THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1984. Leadership race
The pace quickens in the race for the National Party leadership. Impatience with the present leadership limbo has led to intensive lobbying within the caucus and the party at large. In response to this, all of the likely candidates have now declared their intentions — with the notable exception of Sir Robert Muldoon, who steadfastly refuses to flag away his miniscule chances of retaining the leadership. Sir Robert has not ruled out the possibility that he might yet try to make a fight of it and he continues to throw out hints that, although he is prepared to stand down if he has full confidence in a successor’s ability to win the next General Election, the time has not arrived, in his own estimation, for him to stand aside.
Sir Robert’s attempts to keep alive his prospects notwithstanding, the prevailing feeling in the caucus is that he must go. Apparently Sir Robert himself has come to realise this and been obliged to admit that he does not have enough support to keep the job if it came to a vote today. Sir Robert also might
be right when he says that none of the other contenders can claim a majority of support at present, but there is an air of inevitability in the fading of his fortunes and the rise of other stars. Sir Robert’s period of grace was to have run until February. This now seems unlikely in view of the growing insistence that he step down before Christmas. Although Sir Robert has been widely blamed for the defeat of the National Party in the July election, the party’s troubles will not end when he vacates the leadership. Nevertheless, the general appreciation in the party is that a return to fundamental philosophies will be necessary if the party is to regain lost ground; there is also widespread understanding that this process will not be easy, nor made convincing, if Sir Robert is still in charge. Now that the aspiring successors have committed themselves, the stage is set for an orderly transfer of the reins. Just how orderly the change in leadership will be still depends, in no small measure, on how Sir Robert plays his cards.
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Press, 31 October 1984, Page 18
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374THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1984. Leadership race Press, 31 October 1984, Page 18
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