Mr Quigley plays down ambition

Press, 16 June 1982, Page 1

Mr Quigley plays down ambition

Parliamentary reporter Leadership of the. National Party or high Parliamentary office did. not really interest him too much, said the former Minister of Works and Development, Mr Quigley, yesterday. Amid speculation that Mr Quigley's controversial speech to the Young Nationals on June 7 was designed to promote him as a future leader in the minds of his caucus colleagues and the public, but had backfired, Mr Quigley denied that he had any particular ambition for the top. “I am much more interested in the implementation of an idea than in doing it myself,” he said. “There are a lot of very ambitious people in politics, that is to be expected. Perhaps everyone who is ambitious thinks others are like him. It is not necessarily that way at all. “I have read the speculation on my ambitions for leadership with interest. It does not really interest me too much as an issue.” The events resulting from his speech to the Young Nationals had not dissuaded him from accepting Cabinet office in the future, but return to that office was not under his control, he said. Mr Quigley said the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) was empowered to ask or require Cabinet Ministers to resign, but he would make no comment on the motives of Mr Muldoon in his ultimatum to Mr Quigley to apologise or resign. He insisted that his speech had not been critical-of the Government’s policies — the reason given by Mr Muldoon for the ultimatum — and in a point-by-point analysis of sections of the speech held to be critical, said only that they highlighted dilemmas facing the Government, or reiterated issues he had earlier raised to which no exception had been taken at the time. He knew his speech was politically sensitive, but when he wrote it he did not expect to be asked either to publicly apologise or to resign. Asked if his decision proved that he was not ambitious for high office, he said that ambition was not relevant. He resigned because his only other option was a

public apology for raising the debate issues he knew were of concern in New Zealand’s future. Asked if he would have approached his speech, and subsequent comments in a different way, given the benefits of hindsight, Mr Quigley said he would alter nothing. He was under no obligation to consult Mr Muldoon on the content of his speeches, and had never done so. However, had he thought his speech was divisive he would not have given it. Asked if he should have consulted more widely about giving the speech, he said he thought it "dealt with a lot of the concerns people were expressing.” Mr Quigley said that a very limited number of his Cabinet colleagues were upset about some of the references in his speech. This did not mean that he had a body of support in the Cabinet, he said in answer to a question. The question of support for him in the Cabinet was not debated. “But the issues I have touched upon are - quite clearly of concern among caucus members generally, and if you want to include Cabinet Ministers as caucus members, then by all means do so,” Mr Quigley said. He dismissed as an irrelevancy his assessment of the extent of support for his stand in Cabinet. When Mr Muldoon had telephoned him at Rangiora on Saturday and told him that he expected his resignation to be tendered on Monday morning if he appeared on the “Newsmakers” television programme on Sunday evening, Mr Quigley said, there had been no discussion between him and the Prime Minister on the content of the speech to the Young Nationals, or on the possible parameters of the television interview.

It was “right in the centre of my mind” during the “Newsmakers” interview that he would be asked to resign, Mr Quigley said. He had had telephone calls, telegrams, and letters from people "wanting to express the point that they wanted more discussion about policy and the development of the country.”

He would be in a better position in a week or-so to say whether he would remain a member of Parliament. Asked whether the best interests of the National Party would be served if he forced a by-election in fps seat, Mr Quigley said he had “a long association with the National Party.” He would not elaborate further. He did not agree that his resignation had been intended by Mr Muldoon to deflect attention away from economic issues at the National Party Dominion conference at the end of July, or before then. Asked whether he would join; a group of outspoken backbenchers in criticism of Government policies, Mr Quigley said that his first priority “had to.be within the caucus.” ' Mr Quigley said that the “freeing up” of the Government’s close control of the economy over the last two years, an issue he addressed in his speech, was revolutionary by New Zealand standards. “This is an indication of the new approach that exists in the caucus room and has influenced Cabinet decisions,” he said. Mr Quigley saw his resignation as focusing the atten-

tion of t the Government caucus on how fragile its hold on office was.

“The first priority for change has to be within the caucus,” he said. “Unless the National Party can relate to the voters better, we cannot attract back the third party votes, and I am very concerned about this.” The Press Association reported that all outward signs of Mr Quigley’s more than three years as a Cabinet Minister had gone from the Beehive last evening. Yesterday morning, as Mr Quigley sacked his personal papers, those looking for him went to the door marked with his name on the fifth floor of the Beehive. By early afternoon, before he had actually moved out of the suite of offices he occupied as a Minister, the name of his successor, Mr Friedlander, was on the door. Yesterday ; morning,, his “ privacy was protected by a staff including a ' press' officer, three private secretaries, and several typists. By late yesterday afternoon Mr Quigley was almost alone in a dingy office on the ground floor of the old Parliament Building, with Mrs Quigley answering the constantly ringing telephone. Mr Quigley’s new office has been labelled “temporary storage” and he is expected to get a new permanent office in a few days.