Rodney Hide has resigned as leader of the ACT Party. The moves ends a week of much speculation about his future in the role, contrasted with former National Party leader Don Brash's very-public attempts to take control of party. Don Brash will lead the party.

New Zealanders will remember many things about Rodney - that yellow jacket, that car and, of course, the Auckland Super City.

Television viewers, particularly those with a hankering for the perverse, will fondly remember Mr. Hide's Dancing With The Stars appearance in which he dropped his partner.

Confidence in the party's leadership dipped following the removal of Heather Roy as deputy leader in August 2010.

The David Garrett saga also caused a stir within the Government.

Many will feel the real undoing of Rodney began when he was found to have taken his girlfriend on a number of tax-payer funded trips - a rich action for an MP known as the "perk buster".

"Perk-busting", it seemed, was just an act.

source: data archive