| [IC] Qaz Interviews |
A short Interview with former Prime Minister Carol Crouse, 27 July 2021
Kerrie Phillips: I have the great pleasure today of being joined by both a much-loved and respected former Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition. He is certainly one of my favourites, Carol Crouse, welcome. How are you? Carol Crouse: Thank you, and it's great to be here too. I'm radiant. Kellie Phillips: That's good. You were Prime Minister for longer than the norm in the 70s and early 80s and then you were Leader of the Opposition even longer. Over those periods, was there anything you particularly enjoyed or anything you'd redo if you had the opportunity? Carol Crouse: Yes, well, I was the Prime Minister for seven years, which is a few years longer than the general norm these days and even in those days, but I was Leader of the Opposition for even longer, as you rightly said. I had a happy time most of the time because the public accepted what I had to offer. I wasn't being a politician as such when I was Prime Minister, I was just being me and I think that's why I am different. It was all very friendly, I think I was impossible to dislike and I'm 87 now, I wouldn't do it all again at this stage but I wouldn't change a thing if I had the opportunity to. Kellie Phillips: That's interesting you say that. You have been involved more recently in H Summits Major and Minor through the years, meeting with those now in power and offering your thoughts and you continue to do so, what's that like for you now, so long after your retirement? Carol Crouse: Well, as I hinted rather broadly just now, there was no real question of me leaving politics down and taking it back up. Politics is my life, I still keep up with the current Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition and I still find it interesting and so there isn't much to get back into. Kellie Phillips: So you find it quite easy? Carol Crouse: Terribly easy, yes. It's terribly easy when you know what you have to do and you do it and you have a pretty girl helping you. You know, there's nothing real about that. It was just a pleasure and no effort. We get on like a house on fire. Kellie Phillips: I told you quite a bit about the campaign I'm doing- Carol Crouse: Yes, tell me again. Kellie Phillips: I was about to. We've had a lot of support by people like yourself. Carol Crouse: I am rather tall with large eyes, I nod a lot, have big teeth. I'm very friendly and natural at what I do, I am kind and silly. I am very, very human. I don't know anything about being Prime Minister, I know about being Carol Crouse. Kellie Phillips: I know about your scarves. I couldn't get my head around that. Carol Crouse: You don't want them around your head, you want them around your neck. It got funnier and funnier and the public liked it. It was quite funny to see seven hundred people in long scarves. I did sometimes get it wrong but I knew what to do because sometimes the person I was working with, or against, did it wronger than I and I had a chance to fix my mistake. Kellie Phillips: Did you trip over it a lot? Carol Crouse: All the time I tried to be a goody. Kellie Phillips: Thank you for joining me Carol, thank you for your time. Carol Crouse: That's a great pleasure, I'm sorry it was so short, I could go on talking about myself for a long time but most people do what you've just done and cut me off short so, yes, goodbye.
Interview with former Prime Minister Darell Hendrickson, 2 August 2021
Kellie Phillips: We're here with the legendary, whatever way can we describe him? Darell Hendrickson, former Prime Minister. Darell Hendrickson: I could add that to my name rather than the Lord I'm never going to get. A great, big established politician can be under-confident if they don't keep practicing and making sure they don't slip. I was Prime Minister at a very different time and that's OK, it's of its time. I moved from the old way of running Parliament into the new way, I've been around long enough to see that change. Kellie Phillips: Would you have any advice for the politicians working in Parliament today, as it is now, who have never seen Parliament any other way? Darell Hendrickson: Well, I mean, these days it's all elections and plenty of preparation for them, you have to know if you're ready to lead a Party or not, if you're going to be retiring, you did then but it was a lot less frequent, so I don't know, really, if I can give new politicians any advice at all. If the public like you, they elect you, that's not changed, but it's become a lot more complicated and stressful. The support you have, though, even if you're not Prime Minister, is excellent in that Parliament, the Speaker directs most of your support and I heard, the other day, when our current Speaker announced his resignation, how much MPs today said he'd supported them and helped them, so he seems to have followed, very capably, in the footsteps of his predecessors. Kellie Phillips: His grandad and great-grandad were Speakers in the past too, the first ever and second ever Speakers. Darell Hendrickson: Yes, they were, not that I am old enough to remember that, but it's good to see he has followed after them and I'd say he made them proud too. There are some young politicians who like to keep a very loose grip of it and this Speaker, from what I've seen over the last nearly four years, on TV, has his eye on those and is very good at correcting them and directing them and I think he will be sorely-missed in that chamber. Kellie Phillips: You served as Prime Minister under what we now know was the longest-served Speaker in Qaz history. The former Mr. Speaker Laurence Duncan, who sadly died in 2002, served as Speaker of the Lower Chamber from 1980 until 1996, he served four Prime Ministers as Speaker, including yourself, what was Mr. Speaker Duncan like as Speaker? Darell Hendrickson: Yes, he was only Speaker for about a year when I was elected Prime Minister, but he was a brilliant Speaker, very supportive, he just came under a lot of fire after I left Office and experience a lot of pressure but he dealt with it very well, survived a few attempts to oust him and ended up stepping down in 1996 but not due to pressure, you know, he had the stress of the lies that were told around Junior Kurtz's sacking and I now know, knowing him as Speaker, he was very aware that they'd lied and there was nothing he could do about it, he ended up stepping down and thought, you know, someone else can have that stress now but it was all resolved in 2005 when the former Mr. Speaker Philip Horn was in the Speakership but yes, Mr. Speaker Duncan was very supportive and a very good Speaker in the time I served which was just before everything collapsed all around him but I do have great respect for refusing to step down when Parliament was at its most sore and when it needed a strong Speaker to get it through, it was a very hard thing to do but we all ought to be very grateful to him now because Parliament would not be as it is today without the sixteen years he spent as Speaker. Kellie Phillips: You mention in your book he was an inspiration of yours. Darell Hendrickson: Yes, well, he was. You need to remember I was twenty-nine when I was elected Prime Minister, which now seems like a kid, so anyone older than me doing an excellent job I found very inspiring and they helped me to make sure I continued to do as good a job as I could. I mean, you know, twenty-nine is a young Prime Minister. Former Prime Minister Gordon Watts will understand that feeling, he was twenty-seven when he became Prime Minister. Kellie Phillips: Your daughter went on to marry former Prime Minister Harold Garcia, their children are now becoming politicians, you must be proud of that. Darell Hendrickson: I am proud of that but I also worry because the public are the ones electing you and they were very picky when I was elected, they've only got more picky with time, Harold, my son-in-law, was very lucky to have been elected one of my successors as Prime Minister, however, I worry about my grandchildren going into it, they can't assume because their dad and grandad are both former Prime Ministers that they will make it, they might manage to become MPs in their time but they may well have to just accept they will never become Prime Minister. Kellie Phillips: Are you saying they won't be Prime Ministers? Darell Hendrickson: Not at all, I'm just saying the road to there is a very difficult one and it's only getting harder with time. A lot of people entering politics enter with the sort of mentality that 'if he can do it, I can do it,' and that's a very dangerous way to evaluate whether or not politics is for you. Kellie Phillips: Former Prime Minister, Darell Hendrickson, thank you for joining me this evening. |
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