Steven Joyce: On The Record

Steven Joyce was one of the most senior ministers in the Key National Government and the National Party's campaign strategist from 2005. He entered Parliament in 2008 when National came back into power and led the party's winning campaigns in 2011 and 2014. John Key, Bill English and Steven Joyce were the three key powerbrokers of the Key government, with Joyce being both strategist and enforcer of party discipline. Joyce was a senior minister for nearly all of his 10 years in Parliament. He gained a reputation as 'minister for everything' when then-Prime Minister John Key took to sending him in to clean up messes like the Novopay debacle and chose him to run the new super-ministry, the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). He spent eight years as an effective apprentice to former Finance Minister Bill English, before becoming Finance Minister when English became Prime Minister. He has also held the heavyweight transport and infrastructure portfolios. Joyce reveals what it takes to win and keep office, and the secrets behind the strategy and campaigning that led to National being in power for almost a decade. This is an essential read for political junkies: packed full of insider knowledge, honest appraisals of the main players, the background drama and egos, plus A-grade political gossip.