Fran O'Sullivan: Roy plain outgunned at caucus showdown

Heather Roy. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Act MP Heather Roy set herself up for the political equivalent of a bullet in the neck out the back of the Lubyanka.

The contents of the infamous 82-page dossier leaked to the Herald this week make it abundantly clear that Roy's strategy to out-manoeuvre Rodney Hide at a caucus showdown back-fired when she was comprehensively out-gunned by her own leader.

Her Act colleagues did not bother with the pretence of a Stalinistic show trial. The dossier was not presented at the Tuesday caucus where Roy had clearly planned to draw its contents as her defence to various issues Hide had tabled about her behaviour.

The Act MPs simply voted John Boscawen into the deputy's slot and orchestrated her out of her ministerial roles including her prized associate Defence portfolio.

For a former territorial soldier who has spoken glowingly of the Genghis Khan motto - "As you train, so shall you fight!" - the confirmation that Hide proved far more adept at orchestrating a political "black ops" must have been galling.

The dossier's confirmation of a bitter division between the Act leader and his deputy dominated news headlines. Hide was variously labelled "intimidating", and a "bully" who "shouted abuse" and "stormed up and down the corridors" after he returned from the gym "all pumped up".

The dossier claimed that any remaining credit that Hide gained from his "reinvention phase" from dancing, swimming and the gym would be wiped out if the "white-middle-aged men" acted against the sole woman in this cause.

There was more besides. Much of it personal and petty - such as the shrill observation Hide had left his wife.

But Roy's subsequent attempt to distance herself from the claims was farcical. Particularly, her denials on nationwide television that she had ever called Hide a bully when her very body language (they were sitting side by side) betrayed her discomfit.

The Roy dossier - which carries a "legally privileged in-confidence" label - is a fascinating insight into a party where relationships are now (at best) pathological. It has (of course) not been written by Roy; which enables her to play the game of plausible deniability.

But no serious person would believe the former Act deputy leader was not complicit in the marshalling of it contents.

The picture that the dossier paints of an Act caucus that has "allowed itself to be hijacked by lies and innuendo" and risks abandonment to a culture distinguished by a "fascination with black political means" might be alarming to voters if it was not demonstrably obvious that the skills in the darker political arts have been deeply embedded since birth within Act's DNA.

It's just another Act bust-up. But what ought to concern is the still unanswered allegations that confidential defence papers were leaked from Act's offices.

Roy went troppo suggesting a security breach after Hide took a draft defence document from her office.

The dossier quotes her as saying: "Much more concerning about this paper is the fact that the Minister of Defence, Wayne Mapp, has told me that he has been informed by a National Party activist that Act board Member, Nick Kearney, has a copy of this paper.

"He said Nick Kearney has shown the activist the paper and encouraged him to write an article for the blog 'No Minister'. The activist has told me that he will not do anything with it - it is a sensitive document of national security significance and it was raised with Wayne Mapp because of this serious concern."

Nick Kearney has since revealed he resigned from the Act board when another member who was aligned with Roy made the "jaw-dropping" allegation that he had the paper. He has denied any role in this affair.

Labour's Trevor Mallard - who was clearly well-briefed by the Roy camp - claimed in parliament that the alleged "leak" was of sufficient concern that the Security Intelligence Service was called in.

And that a National Party activist - who is said to go by the blogging name of the "veteran" - had been given the paper to put up on the blogsite.

There was more besides: "The Minister of Defence believes Rodney Hide has passed this paper on and he is upset that he could not trust a Ministerial colleague to keep a paper he gave him to himself," said the dossier.

At the time this column was written Minister Wayne Mapp had not fronted on either the dossier's allegations or the claim that a confidential defence document was in circulation.

In the wake of her execution Prime Minister John Key described Roy as a "competent" Minister. If Key still believes that to be the case, he must order a leaks inquiry.

Or does the fact that the associate defence portfolio has now been taken away from Act speak for itself?