter Beck (cleric)
The Very Reverend Peter J. Beck has since 2002 been the dean of ChristChurch Cathedral in Christchurch, New Zealand. Born in England, Beck has been in New Zealand since 1981, and was vicar of St Matthew in the city in Auckland...
. In his letter he criticised Ms Clark's use of a church-venue for delivering a political speech, and he raised questions over her views on religion and on the institution of marriage. After Clark retaliated, Brash apologised for any offence that his comments had caused to her, and revealed that his Chief of Staff, Richard Long, had written the letter, not Brash himself.
On 25 January 2005 Brash made his third speech to the Orewa Rotary Club (his first had come in the final week of January 2003, while still National's finance spokesman). This time Brash focussed on "Welfare Dependency: Whatever Happened to Personal Responsibility?" Brash pledged to reduce the number of working-age beneficiaries from the current figure of 300,000 to 200,000 over ten years, and he dedicated a significant part of his speech to the Domestic Purposes Benefit
Domestic Purposes Benefit
The Domestic Purposes Benefit was first introduced in New Zealand in 1974. The Destitute Persons Act 1910 and the Domestic Proceedings Act 1968 created a statutory means by which a woman could seek a maintenance order against the father of her children...
. At the time approximately 109,000 single parents received the DPB, costing taxpayers about $1.5 billion a year. Brash noted that since the inception of the DPB in 1974, the population of New Zealand had increased by 30% while the numbers receiving the DPB had increased almost ninefold. Brash used the speech to highlight his views on both the fiscal and social costs of entrenched welfare-dependency:
How can we tolerate a welfare system which allows children to grow up in a household where the parents are permanently dependent on a welfare benefit? Our welfare system is contributing to the creation of a generation of children condemned to a lifetime of deprivation, with limited education, without life skills, and without the most precious inheritance from their parents, a sense of ambition or aspiration. Nothing can be more destructive of self esteem.
Brash proposed a number of ways to reduce welfare dependency and to refocus the DPB back to its original intent of giving aid to single-parent families in need or in danger. These proposals included enforcing child-support payments from absent fathers, requiring single parents to work or perform community services once their children reached school age, and introducing penalties for women seeking the DPB who refused to name the father of their child. He also acknowledged adoption as an acceptable option, particularly for teenage girls, and drew attention to the growth in numbers of single mothers giving birth to additional children while already receiving the single-parent DPB benefit.
Some elements of the speech put his Social Welfare spokesperson, Katherine Rich, at odds with Brash, and he fired her from the portfolio, promoting the MP for Clevedon, Judith Collins
Judith Collins
Judith Anne Collins is a New Zealand National Party politician and a lawyer. She is a front bench Cabinet minister with the portfolios of Police, Corrections and Veterans' Affairs in the Fifth National Government....
, in her place.
Five main priorities
On 5 November 2003, shortly after becoming leader of the National Party, Brash released his five main policy priorities:- Dealing with declining New Zealand incomes and the gap in standards-of-livingStandard of livingStandard of living is generally measured by standards such as real income per person and poverty rate. Other measures such as access and quality of health care, income growth inequality and educational standards are also used. Examples are access to certain goods , or measures of health such as...
between New Zealand and Australia - Education, specifically the number of young adults leaving school with poor literacy and numeracy skills
- Decreasing dependency on welfare
- Security, including domestic law-and-orderLaw and order (politics)In politics, law and order refers to demands for a strict criminal justice system, especially in relation to violent and property crime, through harsher criminal penalties...
and external defence policy - Ending a perceived drift towards racial separatism in New Zealand, and the need to treat all New Zealanders equally before the law
Maori identity
After the Orewa speech of 2004, Brash's public statements on race relations received significant attention, both in the traditional media and online. During the 2005 election campaign, he criticised the use of powhiriPowhiri
A Pōwhiri is a Māori welcoming ceremony involving speeches, dancing, singing and finally the hongi...
in welcoming international visitors:
I mean, I think there is a place for Maori culture but why is it that we always use a semi-naked male, sometimes quite pale-skinned Maori, leaping around in, you know, mock battle?
In September 2006 Brash stated that:
There are clearly many New Zealanders who do see themselves as distinctly and distinctively Maori – but it is also clear there are few, if any, fully Maori left here. There has been a lot of intermarriage and that has been welcome.
