A question of leadership: Don Brash

Don Brash

This time next week, Helen Clark or Don Brash could form a government. Political editor Jonathan Milne asks Don Brash the tough questions.

Q: Have the last three years been hard on you and [your wife] Je Lan?

A: It is difficult, because by definition all MPs are away from home quite a lot - that goes with the territory. As I've discovered, being leader takes you away more.

Q: Does it scare you, the thought of losing your private life entirely; never being able to walk down the street to grab a sandwich on your own?

A: I've lost it already. I don't go any place, walk into McDonald's now. It doesn't worry me unduly.

Q: Is your marriage strong?

A. Yes it is. Absolutely.

Q: What's the rationale of giving people tax cuts at the same time as increasing overall indebtedness?

A: We don't need to cover all capital expenditure from current revenue. No business would do so ... and the cost of trying to do so is that New Zealanders are seeing almost no increase in their after-tax and after-inflation real income.

Q: To make the tax system family-friendly, is that going to require a fairly dramatic overhaul?

A: I suspect it does.

Q: Is there any merit to United Future's income-splitting proposals?

A: That's certainly one of the options.

Q: Nuclear generation? We are hitting an energy crisis aren't we?

A: Hopefully we'll find some more gas. But we do have hydro options, wind options, geothermal options ... and we have coal. But between the RMA and the prospect of a carbon tax, generators have been pretty reluctant to commit.

Q: Nuclear power?

A: Let the public debate the issue. We're not going to lead the debate. We don't need it.

Q: You've been accused of being in the Americans' pocket. How important should the relationship with America be?

A: In the last six weeks I've been accused of being in the Americans' pockets, the Australians' pockets, the Roundtable's, Act's and the Exclusive Brethren's pockets. New Zealand should have a good relationship with Australia, our most natural friend and ally, and with traditional friends and allies like the United States and the UK, but not at the cost of the improved relationships we've got with a lot of countries in this region.

Q: Tensions are growing between China and America. Who do you choose?

A: I don't want to make that choice - I think the important thing is we maintain close relationships with both countries.

Q: As prime minister you might have to make that choice.

A: I may. But at this point I don't have the facts and figures available to make that choice.

Q: Maximising your party vote could be at the expense of potential coalition partners, couldn't it?

A: You can never improve the prospects of a National-led government by effectively gifting party votes to a coalition partner.

Q: Which portfolios would you rule out handing over to a coalition partner?

A: I don't want to rule out any portfolios ... It depends very much on which coalition partners are involved and a lot of negotiations.

Q: So Gordon Copeland [United Future] as finance minister?

A: That's extraordinarily unlikely. I think John Key is a very effective finance spokesman, and he would make a very good finance minister. But I don't want to start negotiating coalition deals at this point.

Q: How fast do you expect to have a government after the election if you're in the box seat?

A: It depends in very large part on who the potential coalition partners are. I've got no doubt we could negotiate an arrangement quite quickly with Act and United Future. I would very much hope it wouldn't take more than three weeks.

Q: Do you think if you did have to depend on NZ First, that could jeopardise your chance of getting through three years?

A: It may well do.

Q: Would the moral right expect an influence on a Don Brash-led government?

A: The National Party is a broad church party - without any puns intended. We've got people who are quite conservative on moral issues, we've got people who are quite liberal on moral issues. Clearly I have been associated with being on the more liberal end of the National Party.

Q: If you become prime minister, you'll be the first PM in New Zealand without an electorate. How are you going to stay in touch with the grassroots?

A: I think any PM has huge difficulty staying in touch with the grassroots. I don't have any doubt about that. The challenge will be to keep regularly plugged into community activities, school activities, things of that sort.

Q: Where will NZ sit in the OECD rankings at the end of your first three years?

A: I suspect that it wouldn't be very different from where it is now, because you can't raise living standards overnight. I've always said that it would take some years to crank up our growth rate.

Q: You're 64 - and caucuses aren't generally very forgiving of leaders who lose elections.

A: I can't think of a recent political party leader on either side of the House who survives for very long having lost an election.

Q: Are you saying to New Zealand, 'if you want Don Brash as prime minister this is your one chance'?

A: I don't want to say anything as arrogant as that. If New Zealanders decide they don't want me, then that's a judgment they are absolutely entitled to make.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY