Jim Bolger
James Brendan Bolger was a New Zealand politician of the National Party who was the 35th prime minister of New Zealand, serving from 1990 to 1997.
Bolger was born in Ōpunake, Taranaki, to Irish immigrants. Before entering politics, he farmed in Waikato, and was involved in Federated Farmers—a nationwide agricultural association. Bolger won election to Parliament in 1972, and subsequently served in several portfolios in the Third National Government. Following one unsuccessful bid for the party leadership in 1984, Bolger was elected as National Party leader in 1986. He served as Leader of the Opposition from 1986 to 1990.
Bolger led the National Party to a landslide victory—the largest in its history—in the, leading him to become prime minister in November. The Fourth National Government was elected on the promise of delivering a "Decent Society" following the previous Labour government's economic reforms, known as "Rogernomics", which Bolger criticised. However, shortly after taking office, his government was forced to bail out the Bank of New Zealand and as a result reneged on a number of promises made during the election campaign. Bolger's government essentially advanced the free-market reforms of the previous government, while implementing drastic cuts in public spending. National retained power in the, albeit with a much-reduced majority.
Bolger's second term in office saw the introduction of the MMP electoral system. In the subsequent, National emerged as the largest party, but it was forced to enter into a coalition with New Zealand First. Bolger continued as prime minister; however, his critics argued that he gave the inexperienced NZ First too much influence in his Cabinet. In December 1997, Bolger was effectively ousted as leader by his party caucus, and was replaced as prime minister by Jenny Shipley.
After resigning as a member of Parliament in 1998, Bolger was appointed ambassador to the United States, where he remained until 2002.
Early life
Bolger was born on 31 May 1935 at Ōpunake in Taranaki. He was born into an Irish Catholic family; Bolger was one of five children born to Daniel and Cecilia Bolger who emigrated together from Gorey, County Wexford, in 1930. He said that his early childhood was dominated by the effects of World War II. He left Opunake High School at age 15 to work on the family dairy farm. In 1962 he purchased his own farm near Rahotu. He joined and became active in Federated Farmers, becoming a branch chairman in 1962, sub-provincial chairman in 1970 and Waikato provincial vice-president in 1971. He was a member of the Waikato and King Country agricultural advisory committees.In 1963, Bolger married Joan Riddell, and they moved to their own sheep and beef farm in Te Kūiti two years later. During this time Bolger became involved in local farmer politics. He joined the Egmont branch of the National Party and was later an officeholder in the Te Kūiti branch. In the late 1960s he was asked to accompany the then Minister of Finance Robert Muldoon to see for himself the difficulties faced by farmers in the area. As Bolger travelled around the district, he became experienced with Muldoon's adversarial style.
Political career
Member of Parliament
Bolger entered politics in 1972 as the New Zealand National Party Member of Parliament for King Country, a newly created electorate in the rural western portion of North Island. This electorate is traditional National territory, and Bolger won easily. He represented this electorate, renamed Taranaki-King Country in 1996, until his retirement in 1998. In 1974 he was appointed National's spokesperson for Rural Affairs by incoming leader Robert Muldoon.At the formation of the Third National Government in 1975 Bolger was designated as Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries and to Minister of Maori Affairs. In 1977, Muldoon promoted him to Cabinet, first as Minister of Fisheries and Associate Minister of Agriculture. Following the 1978 election, he became Minister of Labour and Minister of Immigration.
In late 1980 Bolger was a leading member of 'the Colonels' who attempted to dump Muldoon as leader and put the party back into line with traditional National Party policies after feeling they were being abandoned. In what became known as the Colonels' Coup. The agitators intended to replace Muldoon with his deputy, Brian Talboys, who was more economically liberal and in tune with traditional National Party philosophy than Muldoon. The Colonels waited until Muldoon was out of the country before moving against him. However, Talboys was reluctant to openly challenge and the scheme failed with Muldoon reaffirming control after he returned to remain leader.
After the defeat of National at the 1984 general elections Bolger remained on the frontbench as Shadow Minister of Labour and Employment. Both he and deputy leader Jim McLay challenged Muldoon for the leadership of the party. McLay succeeded but Bolger was elected as deputy leader. McLay also designated Bolger Shadow Minister of Trade and Industry before switching him to Shadow Minister of Agriculture. In December 1985 he attempted an abortive leadership coup against McLay.
