Hiding to nothing

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OPINION: Ouch.

Rodney Hide would have been advised to keep his head down after forcing the prime minister to defend his globetrotting ways.

Instead, he's handed John Key's opponents a stick to beat him with and lifted the scab on old animosities. His comments could not have come at a worse time, just as criticism that National lacks a plan threatens to gain traction.

ACT's swaggering has always caused a level of ill-feeling with National; National's MPs have long held the view that its junior ally suffers from a superiority complex.

Mr Hide's grandstanding in post-election negotiations only hardened those perceptions.

But Mr Hide's boast that he has all but hoodwinked his Cabinet colleagues into following the ACT way won't only have his National allies looking askance. The Maori Party will be wondering how Mr Hide gets it so easy when it has lost so many of its own battles of late.

One thing is for sure; if Mr Hide thought the trick to getting thorny issues through Cabinet was relying on other ministers being too busy to bother, he might find they are far more inclined to go through his papers with a fine-tooth comb from now on.

- © Fairfax NZ News