David Lange (right) and Mike Moore eating satay lamb kebabs in 1984 (Photo: John Nicholson for Evening Post via National Library)
David Lange (right) and Mike Moore eating satay lamb kebabs in 1984 (Photo: John Nicholson for Evening Post via National Library)

PoliticsFebruary 2, 2020

A force of nature: Sir Geoffrey Palmer remembers Mike Moore

Guest writer
David Lange (right) and Mike Moore eating satay lamb kebabs in 1984 (Photo: John Nicholson for Evening Post via National Library)
David Lange (right) and Mike Moore eating satay lamb kebabs in 1984 (Photo: John Nicholson for Evening Post via National Library)

The 33rd prime minister of New Zealand pays tribute to the 34th, Mike Moore, who passed today.

Mike Moore was a force of nature in New Zealand politics for many years. He was first elected to parliament in 1972 at an extraordinarily young age and was a backbencher in the 3rd Labour government. Although defeated in 1975 he came back as an MP for Papanui in 1978.

When I joined the bevy of Christchurch Labour MPs in 1979, including Ann Hercus, David Caygill and Mick Connelly, Labour was starting to develop political momentum during the Muldoon ascendancy. I was always grateful that Mike helped me get elected to the Policy Council of the New Zealand Labour Party, shortly before I got into parliament.

In 1984 he became the third ranking minister in the 4th Labour government.

Moore had remarkable, restless energy. He was interested in every political policy and every political opportunity. Mike was happy to explore any idea – remember lamb burgers! He was Labour to the core, tribal Labour. He knew the trade union movement well and the aspirations of working people. He had deep political convictions and highly developed political instincts. I shall never forget his energetic introduction of Lotto early in the life of the 4th Labour government. His major contributions seemed to me to be in the areas of trade policy as minister for overseas trade and later as foreign minister.

Mike Moore and Geoffrey Palmer during a briefing on the Gulf crises in 1990. (Photo: Ray Pigney for Evening Post via National Library)

He became prime minister briefly before the 1990 election and then became the leader of the opposition. His personality was well suited to negotiating and he was involved in many trade negotiations of immense importance to New Zealand. This experience gave him a good background for becoming director-general of the World Trade Organisation. And, later, as the New Zealand ambassador to Washington.

I served with Mike on the 1984 Labour Campaign Committee and one of my abiding memories of him is his pungent political one-liners. One aspect of politics in opposition was to “pick the scabs off policy wounds so they bleed”.

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    “In politics the absent are always guilty,” he often repeated. He warned in policy terms of the “danger of riding a bicycle with no hands”. He always said every MP had a segment of the public who related to that MP.

    Mike did a lot for New Zealand. As the Fourth Labour government fades into distant memory, Moore’s death means that seven MPs who formed part of the Cabinet in 1984 are no longer with us. It is appropriate to remember with respect one of its senior members, who was also one of New Zealand’s most colourful politicians.

    Yvonne Moore: Mike was stubborn, optimistic, kind – and probably our last blue collar PM

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    Mike Moore in his episode of Radio NZ’s series The 9th Floor – the sign of things to come? Photo: Rebekah Parsons
    Mike Moore in his episode of Radio NZ’s series The 9th Floor – the sign of things to come? Photo: Rebekah Parsons

    PoliticsFebruary 2, 2020

    Mike Moore, 1949-2020

    Guest writer
    Mike Moore in his episode of Radio NZ’s series The 9th Floor – the sign of things to come? Photo: Rebekah Parsons
    Mike Moore in his episode of Radio NZ’s series The 9th Floor – the sign of things to come? Photo: Rebekah Parsons

    Former New Zealand Prime Minister Mike Moore died this morning, a few days after his 71st birthday.

    Moore, New Zealand’s 34th prime minister, suffered a stroke in 2015 when he was New Zealand’s ambassador in Washington DC and had been in declining health in recent years.

    Jacinda Ardern paid tribute, saying, “The world lost a man with a huge intellect, and huge heart today.”

    His widow, Yvonne, said: “Mike was always a good reminder to the Labour Party of its working class roots and will probably be its last blue collar prime minister.”

