Retirement thoughts of former P.M.

Press, 20 July 1984, Page 12

Retirement thoughts of former P.M.

From

BARRY SIMPSON,

in Nelson

The Labour ' Government had inherited “an incredibly difficult” economic situation, the full extent of which had yet to be revealed, said Sir Wallace Rowling, in an interview at his home in Richmond this week. Sir Wallace, whose retirement from the Parliamentary political scene took effect on Saturday night, has in 22 years been a Minister of Finance, a Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and a member of Parliament, first for Buller, then, with the name change, for Tasman. Sir Wallace, said that he did not believe that Sir Robert Muldoon would have felt any relief at having lost the election and thereby being freed from having to apply the remedies to clean up the mess. “Sir Robert isn’t the sort of man who would have been pleased to be beaten — he’s not that kind of person. It is, however, correct that the Labour Government has inherited and incredibly difficult economic situation,” he said. “The one redeeming feature of this is that I believe there is a widespread public awareness of how difficult this is, and therefore the public expectation is not at a particularly high level,” said Sir Wallace. If the 1972-75 Labour Government had a particular problem that brought about is downfall, it was the high public expectation, which the Government met for the first half of the term because economic circumstances were favourable, he said. “When the oil shock came and we had to completely reverse a lot of things that were going nicely, or at least put them in neutral, the public expectations werefrustrated and they were not able to perceive the enormity of the economic problem that we faced and, therefore, were not prepared to accept the reasoning for the Government’s actions,” he said. “I don’t think that sort of circumstance is abroad today and the public will therefore have more tolerance and understanding. As long as there is a constant appearance of reasonableness, I believe the public will accept that. On that basis, therefore, I think this Government has a mandate for significantly longer than three years,” said Sir Wallace. Asked if the public, possibly aware and sympathetic now, might be unsympathetic in three years

time, Sir Wallace said Sir, Robert “had got away with it for a long time and he certainly didn’t improve things. Each time It got a littlee worse and each time the electors gave him another chance. “I would hope the public would be as fair to a Labour Government in that sense as they were to National. However, David Lange’s portfolio choices are very critical and I hope he’s read some of the messages the public have spelled out to him during the campaign,” he said. Did he believe that the country was in a worse economic mess than had been suggested? “Yes, and it will be revealed. However, I think there is any amount of capacity inside the new Government to come to grips with the kind of problems we have. I have tremendous faith in this country. We’re always at our best in a crisis, provided that we know the nature of the crisis and how to strike back at it,” he said. Asked for his views on a fouryear Parliamentary term instead of the present three-year ter, in view of Mr Lange’s comments that it would take his Government longer than three years to restore stability to the country, Sir Wallace said that although he thought four years was preferable, he did not think a change was imminent. “Perhaps when Geoffrey Palmer gets his constitutional reforms, people will feel more secure. Once they feel more secure they will be prepared to let the occasions of use of the ballot box be spaced a little more. “At the moment they look on the ballot box as their only protection,” he said. “I believe the three year term leads to bad government because there’s not enough coherence. For a Government there’s too muc of this ‘one year to find out, one year to try to consolidate, and the next to get back to an election campaign’ without having any longterm approaches to policies,” he said. Having lost three elections as the leader of the Labour Party, Sir Wallace said he had a pretty good idea of Sir Robert Muldoon’s feelings on Saturday night. “His belief in himself and his power to persuade the public was such hat he probably took a bigger bump when he finally realised that he had failed and had failed miserably,” said Sir Wallace. Asked if, with hindsight, he

would have done it all again, Sir Wallace said “probably.” ‘I grew up in a very political environment. I attended political meetings while in short pants, my father was a foundation member of the Labour Party, and I belonged to the party while still in my early 20s. ‘I found the Parliamentary life intensely interesting, often frustrating, often rewarding, and frequently exciting,” he said. What could he list on the credit side after 22 years in Parliament? “Financially, nothing; but a tremendous reservoir of goodwill to me and to Glen as we travelled round the country on the election campaign. There’s tremendous goodwill and warmth out there and at the end of 22 years of politics it is a satisfying feeling to know people feel that way towards and about you,” said Sir Wallace.

“I made my decision to retire two years ago and I made it on the basis that I believed there would be a Labour win. I feel relaxed and glad to have been part of a

building process that put us back into government. I have the added bonus that Fm young enough and well enough to be able to do and enjoy other things for a while,” he said. On the debit side, the biggest loss was in the family sense. “I have not been able to enjoy enough of the kids when they were all growing up. There was a lot of commitment in the political field that took me away from the family in their development stage. You cannot compensate for that, but I must recognise it’s part of the system and if you elect to be part of that system you must be prepared to take those kinds of losses,” said Sir Wallace. His biggest regret was not having had a longer term in Government and the frustrations of 22 years in Parliament and only three in office, he said. “In Government you can do things and you can look back and say ‘I built a part of thaat’ or ‘initiated that’ — thing like the Rural Bank, which I created and

am proud of. Another was the superannuation scheme which everybody now says we should have. This could not be resurrected now, because we’re stuck, but in the future when the other one really starts to feel the pressure, then somebody is going to do something about it — maybe in five years, maybemore; but it will happen,” he said. Sir Wallace, tipped for a Government posting overseas — rumour has indicated the High Commissioner’s post in the United Kingdom — is saying little to lend credence to the rumour. Asked if the rumour was correct, Sir Wallace said that the rumours “are just rumours.” Asked if there was any foundation to them, he replied: “Not yet.” “I have had no offers from the party, which is still sorting itself out as the dust of the election settles. Overseas postings and key New Zealand positions are peripheral decisions. The first task is to sort out the economy,” he said.