Brash texts congrats to Hide - and gets some advice back

Rodney Hide shakes hands with party member Lech Beltowski as he thanks voters in Newmarket yesterday. Picture / Dean Purcell

Rodney Hide taught Don Brash everything he knows about text-messaging.

So the Act leader was delighted to see a text message from his protege flash up on his mobile phone late on election night.

In the message, the National leader congratulated Mr Hide on his stunning 3244-vote victory in the blue-ribbon National seat of Epsom.

Although the new local MP won't reveal the text's exact wording, he says with a hint of pride that Dr Brash always spells out words correctly.

"I got him a phone like my one, and showed him how to use it, set it up for him," Mr Hide said yesterday.

"He rang me again this morning and said congratulations again.

"We had a chat about the shape of Parliament and I had some suggestions for him, gave him some advice. I congratulated him for a fantastic result."

All this backslapping is the strange conclusion to a very odd campaign in Epsom, a seat which encompasses some of the poshest parts of the country.

Mr Hide is the leader of a party which everyone thought was toast and which got 1.52 per cent of the party vote.

His victory came largely on the strength of his dogged door-knocking and programme of street walks. He estimates he met nearly every voter.

He said the overall election result was "very disappointing" for Act - its caucus of nine MPs is reduced to two, and the party vote has slumped from 7 per cent.

But it was a great victory for Mr Hide.

"I'm delighted," he said. "But it's humbling. It's not like I climbed Mt Everest. Actually voters voted for me, they put their trust in Rodney Hide and I find it a humbling experience.

"I'm going to be the best MP New Zealand's ever seen, that's my goal."

Act's opinion polls accurately predicted the outcome but Mr Hide is blaming the poor party vote on a TVNZ Colmar Brunton poll which, he said, failed to recognise his growing support in the seat by asking voters which party they preferred in the local vote, not which candidate.

"The poll didn't ask people about personality, and of course this was all about personality and tactical voting," Mr Hide said, adding that National could have thrashed Labour by working better with minor parties.

"I'm frustrated with National Party strategy, which was - as if the election was - first-past-the-post," he said. "They said their aim was to win 51 per cent and with that strategy they've cost Don Brash the opportunity of being Prime Minister.

"If the National Party had stood up and said, 'Here are our support parties, here are the people we can work with', I believe they would have won more votes and so would their supporting parties."

A former lecturer in environmental science, Mr Hide describes himself as a "greenie" and says his personal priorities will be improving New Zealand's defence forces and reforming the "overly bureaucratic" resource management system to "marry good economic policy with good environmental policy".

The polling-booth breakdown shows voters in swish Remuera swept to Mr Hide, giving him 1055 votes at the King's School Hall booth, compared with 614 for National opponent Richard Worth.

National's greatest support was in Mt Eden, a more ethnically and financially diverse suburb.