These comments received a negative response from other political leader
Leadership
Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". Other in-depth definitions of leadership have also emerged.-Theories:...
s, who portrayed focussing on blood quantum as divisive and as harking back to racist laws, and who suggested the appropriateness for Maori themselves to determine how to define themselves.
Brash questioned whether Māori remained a distinct indigenous group because few "full-blooded" individuals survive. This drew criticism from a range of his adversaries, including Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia
Tariana Turia
Tariana Turia is a New Zealand politician. She gained considerable prominence during the foreshore and seabed controversy, and eventually broke with her party as a result...
, who cancelled a dinner with him in protest. In a statement to explain his position on 30 September 2006, Brash said that the Government had no responsibility to address the over-representation of Māori in negative social statistics. "If Māori New Zealanders die more frequently from lung cancer than non-Māori do, for example, it is almost certainly because Māori New Zealanders choose to smoke more heavily than other New Zealanders do".
British heritage
Brash stressed the significance of New Zealand's British heritage. When asked "who are the ideal immigrants?", Brash made the following statement;- British immigrants fit in here very well. My own ancestry is all British. New Zealand values are British values, derived from centuries of struggle since Magna CartaMagna CartaMagna Carta is an English charter, originally issued in the year 1215 and reissued later in the 13th century in modified versions, which included the most direct challenges to the monarch's authority to date. The charter first passed into law in 1225...
. Those things make New Zealand the society it is.
2005 general election
In July 2005, Prime Minister Helen ClarkHelen Clark
Helen Elizabeth Clark, ONZ is a New Zealand political figure who was the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand for three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2008...
announced that a General Election would take place on 17 September. At that time Brash and the National Party led by a slim margin in the opinion-polls. But by mid-August both Brash and National had declined in popularity. Commentators attributed this trend to a series of announcements of new spending programs by Labour, and to confusion as to whether National could form a stable coalition government with New Zealand First
New Zealand First
New Zealand First is a political party in New Zealand that was founded in 1993, following party founder Winston Peters' resignation from the National Party in 1992...
and/or ACT New Zealand.
The National Party advertising campaign aimed at rebutting arguments brought up by Labour about a variety of themes: Brash's stand on national security issues (he favoured greater co-operation with "traditional allies"), his commitment to social security programmes (including healthcare), as well as his ideas on the perceived drift towards "racial separatism" dividing Māori from other New Zealanders. One of Brash's most significant and widely publicised policy announcements foreshadowed the introduction of tax-cuts for working New Zealanders. Brash's party embarked on a targeted billboard-advertising programme, which later (post-election) won two advertising-industry awards.
In his first party-political election-campaign broadcast Brash mentioned a number of aspects of his life
Personal life
Personal life is the course of an individual's life, especially when viewed as the sum of personal choices contributing to one's personal identity. It is a common notion in modern existence—although more so in more prosperous parts of the world such as Western Europe and North America...
that he believed had attuned him to the political centre-ground in New Zealand:
- registering as a conscientious objectorConscientious objectorA conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
at age 18 - serving as the patron of Amnesty InternationalAmnesty InternationalAmnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
Freedom Foundation - participating in demonstrations against the racially-selected South African rugby team touring New Zealand1981 Springbok TourThe 1981 South African rugby union tour of New Zealand was a controversial tour of New Zealand by the South Africa national rugby union team, known as "the Springboks"...
(1981) and the New Zealand All-Blacks rugby team touring South Africa without Māori team members - his frugal approach, most famously washing his own laundry in his hotel-room basin while on taxpayer-funded overseas trips as Governor of the Reserve Bank
- voting for Labour in his early years
Campaign
On 19 August 2005, National unveiled a $3.9 billion dollar tax-cut policy. The first polling conducted after the announcement suggested that it had boosted National support. On 22 August, Brash engaged in a televised debate with the Labour Party leader Helen Clark. According to the New Zealand Herald, Clark appeared 'confident and aggressive' and Brash appeared 'defensive'. In response to questions over his assertiveness, Brash indicated that he had not attacked Clark during the debate because she was a women. Clark described Brash's explanation as patronising.On 27 August a weekend newspaper published a series of leaked documents, including private emails, showing that members of the ACT party and of the Business Round Table had advised Brash during his bid for the leadership of the parliamentary National Party. Continuing leaks over following weeks appeared designed to cause the National leader embarrassment. Furthermore, confusion bedevilled National's potential coalition options: New Zealand First
New Zealand First
New Zealand First is a political party in New Zealand that was founded in 1993, following party founder Winston Peters' resignation from the National Party in 1992...
