I knew who would win vote—Lange

Press, 14 August 1989, Page 8

I knew who would win vote—Lange

Wellington reporter The former Prime Minister, Mr Lange, had little doubt that Mr Palmer would prevail in last weeks leadership vote, and no doubt that Ms Clark would win the race for deputy.

Mr Lange also said on the “Frontline” television programme last evening, that in his own reshuffle the Cabinet position of the former Minister of Finance, Mr Douglas, would have been much the same.

“I had a reshuffle planned before, which if I had not gone 1 would have implemented, and the result would have been portfolio responsibilities almost exactly what he has now.”

Mr Douglas was made Minister of Police, and Immigration, in Mr Palmer’s Cabinet, announced on Friday. But while Mr Douglas was said to have gone a close second in the election for Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Lange said he knew that Ms Clark would prevail. "I knew exactly who would be the deputy, and if you looked at the numbers situation, notwithstanding the enormous regard I have for Mike (Moore), it was perfectly plain Geoffrey had the numbers.”

Mr Lange said a key factor in his stepping down was that those who succeeded him would be locked into policies good for the country.

“I had to make sure that those who would advocate different things — go down extraordinary ideological paths — were in fact locked out of the input.” Mr Lange, who saw his role at next year’s election campaign as a

“minor comic” or “part of the cheer squad” claimed that the big success of the Government this year was that it no longer talked in terms of numbers.

“They are actually starting to see and care for and be concerned with the people behind those statistics.”

Describing National as a party of extraordinary "tinsellating” ambitions, implacable enemies, with a leader bemused in the middle, Mr Lange suggested that complacency might be Labour’s biggest threat.

“I think a Labour Party in Government is always good to be a little bit behind and crunch them in the end.” The dramatic narrowing of National’s huge poll lead might lead to assumptions of an inevitible Labour win, or to poor discipline. Given the chance to say anything he wanted to at the end of the television interview, Mr Lange’s reply was: “Good night, and • thanks for a great five years.”