fired through an NZ Herald opinion piece.<\/a><\/p>\nHe\u2019s also scheduled to appear on Ryan Bridge\u2019s Herald show and Mike Hosking\u2019s ZB show this morning, before other media engagements this week. <\/p>\n
All of that speaks to the importance of Henry and Act\u2019s belief that he is a game-changer as it strives to reach double-figure party vote percentages.<\/p>\n
Act secured 8.6% of the party vote at the last election, and is generally polling at between 6% and 8% in most polls right now. Henry and his new party know that it\u2019s not enough to have the influence they want.<\/p>\n
\u201cI personally would be disappointed if we were under 10% [at the election], but I know there are others who have expectations much higher than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henry\u2019s own reasons for a sudden and quite dramatic career turn at 65 – he\u2019s in line for a parliamentary swipe card at the same time as a SuperGold Card – are twofold.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s \u201calarmed\u201d at the prospect that the country might swing back to the left, with the return of a Labour-led coalition, and he doesn\u2019t think the National-led coalition of the past three years has done enough.<\/p>\n
![\"Paul]()
Paul Henry at the Act Party’s central Auckland election base on Tuesday. Photo \/ Annaleise Shortland<\/p>\n
He also knows he can\u2019t be an electoral flash in the pan. He\u2019s figured he\u2019ll need to be an MP for six years. \u201cOf course it\u2019s not entirely down to me, but I\u2019ve determined that it\u2019s ludicrous to think that if I go in and three years is successful, then would I pull out? No.\u201d<\/p>\n
Can one person truly make a difference? \u201cNo, but I think one party can. As an influential party, Act can. If Act has enough negotiating power in coalition talks and around the Cabinet table, we can make a huge difference. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe already have in the last three years made a difference, but by no means enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also realises there\u2019s limited time. He says this is a \u201cpivotal\u201d election. \u201cI only have so many heartbeats, so I wouldn\u2019t be standing unless I thought I could really make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Where will he be on the list? He\u2019s made clear his expectation that he\u2019ll be in an electable position. Top three, I ponder?<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, no \u2026\u201d he replies, before adding, \u201cI mean that doesn\u2019t mean I won\u2019t be in the top three. I can\u2019t say enough: I\u2019m not doing this to waste my time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m doing this because there is a real need to cement in the changes that have been put in place in the last three years. I described it as a nudge in the right direction. You can overturn a nudge very, very easily, and we just can\u2019t let that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018This country should be really humming\u2019<\/p>\n
Henry describes a \u201cgeneral malaise\u201d throughout New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s one of the greatest shames with this country when you think about our extraordinary potential. For people like us who\u2019ve travelled, we know how lucky we are to live here. It\u2019s such a shame that we\u2019re squandering any of our life mithering over the spoils.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis country should be really humming. There is no fundamental reason why we are not one of the most valued countries on earth, why we are not one of the countries on earth that people desperately want to come to and live in and be part of, but we\u2019re not.\u201d <\/p>\n
He believes a lot of it is a hangover from the Covid years and even earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll be honest with you, I think it started to change when John Key stood down [in 2017]. I think there was a slight uncertainty, and during Covid, it took a very nasty turn. In many ways. Economically, it took a very nasty turn.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Paul]()
Paul Henry believes the resignation of his best mate, John Key, as Prime Minister in 2017 led to a downturn in the country’s vibe, which intensified during Covid. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s talked of his disappointment with National. That extends to its leader.<\/p>\n
Christopher Luxon, he says, \u201cdoesn\u2019t seem to be clicking with the country and that\u2019s a real problem\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no point in the right vote just swapping votes with each other \u2013 he just doesn\u2019t seem to be clicking. I think he\u2019s finding his stride, but it\u2019s a little bit late.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven then … there is this issue that centrist parties have that they don\u2019t want to offend anyone because in the back of their minds they think maybe everyone will vote for them one day. So they actually do as little as they can get away with doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t afford to do that when you\u2019re up against a left bloc which will rapidly take ourselves backwards. You\u2019ve got to be bold; you\u2019ve got to do things while you can do them and cement changes in as much as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henry once related to me, over lunch, a story about then Prime Minister Jenny Shipley making an incredible speech during an event at his home \u2013 only to be exasperated that the public did not see that persona in front of the cameras.<\/p>\n
In the past, he has bemoaned politicians who say little when they\u2019re in the spotlight, for fear of upsetting anyone. That centrist approach, again.<\/p>\n
\u2018My life\u2019s an open book\u2019<\/p>\n
Henry certainly isn\u2019t taking that approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s slightly dangerous because you know that in conversations we have, I\u2019m very upfront. I mean, pretty much my life\u2019s an open book. I suppose there are always skeletons; I\u2019m 65 years old. There are skeletons in everyone\u2019s closet, but pretty much I just say what I think. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to have to be a little bit careful because I can\u2019t speak for a party. So, I can\u2019t create policy on the hoof, which I started to do today in the press conference,\u201d he said, referring to his concept of a cancer hospital.<\/p>\n