showed reluctance to reveal whether it would support National or Labour post-election, whilst ACT (often seen as National's natural coalition partner due to the similarities in some of their policies) criticised National for not openly supporting ACT leader Rodney Hide
Rodney Hide
Rodney Hide is a New Zealand politician who was leader of the political party ACT New Zealand from 2004 to 2011. From 2005 to 2011 he represented the electorate of Epsom as its Member of Parliament. Rodney Hide was Minister of Local Government, Associate Minister of Commerce and Minister of...
's bid to win the electorate seat of Epsom.
On 16 November 2006 Brash obtained a High Court injunction
prohibiting the distribution or publication of the private emails allegedly unlawfully taken from his computer, following ongoing rumours that his opponents would publish a series of his personal emails as a book, and he confirmed that the police had commenced a criminal investigation into the alleged email-theft.
Pamphlets distributed by members of a Christian sect
Sect
A sect is a group with distinctive religious, political or philosophical beliefs. Although in past it was mostly used to refer to religious groups, it has since expanded and in modern culture can refer to any organization that breaks away from a larger one to follow a different set of rules and...
, the Exclusive Brethren
Exclusive Brethren
The Exclusive Brethren are a subset of the Christian evangelical movement generally described as the Plymouth Brethren. They are distinguished from the Open Brethren from whom they separated in 1848....
, in early September caused further embarrassment for Brash; although they were not anonymous, they did not refer to the Exclusive Brethren but were authorised in the names of individual church members. Brash initially denied National had anything to do with it, but later admitted that the Brethren had told him at a meeting some months earlier that they planned to run a campaign opposing the direction of the Labour Government. Brash has maintained his position that the pamphlet-campaign took place on the Exclusive Brethren's own initiative.
The General Election on 17 September produced a close result, with initial election-night figures from rural areas favoring National (in accordance with tradition and previous patterns); but by the end of the evening Labour had won 40.7% of the vote to National's 39.6%. Following the counting of the special votes the gap widened, with Labour taking 41.1% of the vote to National's 39.1%. Dr Brash conceded defeat on 1 October after weeks of electoral uncertainty while the major parties sought to secure the support of minor coalition partners. His only realistic scenario for becoming prime minister would have involved a coalition between National, ACT and United Future, with confidence and supply from New Zealand First and the Māori Party. This appeared highly unlikely on several counts. New Zealand First's involvement in such a coalition would have run counter to its pre-election promise to deal with the biggest party. The Māori Party's supporters overwhelmingly gave their party-votes to Labour, and National had indicated it would abolish the Maori seats
Maori seats
In New Zealand politics, Māori electorates, colloquially also called Māori seats, are a special category of electorate that gives reserved positions to representatives of Māori in the New Zealand Parliament...
if it won power.
Essentially National had failed to make up enough ground in the cities but swept the electoral votes in the provinces, clawing back a number of seats from Labour and defeating New Zealand First founder-leader Winston Peters
Winston Peters
Winston Raymond Peters is a New Zealand politician and leader of New Zealand First, a political party he founded in 1993. Peters has had a turbulent political career since entering Parliament in 1978. He served as Minister of Maori Affairs in the Bolger National Party Government before being...
in his electorate (Peters remained in Parliament as a list MP). Apart from in Auckland, National's support centred mainly in rural and provincial areas.
2006–2011
Don Brash took leave on 13 September 2006, to sort out marital troubles.Rumours of an extramarital affair came to the public's attention around this date after National MP Brian Connell
Brian Connell
The New Zealand politician Brian David Connell represented the New Zealand National Party in the New Zealand Parliament from 2002 to 2008....
allegedly confronted Brash in a caucus-meeting about the rumours. Details leaked to the press, and in the weeks that followed the National Party caucus suspended Connell from membership of the caucus.
