Insider’s view of Labour, 1984-87

Press, 21 October 1989, Page 27

Insider’s view of Labour, 1984-87

Labour ify Government: 1984-87. By Margaret Wilson. Allen and Unwin/ Port Nicholson Press, 1989. 1143 pp. $24.95 (paperback). (Reviewed by Oliver Riddell) Margaret Wilson was president of the Labour Party from August, 1984, until October, 1987. It was the high tide of Rogernomics and saw three years of swift restructuring of New Zealand’s economy and society. While the Labour Government was reforming everything in sight, it was also placing unbearable strain oh its relationship with its party. By the time Ms Wilson stepped down, Labour was virtually a Government without a party behind it. Many of the Government’s reforms were anathema to its party membership. Added to this was the insensitivity with which party was treated and the constant record of the Government saying one thing and doing the opposite — such as the dozens of Post Offices closed after people had been promised they would not be closed. Trying to hold party and Government together proved enormously stressful for Ms Wilson. She emerges from the book as an intelligent person with a strong social conscience, who, having chosen to act; within the system, found her role for three years to be one long exercise in crisis management and without much scope for promoting her own ideals. She concludes by saying that one of the reasons she was glad to hand over

in 1987 was that, “I could no longer see how I could assist with the reconciliation of those differences. There was a total unwillingness on the part of key people within the Parliamentary party to compromise. This had become very apparent at the 1987 annual conference, where the level of delegates’ frustration was expressed in an unwillingness to permit people with a contrary view to be heard. In such an environment of intolerance, it was difficult to see how the differences could be resolved internally.” Her book seeks to record the main events of her three-year presidency. It is intended to be informative rather than entertaining, and she has not permitted herself the luxury of recording any of the fund of personal anecdotes she must have. The main issues are the economy and the non-nuclear stance. She also deals with relations with the trade unions, privatisation, and State sector restructuring. The book does not constitute a full record of what went on, but its accounts are accurate and first-hand, and will be obligatory reading for those seeking to understand what happened during 1984-87 and why. Ms Wilson does not spend much time on personalities. She has a few barbs, such as: “I was aware that some members (of the Government) considered a willingness to discuss issues as a sign of weakness and as exhibiting a lack of resolve to push

through restructuring.” Having paid due tribute to Mr Jim Anderton’s achievements as president of the Labour Party before her, Ms Wilson dismisses his performance as an M.P. with, “His constant use of the media as a means of communication made it impossible for me to work with him.” / On the other hand, she has warm things to say about her working relationship with Mr Geoffrey Palmer and Ms Helen Clark. The missing person in her book is the person she worked with most closely of all — the former Prime Minister, Mr David Lange. The reader will gain no feeling from her about Mr Lange, and it is like reading Hamlet without the prince. In spite of pointed comments about Rogernomics and the difficulties she had with the Douglas style of forming policy and ramming it through the Cabinet, it is clear Ms Wilson likes Mr Roger Douglas personally. No such warmth of feeling is detectable when she talks about Mr Richard Prebble.

This book succeeds in the restricted task it attempts — recounting the high and low points of 1984-87, and the background to them. It fails to provide the reader with information or perspective on the chief personalities and how they worked together, or fell out over the sweeping changes the Labour Government made, when these were totally antipathetic to Labour Party policy.