Deborah Coddington returns to journalism

Deborah Coddington

Q: Act is quite low in the polls. Do you think Act will make it back into Parliament at the election?

A: Yes I do, because with the election campaign proper smaller parties get a lot more coverage and the voters focus on the smaller parties and what they've got to offer. I also think voters will realise the foolishness of National trying to eat up its potential coalition partners, Act and United Future. If people want a change, they're not going to get it if it just goes to National.

Q: Why are you leaving?

A: I always only said I'd give it six years. Why did I decide to cut it in half? I'm going on to different pastures really, a happy marriage and I really missed writing more than I thought I would.

Q: You are to become a Herald on Sunday writer after the election. Why did you take the job?

A: I've never worked for newspapers before. I'm terrified but it's exciting because it's a new publication. It gets better and better every week and it's exciting to be part of something that is developing.

Q: In an interview in April you said you were not angry enough anymore, and no longer saw things in black and white. Surely as a journalist you would have known that before becoming an MP?

A: That's right. Political things. I think having been an MP will make me a better journalist. Even if you don't agree with their political views, people are not evil and they are not idiots and they do not deserve to be personally destroyed or attacked. And I think I probably did a little bit of that before, so I've had those sharp edges rubbed off me.

Q: What has been the best job here for you?

A: The best job for me was going out with the Mothers on the Road tour, and talking to community groups, community trusts, Maori trusts, who are doing parenting courses, drug and alcohol counselling ... all of that working for those families. I suppose in a way that was the worst part for me being an MP, because that's really what made me think I'd like to write about these things; I need to get back into journalism.

Q: You have had aspects of your personal life paraded with the Roger Kerr issue, your former partner Alister Taylor, and marrying Colin Carruthers. Has that been uncomfortable?

A: I got a lot of flak for that in terms of people thinking I courted that attention, but if people look at my history, my personal life was out there before I came into Parliament with Alister Taylor's profile, profiles on me done in Metro when I did the sex offenders book. I didn't live my life as if I was going to be an MP. I will continue to be me, to be myself. If some people don't like that, if it offends them, well look the other way.

Q: Was your three years as an MP worthwhile?

A: Absolutely. I would not have missed it for anything. I really loved it. Even the bad times turned out to be good because they're such good learning experiences. I'm sorry for what it did to my kids. They didn't deserve to read some of the things about their mum that they did, but nobody said life was going to be fair. And there are other kids around that have much worse lives than them.


Q: Is Act in a bad way, is morale low?


A: It's not, actually. We are all remarkably chipper but maybe that's the nature of us as a bunch of individuals. I do, and I'm pretty sure the others all do, expect [Act] to be back here. They haven't got Plan B.

Q: Would you have rather seen somebody other than Rodney Hide as party leader?

A: No. I'm sorry Richard [Prebble] stood down, but that was his decision and there was nothing we could do about that. I still think he was a brilliant leader. But I remember the first time I saw Rodney give a public speech ... he just had the whole audience in the palm of his hand. I think the mistake was made when the powers-that-be decided that Rodney should be statesmanlike. Muldoon was never statesmanlike. You've got to be yourself.

Q: Where did Act go wrong, if at all?

A: I don't think Act has gone wrong. I think Act's gone right and National's realised that and taken our policies.