On Saturday 23 September, Brash appeared on Television New Zealand
Television New Zealand
Television New Zealand, more commonly referred to, and stylized as TVNZ, is a government-owned corporation television network broadcasting in New Zealand and parts of the Pacific. It operates TV1, TV2, TVNZ7, TVNZ Heartland, TVNZ U and new media services....
's Agenda news-programme and acknowledged that he had met with Exclusive Brethren
Exclusive Brethren
The Exclusive Brethren are a subset of the Christian evangelical movement generally described as the Plymouth Brethren. They are distinguished from the Open Brethren from whom they separated in 1848....
representatives after the 2005 New Zealand general election.
Dr Brash indicated his intention to remain the leader of the National Party and to contest the next election in that role. However, it became increasingly clear that the caucus preferred Finance Spokesman John Key, whose rating steadily rose in "preferred Prime Minister" polls. Key made no move publicly, but Brash's reputation for honesty and political competence eroded when, for example, broadcast footage showed him walking a plank, and when allegations appeared of his having an affair with an Auckland businesswoman, Diane Foreman – a charge he has never denied. Despite these setbacks, when asked by an interviewer for an article published in the United Kingdom on 18 November 2006 if he planned to remain leader of his party, "...the Clark Kent of Kiwi politics [Brash] turned to me and smiled gently. 'That's my intention,'..."
Resignation
During a hastily-called press-conference on Thursday 23 November 2006, Don Brash announced his resignation as the National Party leader, effective from 27 November. Speculation regarding his leadership had foreshadowed this move, and the publicity had had a negative effect on his political party. The publicity came to a head just before the scheduled publication of a book written by Nicky HagerNicky Hager
Nicky Hager is an author and investigative journalist born in Levin, New Zealand and now resides in Wellington. He generally writes about issues involving intelligence networks, environmental issues and politics. He has degrees in physics and philosophy...
containing leaked emails (amongst other allegedly damaging revelations). Brash filed a delaying injunction with regard to the publication of the e-mails, which he regarded as stolen; however he claimed he had no awareness of and did not wish to stop the publication of the Hager book.
As part of his resignation announcement, Brash also announced he had cleared the way for the book's release by providing copies of his emails to Hager, and stated it had nothing to with his resignation.
Brash also claimed that the publication of the book did not contribute to his decision to resign as National Party leader, although most observers see it as the straw that broke the camel's back. The book, The Hollow Men: A Study in the Politics of Deception
The Hollow Men (book)
The Hollow Men is a 2006 book written by Nicky Hager about the election strategies used by the New Zealand National Party during New Zealand's 2005 parliamentary election...
, details Brash's rise to power in the National Party as assisted by an "informal network of people from the right of New Zealand politics", including a number of ACT members. It also documents that senior National Party figures, including Brash, knew of the Exclusive Brethren
Exclusive Brethren
The Exclusive Brethren are a subset of the Christian evangelical movement generally described as the Plymouth Brethren. They are distinguished from the Open Brethren from whom they separated in 1848....
's pamphlet campaigns in May 2005, although Brash denied knowledge of this until August.
On Thursday 30 November 2006, just one week after resigning as leader of the party, Brash resigned from Parliament after the National Party's new parliamentary leader, John Key, declined to offer him a senior portfolio. He set no official date, but he stated he would not return in the new year.
Brash then made his valedictory speech on Tuesday 12 December 2006. On 7 February 2007, Katrina Shanks
Katrina Shanks
The New Zealand politician Katrina Shanks serves as a list member of Parliament for the New Zealand National Party Party. Shanks became a Member of Parliament on 7 February 2007, following the formal resignation of Don Brash from Parliament....
took his place as a National Party list MP.
Career after national politics
On 18 May 2007 Don Brash joined the ANZ National BankANZ New Zealand
ANZ New Zealand is New Zealand’s largest financial services group and is a subsidiary of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited of Australia. ANZ New Zealand operates under its legal entity ANZ National Bank Limited which was formed as part of the 2003 merger of ANZ and The National Bank...
board as Rob McLeod retired from the board to return to his accounting practice. He also chairs Huljich Wealth Management, an independent, specialist funds-management
Investment management
Investment management is the professional management of various securities and assets in order to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of the investors...
company based in Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
, New Zealand. In late 2008 he was lecturing in economics at the Auckland University of Technology
Auckland University of Technology
The Auckland University of Technology is a university in New Zealand. It was formed on 1 January 2000 when the Auckland Institute of Technology was granted university status. Its primary campus is on Wellesley Street in Auckland's Central business district...
