John Armstrong: Policy gains prove Banks is no poodle

John Banks. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Interviewed on radio yesterday, John Banks not surprisingly took offence at the suggestion he was now a "National Party poodle".

He is nobody's poodle. Never has been. No poodle could have won the gains Banks has secured in return for Act guaranteeing National its support.

Conscious he was open to claims he would be too soft in his dealings with his old party, Banks astutely added to his negotiating team former party president Catherine Isaac and former deputy leader John Boscawen. When it comes to upholding Act's fundamental principles, that pair's ideological credentials are beyond question.

The resulting support agreement is thus not only imbued with Act principles from start to finish. The policy concessions made by National are true Act solutions.

Banks predicted the public would be surprised at the policy gains Act - as a one-MP party - would be able to negotiate. He has been proved right.

Two factors have been critical. The first was the adoption of a negotiating stance on areas such as welfare reform, privatising ACC and educational failure where National is amenable to more radical policies if nudged hard enough. Secondly, Act has secured gains by concentrating on cost-neutral projects, such as the Treasury monitoring productivity growth and the income gap with Australia.

The agreement to trial privately run but largely state-funded "charter" schools in areas of underachievement such as South Auckland is arguably Act's biggest advance in terms of translating policy into action.

Banks has also brought a degree of realism to the party. Witness Act's push for a fixed cap on core Government spending. Rodney Hide wanted that cap to be screwed down tight. National refused. Act's enacting legislation consequently stalled. Banks negotiated a compromise which will see National make the necessary amendment to the Public Finance Act. It may not be what Act envisaged. But it gets the principle into law.

For too long Act's message has been muddled by the mix of warring personalities. Yesterday was all about getting Act back to its basics - choice, individual responsibility and the free market. He may parrot the basics ad nauseam but he has to convince people he believes them.

Resurrecting Act will not be achieved overnight. But Act's agreement with National is the best possible start.