A person who goes back thirty years of my life and has my interminable respect has recently gone “To Washington” ( well Auckland actually) for a well remunerated (I cannot think why else), part time job for the Government.

Now this person knows my opinion of the recently rerereretired MP for Selwyn does not quite measure up to the popular expressed images of her standing in National party annals.
Recently they came across Amy chairing some facet of the developing Te Whatu Ora conglomerate and contrary to my suggested character flaws of that now ex MP, was impressed, something nine years of politics might indicate as highly likely.

Now my beef with Adams as the Selwyn MP has two totally disconnected incidents, one kind of personal and the other very public.

The personal one came from a request as a voter in Selwyn by email for some indication in her own words as to where exactly the Money collected under the “Climate Change”, then of course “AGW,” rorts under the “Paris” accords, was intended to end up? A not unreasonable ask as the Money involved is never divulged beyond vague hints to be of benefit of “Developing Nations” and in value could be extremely useful in relieving some of the inherited trauma of the then Economic troubles National inherited from Cullen’s legacy, perhaps minor when compared to what will confront her colleagues next October.
She declined to answer herself and passed my request onto her fellow minister Tim Groser whose reply was full of gobbledygook and word salad phrasing I rapidly lost interest in continuing to attempt to make sense of. Quite disappointing to me.

The second even more disappointing facet of her time as MP for Selwyn, a seat incidentally that awards the incumbent an unassailable right to occupy that would take quite a bit to make otherwise unsafe. Now I am talking numbers here, the electorate once included some socialist gold on the South western fringe of The village of the Damned now included in Megan Woods Wigram electorate and Colin McLachlan, Ruth Richardson and then a near disaster when dear old, Later Speaker, David Carter nearly handed it over in the by election following Richardsons departure saw a less than 500 majority, but in the main a solid National hold of over 2000 votes.
Adams arrival for the 2008 election with Ashburton ( held by the walking talking disaster Brian Connell) being absorbed into Selwyn and Rangitata electorates, Adams began a hold that hovered around a majority of 20 000, safe enough for the incumbent to commit murder in bright sunlight in front of witnesses and still get re elected, Now did that security imbue a sense of invulnerability or not as Adams allowed her ego to become involved in what turned out to be a rather serious dissembling of the party that had given her an opportunity of a lifetime with Simon Bridges at the helm, Amy positioned number three in the hierarchy and finance spokesperson.
All of so little moment in her assessment that a decision to end her career, she declared she was not going to stand in 2020.

The National Party was in a time of giving assistance to the Media assault on Bridges and leaks were a recurring problem, feeding the frenzy until Todd Muller, clearly a legend in his own mind, challenged Bridges and Adams suddenly saw herself as back in the game with a very high list position that thankfully did not affect the already decided selection of Nicola Grigg as her replacement as Selwyn MP, Asams doubled back to rescind her announced “retirement” to get back in the Game.
History records the Muller experiment did not survive, mercifully ended with the switch to Judith Collins after 53 days and Adams? well she re re resigned and now is Chancellor of Canterbury University.

Adams has clearly identifiable skills and an intellect undoubtedly but there is a nagging doubt when her character comes under study for this old bugger, so although a first encounter for my good friend carried an accompanying good impression, my doubts remain.

The shenanigans surrounding her rather messy departure from active political life remain a rather indelible stain.