SRC Tax Debate

We had Rodney Hide and Matt Robson at Victoria today debating tax policy. I think it was a huge success, with at least 100 active participants (ie not including those sitting eating their lunch).

My verdict was that both had their strengths and weaknesses.

Hide is a great speaker, an old school politician, who stood up there and bellowed into the mic. He moved around, and engaged with the crowd (and the crowd engaged back). I was less impressive with his "playing the player rather than the ball" tactic, which he engaged in a number of times. He benefited greatly by the large group of supporters he had there. He was, however, sidetracked by a number of interruptions.

Robson is a slightly more passive politician. He didn't engage with the crowd as much as Hide did, but still held his own, to a certain extent. He also played the player (his comment on Hide being a Frankistein-like figure was disappointing), but not as much as Hide.

The winner on the day was Hide, who stole the show.

As far as policy goes, I don't agree with either, but would be leaning more towards Robson's than Hides (I don't imagine that would suprise a great deal of you).

Both MP's may, however, be looking for jobs come September.

Hide's post on his blog is here. I'm the red-haired guy in between them (in case you didn't know).