    Here we repost Guyon Espiner’s 2017 interview with Moore, produced as part of RNZ’s ‘9th Floor’ series of interviews with ex-PMs, together with Espiner’s reflections on the conversation.

    Former Labour prime minister Mike Moore worries about his party. Yes his party still. Oh, there is some bitterness and bad blood for sure, but he’s still a party member and desperately wants Labour to win office again.

    It was an emotional day with Moore. Sadness, laughter, passion, love and regret. It sat at the other end of the spectrum from our interview with Sir Geoffrey Palmer. While Palmer speaks with forensic accuracy, Moore speaks largely from the heart, leaving you with images, forcing you to “feel” and interpret what he has said.

    Moore has made a remarkable recovery from a stroke in 2015, which cut short his time as ambassador in Washington DC. But things aren’t easy. Sometimes the right words take a moment to come or hover just out of reach, but talking is largely fine. Walking though is hard. I feel guilty as his wife Yvonne helps him inch across the room to accommodate our photo and video requests.

    But he loved that day. He loved talking about what he has seen and done and is still doing. He loves his party, too. Are you a proud member of Labour, I asked him as we drew to a close late in the afternoon. “Yes I’m proud of what the Labour Party has done for people. And we can do it again,” he says. “I hope I live long enough to see another Labour government,” he chuckles, in one of many laughs we had that day.

    But he has some sharp criticisms too. At one point Moore turns the questions on me, in his typically cryptic and profound way. He’s started watching Country Calendar again. “How many of those people on Country Calendar do you think vote Labour now?” I choose the diplomatic route. What do you think the answer is? “None.” Why? “Because we’re not seen to be on the side of those who are strivers,” he says. “I do think we’ve got trouble.”

    What sort of trouble? “I think its basis is how you elect your leader,” he says. “The caucus is our primary and sitting in that caucus you know what is going on and the idea that someone can not have the support in the caucus and the leader has to speak for that is a terrible idea.”

    Moore has spent almost his entire life in the party – and it has been an extraordinary life. He left school at 14. He became an MP at 23. At 30 he got cancer and was given months to live and at 40 he was given eight weeks to save a government. Moore then had just 59 days as prime minister. He was, as a former staffer told producer Tim Watkin during our research for this interview, like the guy who always dreamed of being an All Black and was subbed on for the last ten minutes of the test.

    Of course Labour was always going to be thrashed in 1990 given the firefight over Rogernomics. Moore was only installed to “save the furniture”. Remarkably he nearly become prime minister again, going from a record loss to a near win as National was nearly ousted after one term at the 1993 election. But then Moore lost the leadership to Helen Clark. That still hurts. A lot. Although he’s complimentary about her government (the first two terms anyway).

    Moore is a fascinating study of leadership. He knows what it is like to grasp power, to have power and to lose it.  He’s also fascinating because he surprises. He’s a union man – yes, even now – and Labour party member, but he supports the TPP, ran the WTO and is a champion of globalisation. That’s why we called him The Trader in this series.

    In a world of ‘dog bites man’ obvious, partisan positions, Mike Moore is man bites dog. He’s open to changing his mind. His conversion to free trade began when he started investigating CER in the late 1970s. National prime minister Rob Muldoon was looking to sign it and Moore started out trying to find fault. But the more he looked, the more he thought free trade would actually benefit workers – help them get their hands on the loot, is how he puts it. Now views will differ on that and fair enough. The point is Moore was curious and changed his mind as he processed the information. That is all too rare nowadays.

    Maybe that is why we don’t quite know what to do with him. Where does he fit? He was prime minister. But only for two months. He wasn’t always taken seriously domestically but abroad he attained probably the highest international position of any New Zealander. He wrote a book called Saving Globalisation in 2009. People sniggered at the title and the prospect of globalisation needing saving. It makes pretty interesting reading today in the wake of Trump and Brexit.

    Jane Clifton said it best when she described Mike Moore as like the opposite of L & P: world famous, just not in New Zealand. Hopefully The 9th Floor goes some small way to changing that.

     

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