It’s not uncommon when a politician leaves Parliament that they stay involved in politics in some way. Some go on to local government - like Tim Macindoe, Maurice Williamson, Nick Smith. Other’s get involved in organisations with links to politics in some way - like Tracey Martin who heads the Aged Care Association or Sue Moroney who is the CEO of Community Law, or the ones who went off to become lobbyists, and a lot of them choose to step away from the public eye altogether.
The Act Party of 2002 though - they seem to have gone on an entirely different path - they’ve seemingly gone into trying to influence people to fall in the traps of the hard right.
Topping the list in 2002 was Richard Prebble - whose most recent stint was as a short lived member of the Waitangi Tribunal, who left after his perspective on the Treaty was incompatible with everyone else’s on the tribunal, after concerns raised by MPs like Willie Jackson about his Act ideologies being incompatible with the Tribunal and his often repeated stance that the Tribunal is a grievance industry.
Number two on the list was Rodney Hide - the Dancing with the Stars politician who didn’t try and twerk. He’s now on disinformation propaganda channel Reality Check Radio, claiming that woke ideology threatens economic growth, how pseudo law followers were refusing to pay rates, screaming demands for Jacinda, Chippy and Ayesha Verrall to be dragged in front of a public court for the covid response and at least one slurred video where he keeps talking about how beautiful the founders of Voices for Freedom are.
Number Three - Dr Muriel Newman. The Newmans are infamous in Whangarei. The founder of the hard right New Zealand Centre for Political Research “think tank” - an opinion blog about what’s wrong with the world ranging from, having to stop the cultural take over Maori in local government with a strong no vote to Maori wards, the removal of Maori from the education curriculum written by the person who the current government keeps paying to update the education curriculum, the reasons why the UK court was right to pass anti-trans cases, how amazing Trump is, and “eliminating woke”. Her husband Frank is tied in with the Whangarei Voices for Freedom group and keeps trying to get his candidates voted into Council there.
Number Four - Stephen Franks is a lawyer. The Lawyer for Hobsons Pledge, who has helped them with submissions. The lawyer who sent out cease and desist letters to medical professionals working in Trans Health care. He represented cases against 3 Waters changes which have had a major impact on increasing rates bills. He as behind the report for Kaipara District Council on obligations they have with local Maori that said the Waitangi Tribunal was pointless and working with Hapu and iwi was incompatible with democracy and the NZ initiative (another right wing think tank) report on the Supreme Court - a report no one asked for but was important enought for Ryan Bridge and the herald to amplify.
Number six - Deborah Coddington, got herself into hot water for an article in North and South Magazine vilifying asian migrants in a piece that got a scathing rebuke from the Press Council as misleading and emotionally loaded which called pathetic.
At Number seven, Ken Shirley went on to a number of roles, one of which was as CEO of the Road Transport forum where he opposed attempts to increase wages for truck drivers, calling it a race to the bottom and a burden on the economy.
Number 12 on the list, Owen Jennings teamed up with Groundswell and acted as convenor of the Methane Science Accord - arguing against the accepted science that livestock methane emissions are contributor to global emissions levels.
At Number 15, Dick Quax is the name behind the term Quaxing - to shop in the western world by means of walking, cycling or taking public transport - in response to his claims that no one would try to undertake shopping that way.
Even buried at number 22 on the list, Joanne Reeder is a major player in the freedom movement in Kirikiriroa Hamilton, the person behind the freedom aligned “news” site Citywatch” which platforms the hard right, pushes conspiracy peddlers and advocates for pseudo law followers in their missions.
So this raises the question - why on earth are so many people from the 2002 Act Party List doing what they’re doing now?
Well in 2005, a wonderful thing happened, Act was decimated in the polls. Their Parliamentary presence dropped to just 2 seats - Rodney Hide winning the gifted seat of Epsom and Heather Roy on the list from their Party Vote allocation. You suddenly had a lot of well connected people rejected by the electorate - which created an opportunity of sorts when combined with new digital tools for outreach.
They could now frame themselves as defenders of individual liberties and free speech without the constraints of the Party, and combine forces with like minded people to use those connections to give rise to think tanks and lobby groups - which start out almost like echo chambers but because of those pre-built connections as MPs, they can be amplified. This gave them a chance to amplify their own niche views and find a wider audience in online spaces of people who share their views - and a quick browse of the comments section from these social spaces will show you the calibre of their followers - they can be some of the most toxic places on the internet.
And there’s another factor here - a desire for influence. To go from being an MP to not, to go from a powerhouse in Parliament in opposition to being supplanted by the Don Brash led National Party - whose race baiting in the campaign clearly seemed to speak to Act voters of the time for some reason - that’s got to be a bit of a shock to the system.
Ultimately though, for good or bad (well mostly bad), the class of Act in 2002 has changed the landscape of political discourse in this country. Their push to the hard right of the political spectrum has one common echo though that we see a lot - the policies on offer from modern day Act. There is no louder group of organisations in favour of these policies than those run by these former List Members. They have created an eco-system of echo chambers which is now wagging the dog in Wellington with alarming effectiveness.