GEOFFREY PALMER
1942 -
“Becoming prime minister was a nuisance.”
These memorable words were uttered by Geoffrey Palmer nearly thirty years after
being thrust into office while his party was being torn asunder beneath his
feet. Quite simply, he was not a politician. He was an academic. His
professional background was in political science, constitutional law,
international law and jurisprudence. He was an esteemed lecturer on these
subjects both in New Zealand and the United States. Notwithstanding this, his
decision to enter parliament was of immense value to the Labour party. He was a
steadying influence during the turbulent stages of the Lange ministry and
earlier had been able to apply his academic skills to the delicate process of
framing Roger Douglas’s ground-breaking (some would say reckless) legislation,
most notably the conversion of government agencies to state owned enterprises.
Even before entering parliament Palmer had been highly respected in political
circles, helping to draft accident compensation legislation and lending his
skills in this area to the Holyoake government in 1969 and also to the
Australian government.
Geoffrey Palmer’s short term as prime minister
can only be described as an interruption to an otherwise impressive career
rather than the highlight of it. Just as Gordon Coates and John Marshall did far
better work outside the prime minister’s office, so too did Geoffrey Palmer. His
thirteen month term was not sought after and took place when his party was
hopelessly divided and out of favour with the electorate. He was then pressured
by his colleagues to step down a mere eight weeks before the 1990 election.
Another leader was never going to turn the result in Labour’s favour but
individual Labour MPs believed that if the more populist Michael Moore led the
party into the election they stood a better chance of retaining their own seats.
After leaving parliament Palmer returned to
academia and remained a high-profile and respected citizen and commentator. He
was appointed to a range of diverse positions including president of the law
commission and New Zealand’s representative on the international whaling
commission.
Raised in a privileged family in Nelson – his
father a newspaper editor and mother a scholar of Austen and Dickens – he built
up a wide range of interests. He completed a double degree (BA and LLB) and also
undertook a political science course. He initially favoured the National party,
joined it and even considered standing for the Nelson seat.
But it was a law career that he settled on. He
joined a law firm and his work included handling personal accident claims. An
encounter with Sir Owen Woodhouse led to him developing a proposal for accident
compensation legislation, a topic on which Sir Owen had chaired a royal
commission. Palmer’s knowledge in this area was utilised by politicians in both
New Zealand and Australia. It was destined to become law in New Zealand, one of
the first countries in the world to adopt this type of “no fault” compensation -
eliminating the possibility (and the need) for accident victims to litigate in
order to obtain redress.
Advancing rapidly in his chosen profession,
Palmer won a scholarship to the university of Chicago law school from which he
graduated with a doctorate in jurisprudence. After teaching in universities in
Iowa and Virginia he returned to Wellington in 1974 to occupy a chair at the
Victoria university law school. Aged only 35, he was now an experienced and
highly respected academic.
It was Robert Muldoon’s political style (which
he intensely disliked) that changed his political colours from National to
Labour. He wrote a book, “Unbridled Power?” questioning the breakneck speed at
which laws could be passed in New Zealand and the level of power vested in the
prime minister. He joined a support group for Bill Rowling in 1975 and became
increasingly active in Labour’s policy formulation. He eventually stood in a
Christchurch Central by-election and on 18 August, 1979 was elected to
parliament.
Once in the house his cerebral pronouncements
and extensive vocabulary set him above his colleagues and at the changing of the
guard from Bill Rowling to David Lange in February, 1983 his talent and
potential were recognised and he became Lange’s deputy. Both had risen equally
quickly from new MP to deputy leader, one following the other. When the snap
election was announced in June, 1984 it fell to Palmer to draft a manifesto.
Labour won the election and Geoffrey Palmer became deputy prime minister.
The details surrounding the change of
government in July, 1984 are covered in the article on David Lange, as is the
financial crisis which greeted the new Labour government when it took office.
Geoffrey Palmer’s knowledge of constitutional law deeply involved him in these
proceedings. He was also frantically busy with routine matters such as
allocating ministerial offices and houses, staff appointments and the cabinet
committee structure. His own portfolios were attorney-general and minister of
justice and in Labour’s second term minister for the environment was added.
Throughout Lange’s time as prime minister Palmer was constantly required to tie
up loose ends left dangling by his leader. Probably the most dramatic and
stressful event occurred when Lange was overseas and, as acting prime minister,
Palmer was called on to make a decision over the scheduled visit of a United
States naval vessel. The visit would have directly challenged New Zealand’s
nuclear-free policy. This too is covered more extensively in the article on
Lange.
