Wal’ Rowling – Ten of Hearts
Labour (1976-82)
The Economics Teacher who Redefined a Party
Labour supporters of a certain age will almost invariably point to one man as the epitome of good governance, charismatic leadership, and political nous: Hugh Watt. If pushed, though, Wallace Rowling will come a respectably respectful second after an appropriate racking of the brain.
A member of the ‘troika’ who led Labour following 1963, he was known as one of the ‘bright young things’ who entered Parliament in the 1960 election, taking the Buller seat in an easy victory. This was cold comfort during the lean and hungry Marshall years, and Rowling was instrumental in the party coup which dethroned the out-of-touch Nordmeyer. From 1963 Rowling served as the shadow cabinet’s representative for the more moderate members, balancing the far-left Kirk and the union-aligned Watt. After Kirk’s ignominious defeat in 1973, Rowling was approached by several within caucus (including new MP Roger Douglas) to overthrow Kirk, but he declined on the basis of their long-standing partnership and his perception that it was a move “more worthy of backstabbing Nats.” This was soon proven a moot point as Kirk died not long after the New Year from cancer (for which he had neglected to seek treatment during his term and exacerbated by the 1973 campaign), leaving Rowling leader by default and confirmed with a massive majority in the leadership vote.
In 1976 Rowling ran on a platform which he claimed was “more moderate than Kirk, more compassionate than Holyoake.” Among an electorate tired of the extremism of Kirk and the coldly indifferent stagnation of Holyoake this message was received with cautious optimism, and the Fourth Labour Government was elected with a two-seat majority. Rowling quickly set to work managing the economic crisis which had developed through the summer of 1976 – with inflation rising rapidly he was under pressure to find a solution while many within the party demanded a return to Kirk’s agenda. Rowling chose neither. What he did in the end was an awkward balancing act that displayed his true colours as a Pink rather than a Red: a national superannuation scheme was introduced, but means-testing for welfare payments was tightened significantly. His government renamed Treaty Day as Waitangi Day in 1977, but evicted protestors from Bastion Point soon after. Also significant was the manner in which Rowling supported gradual reduction of protectionist measures like farm subsidies, pointing to the Soviet bloc as a potential source of export revenue and the Australians as potential investors – this ran counter to almost everything Labour had done in the past, and he faced great opposition from both sides of Parliament to the point it threatened a possible leadership coup, a hitherto inconceivable act in the middle of a sitting Prime Minister’s term.
However, Rowling’s open and conversational leadership style proved increasingly popular in convincing New Zealanders of the necessity of change: as the world economy began to recover throughout late 1977 (the energy crisis precipitated by the Iranian Intervention being slowly offset by increased Soviet production abroad, and the Maui field at home) the appeal of increased freedom of trade and thus choice struck a chord with the average New Zealander – it is important to remember that by 1977 many protectionist measures had been in place for forty years, with waiting lists imposed for simple goods like telephones and cars. As Rowling’s promise for closer economic relations with Australia in the form of the Trans-Tasman Agreement implied at least greater choice in automobiles, as well as broadening the scope for some farm exports (wool and apples were no-goes, but there was still plenty of demand for beef), Labour somewhat reluctantly permitted this deviation from tradition. In this way the ‘there is no alternative’ policy came to define the Fourth Labour Government – Rowling was the only viable option as leader, and nobody was willing to risk being voted out just for the sake of a few principles. What clinched Rowling’s continued premiership was his handling of the Century Flood of 1978, as aid was directed to hard-hit Southland and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries helped farmers regain their footing while encouraging financial reforms of farms to help reverse a spate of bankruptcies, with the famous ‘Tractor Pulling’ picture of Rowling (who was, during a visit to the Clutha valley, photographed in gumboots and helping a group of farmhands pull a tractor out of a morass of mud on a farm near Mataura) clinching his popularity amongst a varied sector of New Zealand society, and leading to a special edition of the popular comic strip Footrot Flats where cartoonist Murray Ball drew a meeting of the ‘Two Wallies’ to commemorate the cooperation of the rural and urban spheres of New Zealand society.
In 1979, Rowling won the election handily with a 50-40-2 majority (although the vote totals for Labour and National were only two percentage points apart, with this and Social Credit gaining only two seats for its 16% of the vote revealing issues with the electoral system) and seemed to have a mandate to continue his gentle reforms into the 1980s. The extent to which this result was influenced by the “Working With Wal’” movement of celebrity endorsement for Labour’s position was also significant, particularly as it was the forerunner of the trend of politicisation of celebrity within New Zealand, particularly amongst comedians and television personalities like the rural parody character Fred Dagg.
In 1980, though, a few problems sprung up. First, the Government’s indelicate reaction to the Bastion Point protest had exacerbated an existing divide between Labour and Maori, with the Minister for Maori Affairs, Matiu Rata, resigning in protest to form the Mana Motuhake Movement (commonly known as the Mana Party), which seized the seat of Northern Maori in a March by-election. The Mana Party thus reduced Labour’s majority to 49-43, causing some concern within Labour. Indeed, this represented the beginning of Labour’s slow decline in its partnership with the Maori MPs, as the Mana Party stated its intent to ‘transcend party politics in aiming for the redress of grievances suffered by the original people of this country following the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.”
Second came the abortion debate: although Kirk had been ardently pro-life, as had Muldoon and Holyoake (Watt was apparently indifferent), Rowling believed in the right of women to choose for themselves, and to this end supported the findings of a Royal Commission report calling for greater access to abortion. The bill tabled in Parliament proved controversial, with Rowling making his famous quote to Rob Muldoon: “…I am indeed a Labour member, and support a strong government. But I do not and cannot support the idea that the government’s reach should extend to the uterus!” Although the bill was passed securely, the divide within Labour over the conscience vote led to dissent within the ranks.
Which led to the third issue; as many members within and outside Parliament came to feel threatened by Rowling’s apparent intent to move Labour closer to the centre, both those who remained solid socialists and those who thought reforms were too slow in coming. This internal divide led to a marked reduction in the amount of legislation passed during Rowling’s second term, as his inability to root out dissent within Cabinet contrasted sharply with the popular image he had cultivated as a clever but down-to-earth leader who was steering the country gently through a minefield towards a better future. Within caucus, though, the ‘there is no alternative’ policy was wearing thin, and after Rowling publicly criticised the Energy Independence policy advocated by certain Ministers within Cabinet (stating that “[the programme is] a make-work scheme which will bankrupt us…we have enough debt to pay off as it is, and I will not see us take on one cent more than we can afford”), relations soured immensely between Rowling and Cabinet. It therefore came as no surprise to anyone within Parliament, although as a shock to the country at large, when Rowling, having gone overseas to attend a meeting of the leaders of the member states of the UNO Reconstruction Mission In Korea (UNORMIK), was deposed as Party leader in a caucus vote held despite the objections of Acting Prime Minister Bob Tizard, as a rash new MP, only elected in 1976, rose with the support of economic liberals like Roger Douglas and Richard Prebble. Despairing at the risk of a constitutional crisis, Rowling returned home at once only to find that the new Interim Prime Minister had arranged caucus and Cabinet against him, with a rapid purge of Rowling loyalists leaving him unable to win the supplementary leadership vote held in April. Heading into the 1982 election, then, Labour had a new leader, whose slogan of A New Brush Sweeping Clean would prove unfortunate in many ways…
rrrretconning!
