Early decision expected on Deputy P.M.

Press, 12 March 1984, Page 1

Early decision expected on Deputy P.M.

NZPA chief political reporter Wellington The Prime Minister expects the Government caucus quickly to elect a new deputy leader to succeed Mr Maclntyre, who announced yesterday that he would retire from politics at the end of the year.

Sir Robert Muldoon returned from a month-long overseas trip to tell reporters that any one of five reported contenders for Mr Maclntyre’s post as Deputy Prime Minister would be “perfectly acceptable.” It was for the caucus to decide when it met on Wednesday and Thursday whether to elect a new deputy “straight away, or postpone it until the next caucus, which is a month later,” Sir Robert said. “I have no thought that we will do other than choose a new deputy leader and Deputy Prime Minister at the earliest possible time. We have to have a deputy leader in place well before the election starts to roll.” Sir Robert discussed the Cabinet Ministers who observers have speculated will be candidates for the deputy leadership. He said he would not attempt to influence his colleagues, and that all of five named amid intense lobbying in recent days were valuable members of the

Cabinet. His comments were guarded but included an encouraging note for the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr McLay — a clear favourite of the National Party conference last year. Mr McLay, who is 39, had “been my right-hand man in so many things ... possibly the most articulate Minister we have in the political sense,” said Sir Robert. He intimated that he had buried any ill-will over Mr McLay’s part in the abortive leadership coup in 1980, when a group of so-called “colonels” in the caucus attempted to overthrow the Prime Minister while he was overseas. He had said then that Mr McLay lacked judgment because of his part in the plot. But yesterday Sir Robert said, “I am always prepared to give anybody the opportunity to make one mistake. When they make more than one, I frown a little.” He said that 1980 was “a long time ago” and that the

bid to oust him came when he was out of New Zealand for about seven weeks. “I think some of them thought I wasn’t coming back.” The Minister of Energy, Mr Birch, was given a measure of praise by Sir Robert yesterday. “In spite of the hammering he gets from the environmental people and the press he knows intimately what we are doing with the ‘think big’ projects and the importance of those projects in the future of the New Zealand economy. He can explain very articulately just what it is all about and what it means.” The Minister of Labour, Mr Bolger, has been seen as another leading candidate for the deputy leadership. Sir Robert’s only comment on Mr Bolger was, “In spite of what my old mate Jim Knox (the Federation of Labour’s president) may say, Jim Bolger gets along very well with the trade union movement and a lot of the sham that goes on

disguises that fact.” A fourth Minister recognised as a possibility for the deputy leadership, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Cooper, was not mentioned by Sir Robert. The other Minister he discussed was the Minister for the Environment, Dr Shearer — not seriously rated as a contender by most observers but whom Sir Robert talked about because one journalist had raised his name. Dr Shearer was “made to order for a Minister of Science and Environment ... he has carried out a very, very difficult job extraordinarily well.” Sir Robert had a terse response to a suggestion that Mr Derek Quigley — ousted from the Cabinet two years ago by Sir Robert — should be considered because he figured in public opinion polls. “I wouldn’t have thought in fact that he does very well at the polls. Sure (he features) but doesn’t he come somewhere below Bob Jones and Bruce Beetham?”