THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1985. The two per cent party

Press, 4 December 1985, Page 20

THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1985. The two per cent party

The leaders of the New Zealand Party admit to having received a jolt when the latest public opinion poll showed that support for the party has slumped to only 2.3 per cent. The party leader, Mr John Galvin, believes that the poor showing might have jeopardised the party’s future, notwithstanding the enthusiasm of other party officials to soldier on. The truth is, of course, that from the time Mr Bob Jones turned his attentions for a few months from property development to politics, and formed the party with the avowed intention of toppling the then Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, the New Zealand Party was regarded as a one-man band. When Mr Jones tired of the party and stood aside, its public support collapsed. From Mr Jones’s point of view, the party had served its purpose. Playing on a deepseated malaise in the National Party — a malaise that is still unresolved — Mr Jones was able to create a political movement that greatly influenced the outcome of the last General Election. The National Government might not have survived, even without the advent of the New Zealand Party; but the newcomer’s contribution distorted the election results and compounded the extent of the election defeat for National. An almost inevitable result of that election defeat was the

removal of Sir Robert Muldoon from the leadership of the National Party. With Sir Robert’s demotion, many people who had supported the New Zealand Party no longer had as much reason to prefer it over National and this, too, has helped to erode the New Zealand Party’s support. A rejuvenated National Party would still be the natural home for many who turned to the New Zealand Party banner, and only National’s domestic turmoils prevent the decline of the New Zealand Party into a political curiosity, such as the Values Party has become. The middle ground of New Zealand politics is too crowded for the New Zealand Party to survive there for long, and the party disqualified itself as a focus for the Right with its defence and foreign affairs policies.

The Auckland divisional chairman of the New Zealand Party, Mr Noel McGuire, made a revealing comment this week when he said that his party’s future depended on events in the National Party. Presumably, this means that the sooner the National Party sorts itself out and puts its house in order, the sooner the New Zealand Party will cease to have a purpose. This, in a nutshell, is the problem for the New Zealand Party: it was created as a protest and, once the cause of protest is removed, so is its raison d’etre.