Rebeccah Cox interviews
Max Bradford M.P. (7/10/00)

Rebeccah: What is it like being in the Opposition and being a shadow Minister?
Max: It's quite different to the last ten years I've been in Parliament. The first point is that you're no longer in control, reacting to what the Government of the day is doing you aren't in a position to initiate anything. That's nowhere near as satisfactory as knowing what you're doing, finding the things that are wrong in what the Government is doing, and that's extremely negative.
Having said that, one of the major roles I have as a shadow Minister is that of devising some of our policies for the next election. We're in a learning phase ourselves, reconnecting with our support base, finding out what people think, looking around at what's happening in the world in particular policy areas, and then beginning the process of putting policies together for the next election. When we win the election, we will be in the position to start implementing our own program to make things better for the country.

Rebeccah: What does your job involve?
Max: First and foremost it involves continuing to look after the people who voted for me in the Rotorua Electorate. A lot of people think that because there's a new MP, that they're there to represent everyone; which is true - as a constituency MP, you are. But with the MMP voting system we have now, most electorates have got MPs of different party persuasions. Twelve thousand people voted for Steve Chadwick, 10,000 voted for me, and the rest were sprinkled over the other parties, so there is a lot of support in the electorate - for me personally as well as for National. I'm there to represent their interests as well.
The second is, in Opposition, is to be the voice of conscience with respect to the Government's policies. Being a list MP means I also have wider ranging responsibilities across NZ. The things that we're thinking of, the sort of interests that National Party voters have; it's our duty to argue against what the Government's policies are and point out the deficiencies. It is like the negative thing I was saying earlier.
Thirdly is to devise policies for the next election and lastly but by no means least, to prepare ourselves for the next election. Being in Opposition is about

being the Government in waiting, the alternative Government. Ultimately when the people get sick of the Government of the day they look for the alternative - which is the Opposition. It's our responsibility to be ready to take over the reins of Government, when we win the next election.

Rebeccah: If you get into Parliament in the next election, what changes will you make to the current laws that Labour has introduced?
Max: Well, there will be a lot of changes, but for the most part as Governments get elected, the vast bulk of what has been done isn't changed. This particular Government is making very big changes in the economic area, the social area and defence. A lot of this we fundamentally disagree with, so that we will be making changes, for example, in the defence policy of this Government. Theirs is to run down our defence capability and turn it into a United Nations policeman-type role, rather than one where, if war threatened us, we couldn't play a role with other countries to keep the peace and security in our region and defend ourselves. That's a big area for us.
In economic policy, they are making changes in the tax regime and the way they spend money. Of course, the money they spend is paid for by taxpayers. A lot of subtle things which change the incentives of people to work and save - centre-left governments tend to believe that 'Government knows best', rather than you and I deciding how we earn that money and spend that money, they take over the responsibility in Government policy, social welfare policies and the like. In the social policy area, there are some very big differences between us and the Government on how to manage the relationship between Maori and the rest of us. They have this 'Closing the Gaps' policy