Leader of the Opposition
In 1986, Bolger organised a second challenge to McLay's leadership. This one was successful, and he defeated McLay in a 26 March 1986 ballot for the leadership of the National Party. Initially Bolger pursued a pro law and order approach, with a focus on critiquing Labour's perceived reluctance to combat "lawlessness" and offering a referendum on the reintroduction of capital punishment. Bolger went head to head against the popular David Lange in the 1987 general election, but failed to match the latter's popularity; Lange described Bolger as "an itinerant masseur, massaging the politically erogenous zones." National under Bolger capitalised on public anger at the Labour government's highly unpopular economic policies to win National's biggest ever majority at the 1990 general election. Bolger became Prime Minister at age 55.Prime Minister (1990–1997)
First term
Three days after being sworn in as prime minister, Bolger's government needed to bail out the Bank of New Zealand, then the largest bank in the country. The cost of the bail out was $380 million, but after rewriting its budget, the government needed to borrow $740 million. This had an immediate impact on Bolger's direction in government, with the first budget of his premiership being dubbed the "Mother of all Budgets". Bolger's Finance Minister, Ruth Richardson, implemented drastic cuts in public spending, particularly in health and welfare. The unemployment benefit was cut by $14.00 a week, sickness benefit by $27.04, families benefit by $25.00 to $27.00 and universal payments for family benefits were completely abolished. Richardson also introduced many user pays requirements in hospitals and schools, services previously free to the populace and paid for by the government. The first budget specifically reversed National's election promise to remove the tax surcharge on superannuation and the retention of promises to abolish tertiary fees.Another major controversial piece of legislation was the 1991 Employment Contracts Act which effectively dismantled the industrial relations settlement that had persisted since 1894. Immediate effects of this law change saw union membership fall dramatically in the decade following its passage. His government also introduced the Building Act 1991, which is seen by some as a crucial factor leading to New Zealand's later leaky homes crisis.
Bolger opposed electoral reform, but despite his party's opposition held a referendum on whether or not New Zealand should change from the British-style electoral system of 'first past the post' to one of proportional representation. In 1992, New Zealanders voted to change to the Mixed Member Proportional system. This was confirmed in a binding referendum held alongside the 1993 general election, which National won. Bolger had originally proposed a return to a bicameral system, with a Senate elected by Single Transferable Vote, but retreated from this in the face of support for electoral reform. For his pragmatism and his sense of authority, he was jovially nicknamed "The Great Helmsman".
Bolger was embroiled in the 1992 election campaign in the Australian state of Victoria when the ruling Australian Labor Party ran ads stating that if the opposition Liberals won the election it would institute the same policies that were implemented in New Zealand by the Fourth National Government led by Bolger.
Bolger responded in reference to the campaign, "You know, they say that the show’s never over until the fat lady sings. Well, I think it was her we heard warming up in the wings this week".
The "fat lady" was in reference to Victorian Premier Joan Kirner being overweight. Bolger refused to apologise for this remark citing that he himself was overweight and did not want to make "an international incident" out of it.
It did, however, anger women from Bolger's own National Party.
Second term
At the 1993 election, National narrowly retained government, owing partly to a slight economic recovery and his opposition being split between three competing parties; Bolger himself expected a comfortable election win, exclaiming "bugger the pollsters" upon the election result. National's unprecedented eighteen-seat majority had virtually disappeared and the country faced an election night hung parliament for the first time since 1931, with National one seat short of the required 50 seats to govern. Final special votes counted over the following days revealed National had retained which it had lost on election night together with holding the only electorate National had won from Labour. This allowed it to form a government with the majority of one seat but required the election of a Speaker from the opposition benches to hold a working majority in the House.Following this election result Bolger expressed the need to work with other political parties and decided to demote Richardson from her post, appointing Bill Birch who was seen as more moderate. During Birch's tenure, spending on core areas such as health and education increased. His government passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act 1994. During the 1994 Address-in-Reply debate, Bolger argued in favour of a New Zealand republic, but denied that his views related to his Irish heritage.
In April 1995 the Cave Creek disaster gained public attention after a scenic viewing platform collapsed, killing fourteen people. The platform had been erected by the Department of Conservation in 1994 and later inquiries found that many of those who constructed it did not have prerequisite qualifications for building the platform. Despite DOC taking responsibility for its collapse, there would be no prosecutions but $2.6 million worth of compensation was paid to the victims' families. Bolger initially attacked the report produced by the Commission of Inquiry, arguing that the platform failed "essentially because it lacked about $20 worth of bolts to hold it together". The Minister of Conservation, Denis Marshall, was criticised in the media for his management of the department. Many people blamed Marshall, although there was also wide criticism of the whole government's policies on management of the conservation estate. Marshall eventually resigned in May 1996, just over a year after the accident occurred. A new Minister, Nick Smith, was appointed, and a full review of the department was conducted by the State Services Commission.
Bolger's second term would also see France resume nuclear testing on Moruroa, prompting swift condemnation from New Zealand and other Pacific nations. Bolger vocally supported anti-nuclear protests by New Zealand yachters. His government dispatched HMNZS Tui to provide support for the flotilla.
Proposals to end the status of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as the country's highest court of appeal failed to gain parliamentary sanction during Bolger's premiership. Bolger's government ended the awarding of British honours in 1996, introducing a New Zealand Honours System. At a conference on the "Bolger years" in 2007, Bolger recalled speaking to the Queen about the issue of New Zealand becoming a republic: "I have more than once spoken with Her Majesty about my view that New Zealand would at some point elect its own Head of State, we discussed the matter in a most sensible way and she was in no way surprised or alarmed and neither did she cut my head off." With the new MMP environment some National Party MPs defected to a new grouping, United New Zealand in mid-1995, whilst other splinter parties emerged.