While still deputy prime minister Palmer
busied himself dismantling some of the structures that had enabled Robert
Muldoon to wield such “unbridled power”. A key element here was setting up the
parliamentary service department, responsible for meeting the day to day needs
of all parliamentarians. An example of the need for this, he cited, was
Muldoon’s refusal to allow him, when deputy opposition leader, to purchase much
needed furniture for his office. Decisions such as these would now be
transferred from the prime minister to the parliamentary service commissioner’s
office.
Framing and timetabling the legislation for
the setting up of the multiple state owned enterprises was another specialist
task suited to Palmer’s constitutional knowledge but it added still more to his
workload. As attorney-general he established the law commission – a body set up
to develop and review NZ law and recommend improvements.
Needless to say Palmer’s cool head was
valuable as the rift between Lange and finance minister Roger Douglas widened
after 1987, eventually to the point where they were not speaking to each other
and communicating either by letter or using Palmer as a conduit. Palmer’s own
position on the radical reforms being introduced at high speed by Douglas and
initially supported by Lange was that he too supported them as they removed many
of the crippling financial restrictions and controls wielded by Muldoon but in
fact traceable all the way back to Savage’s first Labour government. Reflecting
on them in later years he felt the reforms went too far too fast and at
considerable social cost. He supported the corporatisation of inefficient
government departments but not their privatisation. However he acknowledged much
later that, apart from a softening of industrial relations legislation, none of
the reforms had been rescinded by either Labour or National in subsequent
decades.
Geoffrey Palmer became prime minister when
David Lange resigned in August, 1989 following an irreparable split with his
former finance minister Roger Douglas who had been voted back into cabinet by
the caucus. Helen Clark was elected Palmer’s deputy. Many years later Palmer
made his startling admission when interviewed by Radio New Zealand, ruminating
that becoming prime minister had been “a nuisance”.
It wasn’t a position he had ever sought nor
did he possess the strategic skills, the boldness or the charisma required to
reboot the party into life. But there were some significant achievements in his
thirteen month term. A bill of rights was introduced followed by controversial
resource management legislation designed to streamline the approval process for
development projects into one single act of parliament while also protecting the
environment. When finally passed under National in 1991 the bill was applauded
by environmentalists but roundly criticised by business interests for imposing
too many hurdles in the way of the approval process.
Palmer’s term also saw the purchase of two
naval frigates; a visit by the Queen and New Zealand hosting the commonwealth
games.
Needless to say a key question after the
departure of David Lange from the leadership was what to do with Roger Douglas.
Douglas and Lange had fallen out over the pace of the financial reforms. Palmer
had supported Lange during the fall-out and now kept Douglas away from any
finance portfolio. But Douglas had been a key figure in the 1987 election
victory and re-instating him as finance minister might well have paid dividends.
He had announced his intention to retire at the 1990 election but might have
reconsidered had he been promised a finance role. By the time he was approached
by Palmer and Clark on the question in February, 1990 his plans to retire had
been finalised.
In a way this gave Palmer the incentive to
revitalise his ministry. Five other ministers were planning to retire in 1990 so
new ministers were brought in and by this time the Douglas reforms were starting
to have a positive effect. The economy was growing, productivity improving and
inflation falling. A huge step was taken to retire public debt when the
government sold telecommunications giant Telecom for $4.2 billion. This
contravened Palmer’s personal view on the importance of keeping key assets in
government hands but he was persuaded by new finance minister David Caygill of
the importance of reducing debt.
Despite signs of fiscal improvement and fresh
faces in cabinet Labour supporters were unimpressed. The party continued to
trail National by an insurmountable margin in opinion polls and by June some
backbench MPs began worrying about their personal electoral chances if Palmer
led the party into the 1990 election. In July deputy leader Helen Clark was
assessing the numbers. A clear majority now wanted the more worldly Michael
Moore to replace the somewhat aloof academic Palmer for the coming election
campaign. She confronted both men and Palmer, never ambitious in the first
place, announced on 3 September he would resign the next day. Only five
ministers were now supporting him and Helen Clark was not one of them. His fall
from favour was almost as rapid as his rise to power.
Palmer remained minister for the environment
but announced he too would retire at the 1990 election.
Aged only 48 Geoffrey Palmer had many more
years as a political commentator, university lecturer and constitutional lawyer
ahead of him. He was appointed in 2002 as New Zealand’s representative on the
international whaling commission in recognition of his interest in environmental
issues and three years later became president of the NZ law commission, a body
he had himself established in 1986 while attorney-general.
Nobody could say that Palmer’s career was a
failure in any sense. His time in parliament totalled eleven years – a brief
interruption to a stellar academic career in New Zealand and the United States.
But for six of those eleven years he was a key asset to the Labour government,
steadying the ship through what was probably the most turbulent years in the
party’s history.
Return to Prime Ministers Menu