KEY POINTS:
If there's one person who understands the workings of MMP more than any other politician in the House of Twisted Faces, it's United Future's leader Hon Peter Dunne, who has represented the people of Ohariu-Belmont since Napoleon wore short pants.
I know I've been cruel to Dunne in
this column before: shortly after the last election when he blew a small fuse at TVNZ's Mark Sainsbury. But after we've been abused by those extreme close-ups of Sainsbury promoting his television show, I sort of have some sympathy for Dunne. I think even the mild-mannered, laid-back Sainsbury must blow a fuse every time he encounters his doppelganger on the back of a bus. Can't we get counselling for this?
But to Dunne's credit, the next time we met after my particularly savage column, he was his usual polite and personable self. I would have tipped a glass of acid over my head.
I've watched Dunne quite closely since the 2005 election, when he signed a confidence and supply agreement with Labour and was made Revenue Minister. This could have been the kiss of oblivion. Would this small political party be eclipsed by the government? Would Dunne just morph back in to the anonymity of his old party, Labour, like Jim Anderton has?
But Dunne's been too smart for that, and - intentionally or otherwise - he's positioning himself, and his party, to form a government with National, should John Key continue his lot's upward path in the polls. He's been a National minister before. In fact, the pragmatic Dunne's been nearly everything before, except Speaker, and he wouldn't make a bad fist of that job either.
United Future's tax policy in the 2005 election campaign was to bring the business tax rate down to 30 per cent. In his agreement to support Labour, he wangled a business tax review, and as the May 17 Budget day approaches, Dunne has moved to ensure he gets credit for any positive tax changes announced by Finance Minister Michael Cullen.
Dunne, in his March newsletter, hinted that further "significant changes for tax treatment of personal and business charitable donations" might also be on the near horizon.
For years he's banged on about extending daylight saving. Hardly a sexy way to make a difference, other MPs thought, as they grappled with hospital waiting lists, NCEA disasters, climbing into sow crates, or strewing white crosses all over Parliament's lawns to represent every person murdered in New Zealand. Then suddenly the Government announces that daylight saving will be extended by another three weeks, giving us 27 weeks of summer time, and who's been quietly pushing a petition to get 40,000 signatures? Why, Peter Dunne (aided by a Nelson city councillor), and aren't we all delighted (except for academic Keith Rankin, but he's always grizzling about something). What's more, studies in America have found extending daylight saving saves on electricity, so Peter Dunne's suddenly greener than we all previously thought.
Now he's been given the chance to cover himself with glory by sponsoring an amendment which will save the day with Sue Bradford's Amendment to S59 of the Crimes Act, erroneously to go down in history as the anti-smacking bill. Dunne consistently supported the bill, and always took the opportunity to slap Labour for not allowing its own members to exercise their conscience votes. In the aforementioned newsletter, he wrote, "After much soul-searching, I personally have decided to vote for the bill. While I do not like the state telling people how to live their lives, I have been long concerned about New Zealand's appalling rates of child abuse. I have always found the idea of hitting children to be personally repugnant, which was why I never hit my own children. I think the bill is an important way of sending a signal to the wider community about the unacceptability of child abuse without compromising unduly parental rights, while offering some protection for vulnerable children. My two colleagues have decided to oppose the bill and I respect completely their decisions and their right to reach them freely."
For a politician who's always promoted common sense, he would have taken much abuse for this position. Three cheers for his standing firm against those who do not believe children should receive the same protection from the law adults enjoy.
So what next for Captain Sensible? He'll beaver away at his desire to have a separate New Zealand Day, having cheerily accepted that Waitangi Day, now that the nastiness of the day has dissipated, is here to stay as a day of celebration. And I'd bet the farm (if I had one) on his success.
It doesn't pay to mock Dunne, I've learned over the past year. He wasn't the driest member of the Lange-Douglas cabinet, but neither was he dripping wet. Politics, someone once quipped, is the art of the possible. He's one who does make a difference, and that won't escape John Key's notice. Watch out for Hon Peter Dunne turning up again as a National Government Minister.
