Govt still set on stormy course

Press, 19 December 1988, Page 2

Govt still set on stormy course

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

at Parliament

The Labour Government is in for a stormy future if its former Minister of Finance, Mr Roger Douglas, keeps on trying to bring down the Prime Minister.

In terms of formal status, it took only minutes for Mr Douglas to go from being the Government’s most powerful Cabinet Minister to one of its lowest-ranking members of Parliament. Neither Mr Douglas nor the general public have had time to adjust to the reality of that yet. There continues to be great public interest in what Mr Douglas thinks about the economy, and that will not diminish quickly. Mr Douglas has been one of the great figures of New Zealand economic history. In the last 41/2 years he has presided over the most sweeping changes to the economy in half a century. Internationally, too, his status is assured. There is also great public interest in Mr Douglas’s political position but unless he does succeed in his ambition to bring down his Prime Minister, Mr Lange, that interest will fade. The parallels between the positions of Mr Douglas in late 1988 and that of Sir Robert Muldoon in late 1984 are uncanny. Like Mr Douglas, Sir Robert had just ended a long period in charge of the economy. Like Mr Douglas, Sir Robert resented the manner in

which he had lost his position and, again like Mr Douglas, despised those who had removed him and replaced him. The Bible tells the story of Samson. Shorn and blinded, Samson pushed over the pillars and the roof fell in, killing both him and all his enemies. That is what Sir Robert did to Mr Jim McLay and his opponents in the National Party and in Parliament; that is what Mr Douglas is trying to do to Mr Lange and the Labour Party organisation. For reasons that have never been explained, Mr McLay and Mrs Sue Wood allowed Sir Robert to destroy them politically without casting him out of the National Party. The alacrity with which Mr Lange has sacked both Mr Douglas and his close ally, Mr Richard Prebble, from the Cabinet suggests that he will not balk at driving them from the Labour Party either. Both are giving him the ammunition to take to the party, even if the party hierachy were not deeply hostile to Mr Douglas and Mr Prebble already. The Labour Party caucus has already withdrawn the Whip from a former party president,

Mr Jim Anderton, for abstaining from voting to pass legislation that would allow the sale of the Bank of New Zealand. His offence seems mild in comparison with what Mr Douglas and Mr Prebble are doing. In the course of a television interview, Mr Prebble virtually accused Mr Lange of being made. Mr Douglas is mounting a campaign to try to prove that Mr Lange is a liar as well as behaving irrationally, and is releasing top-secret Cabinet papers to help prove his case. Questions are being

asked around Parliament about how long this level of disloyalty will be tolerated. After the leadership vote planned for' Wednesday, Mr Douglas and perhaps Mr Prebble may be asked — if given their views — it is appropriate for them to stay on as Labour members of Parliament. If either they or the Labour caucus or the party organisation decide it is not, then they could become independent M.P.s outside the Labour Party — as happened to Mr John Kirk (Sydenham) and Mr Brian Mac Donnell (Dunedin West) in 1983. That opens the possibility of a new political party — based around the Backbone Club and with Mr Douglas and Mr Prebble as its leaders in Parliament. Such a party, seeking to draw support from both the National and Labour Party Right-wing elements, has been talked about for several years. Mr Douglas’s actions are setting the scene for its possible creation. Whatever the result of Wednesday’s leadership vote, the extraordinary turmoil and bitter infighting in the Labour Government will not be over.