In April 2009 Brash was appointed as a director of the electricity grid operator Transpower.
In late April 2011, Brash, still a National Party member, announced that he would like to lead the ACT Party which would require incumbent leader Rodney Hide
Rodney Hide
Rodney Hide is a New Zealand politician who was leader of the political party ACT New Zealand from 2004 to 2011. From 2005 to 2011 he represented the electorate of Epsom as its Member of Parliament. Rodney Hide was Minister of Local Government, Associate Minister of Commerce and Minister of...
to step down. Hide dismissed any talk of a leadership challenge to him but Brash was quoted "I'd like to say to the board that, under my leadership, I believe Act has a much better prospect of not only getting back into Parliament but having a significant number of MPs."John Key
John Key
John Phillip Key is the 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand, in office since 2008. He has led the New Zealand National Party since 2006....
also would not rule out working with Brash if it came down to a tight decision.
Leadership of the ACT Party
On 28 April 2011 the incumbent leader of the ACT Party, Rodney HideRodney Hide
Rodney Hide is a New Zealand politician who was leader of the political party ACT New Zealand from 2004 to 2011. From 2005 to 2011 he represented the electorate of Epsom as its Member of Parliament. Rodney Hide was Minister of Local Government, Associate Minister of Commerce and Minister of...
, announced that he was stepping down as leader in favour of Brash who had joined the party that morning. His membership was ratified by the party board on Saturday 30 April and the ACT party parliamentary caucus confirmed him as leader the same day. The party board re-convened later that day to ratify his leadership. Rodney Hide will remain in Parliament until the election. Brash will remain a leader outside Parliament till the election and former Auckland City
Auckland City
Auckland City was the city and local authority covering the Auckland isthmus and most of the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, in the North Island of New Zealand. On 1 November 2010 it was amalgamated into the wider Auckland Region under the authority of the new Auckland Council...
mayor John Banks is likely to be his running mate and standing in Epsom
Epsom
Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England. Small parts of Epsom are in the Borough of Reigate and Banstead. The town is located south-south-west of Charing Cross, within the Greater London Urban Area. The town lies on the chalk downland of Epsom Downs.-History:Epsom lies...
. The Listener compared Brash's successful bid for the leadership of the ACT Party to a hostile takeover. Brash hoped to get ACT 15% of the vote in the 2011 election, instead it only managed 1%. Brash resigned on election night.
Political positions
Brash voted for the decriminalisation of both prostitution and euthanasia, voted against raising the drinking age back up to 20 and voted against ManukauManukau
Manukau City was a large territorial authority in Auckland, New Zealand. The city was sometimes referred to as South Auckland, but this term did not possess official recognition and did not encompass areas like East Auckland, which was previously within the official boundaries of Manukau City...
banning street prostitution. However, Brash did vote against the Civil Unions Bill because he backed a public mandate for any change to the law. He has also called for the decriminalisation of cannabis.
Biography
- Paul GoldsmithPaul Goldsmith (politician)Paul Goldsmith is a New Zealand politician and, since the , a list member of the New Zealand House of Representatives. He is a member of the National Party.-Early life:...
: Brash: A Biography: Auckland: Penguin: 2005: ISBN 0-14-301967-8 - Nicky Hager: The Hollow Men: A Study in the Politics of Deception: Nelson: Craig Potton: 2006: ISBN 1-877333-62-X
Partial list of publications
- "An investigation into the growth of New Zealand's external indebtedness, on public and private account, in the period since 1949/50, and a parallel study of changes in her debt servicing capacity", University of Canterbury thesis (1962)
- "United States investment in Australian manufacturing industry", Australian National University thesis (1965)
External links
- 2004 Orewa speech
- 2005 Orewa speech
- Independent Review of Monetary Policy
- ABC Late Night Live interview with Nicky Hager
- The Hollow Men documentary about Don Brash and the National Party in the 2005 election made in conjunction with Nicky Hager's book