Did he get told off for that? \u201cNo, in fact, I think they\u2019re working it up into a policy now,\u201d he said, bursting into trademark laughter.<\/p>\n
Henry also argued strongly on his first day as a political candidate \u201cthat you cannot find prosperity through borrowing, you can\u2019t find it through taxing, and you can\u2019t achieve prosperity through separatism and infighting\u201d.<\/p>\n
Co-governance, he tells me, is \u201cdiabolical\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are fundamentally one person in this country. Every New Zealander should be treated as equal with the possible exception of criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n
He wants more of those New Zealanders locked away. \u201cWe do have to rehabilitate them, but in the first instance, we\u2019ve got to get them out of harm\u2019s way. No matter what stripes your Government has, the first responsibility is to protect your citizens. If there is a crime, the people that matter are the victims.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NZ \u2018vibe\u2019<\/p>\n
Henry returns to his concerns about the \u201cvibe\u201d in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember when I was growing up … we just thought big. We knew there was a great future ahead of us. Our fathers were in work and in many cases, our mothers were [in work], but our fathers were building a country. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been criticised in the past for harking back to this but … why are we not still building the country rather than patching up a road because we\u2019re hugely in debt?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing that holds us back the most is our lack of challenge to ourselves, our lack of vision, not just a collective vision, but our lack of personal vision. <\/p>\n
![\"Paul]()
Paul Henry and his wife Diane Foreman on a holiday in Hawaii.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had successive Governments \u2013 not in the last three years \u2013 but we\u2019ve had successive Governments that have basically made excuses for people\u2019s lack of performance. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t be expected to get that job; you\u2019re not being looked after properly by the government, as opposed to when we were growing up, when the view was, \u2018we\u2019re going to go out there and take it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018I will still be me\u2019<\/p>\n
There have been occasional concerns about a lack of personalities in Parliament, or that people who have made very public (or private) mistakes are unlikely to want to expose themselves in the hurly-burly of politics.<\/p>\n
Henry has certainly blown that hypothesis away. His television faux pas \u2013 the Governor General comments, the Sheila Dikshit comments and the moustache-on-a-lady comments \u2013 were all revived in myriad media reports yesterday. <\/p>\n
Henry knew it was coming. \u201cLow-hanging fruit,\u201d he told Espiner on RNZ.<\/p>\n
There is a risk Henry\u2019s mischievousness will be somewhat quelled as a politician, not that there was any sign of that happening yesterday or even last night. He posted on his Instagram a Henry-like party political statement: \u201cNew Zealand is in the sh*t… unless party vote Act.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seymour and Winston Peters have been masters of soundbites for many years. In Henry, they may have met their match, even if he is far more unpredictable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will still be me, but whether some of those edges are going to have to be chipped away at, I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a man who has experienced myriad interesting and sometimes alarming life adventures – a television host, an intrepid broadcaster and journalist, a man who enjoys flaunting it all in Palm Springs or cruising Route 66 in his Ford Mustang or battling ocean elements between Auckland and Fiji – the formality and stuffiness of Parliament seem incongruous.<\/p>\n
![\"Paul]()
Paul Henry motoring in some calmer seas between Auckland and Fiji. Photo \/ Instagram<\/p>\n
\u201cI watch parliament sometimes and – you know – \u2018point of order!\u2019 How do they know the points of order? Does someone come up to you at the beginning of Question Time saying, \u2018You could maybe bring this up?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not the kind of person who will sit there at night with volumes of text flicking through points of order. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve got it in me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Can this infamously independent life adventurer toe the line?<\/p>\n
\u201cI can toe Act\u2019s party line because I am completely in accord with Act\u2019s philosophy. Does that mean that there will be policies that are presented that I\u2019m not completely in accord with? <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s entirely possible, but I\u2019m completely in accord with the philosophy, and the thing I know about Act is that it is desperately consistent with that philosophy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand\u2019s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Henry\u2019s wife, Diane Foreman, was also \u201cvery supportive \u2013 she\u2019s a political animal\u201d, but he had only told…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1443,4619,46299,9516,34507,10709,7123,6284,14134,16773,6209,293,2944,2936,5620,13489,102150,10005,89878,1073,42677,2683,117,111,43,139,69,90,2847,2680,24637,4762,7234,17357,6777,18154,8998,415,34592,16797,44970,14446,1361,223,61,110217,132947,75450,686,80],"class_list":["post-526014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-about","tag-act","tag-bombshell","tag-broadcaster","tag-broadcasters","tag-concerns","tag-current","tag-david","tag-decision","tag-great","tag-henry","tag-his","tag-inside","tag-insider","tag-interview","tag-leader","tag-lifes","tag-list","tag-mavericks","tag-media","tag-ministers","tag-move","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-only","tag-opens","tag-parliament","tag-party","tag-partys","tag-paul","tag-performance","tag-political","tag-position","tag-prime","tag-ready","tag-seymour","tag-spoke","tag-stand","tag-that","tag-the","tag-to","tag-versa","tag-vibe","tag-vice","tag-week","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}