1912 - 1988
Prime Minister from 7 February, 1972 to 8 December, 1972
As prime minister Jack Marshall was doomed
from the start.
He inherited a government which had been in
power for more than eleven years and it showed. The previous leader had resigned
as the clouds indicating a likely election loss gathered, leaving deputy
Marshall little chance of leading anything but a short term ministry. Keith
Holyoake had read the mood of the country and, while seeing Richard Seddon’s
record as New Zealand’s longest serving prime minister enticingly close,
belatedly chose to step down ahead of what was going to be an almost certain
election loss to Labour in 1972 regardless of who was leading the party.
Labour did win. Jack Marshall served just ten
months as prime minister and then crossed the floor into the equally unfamiliar
role of opposition leader. Rather than set his sights on a win in 1975 he seemed
to proceed almost aimlessly. It was no surprise when the party’s aggressive
finance spokesman, Robert Muldoon, ousted him in a successful bid for the
leadership in 1974. It was probably a wise move for the party. Marshall’s
quietly spoken, urbane and dignified demeanour had proved in 1972 to be no match
for the rough and tumble populist style of Labour leader Norman Kirk who had
weathered two disappointing losses to Holyoake.
Marshall was demoted from the opposition front
bench but retained as spokesperson on overseas trade. He finally retired from
parliament in 1975. It was a low-key end to a career which included twenty years
as a hard-working and highly successful cabinet minister.
Born in Wellington in March, 1912, John
Marshall (known more often as Jack from his late 20s) completed his schooling in
Whangarei and Dunedin, following his father as he transferred between branches
of the public trust office. He returned to Wellington to study law, passed his
masters and worked as a law clerk. He also developed an interest in politics and
studied political science part time. Both pursuits were interrupted when he was
called up for wartime service in 1941. He rose to the rank of major but saw very
little action despite postings to the Pacific, Egypt and Africa. Once out of
uniform he set up a law practice and built a reputation as a well-educated,
level headed man with leadership potential. He had high moral standards. The
Presbyterian church and bible societies, both in New Zealand and overseas, were
life-long interests.
As he was completing his political science
degree in 1946 he looked more seriously at a possible career in politics rather
than law. He was a believer both in the freedom of the individual and social
justice and the political arena was the logical place to pursue those interests.
Within the interventionist political climate which prevailed in both parties at
the time he was seen by those around him as a liberal.
It was National party enthusiasts who
identified his potential and signed him up for membership. He was encouraged to
run for nomination in the newly created Wellington seat of Mt Victoria in 1946
where he beat three other contenders before going on to win the seat by 911
votes. It was instant success. He then spent a parliamentary term facing
Fraser’s post-war government, by now in its death throes. His maiden speech on 8
July, 1947 was highly praised and dealt with individual liberty which he
believed had a higher value than efficiency and security but had to be exercised
responsibly. He opposed Labour’s heavily interventionist policies. He quickly
became a trusted colleague of party leader Sidney Holland and functioned as
caucus secretary.
There was a need in National for someone like
Jack Marshall. Aged 35 he appealed to the young, city and business-oriented
voter who had been looking for a home. He remembered this group when campaigning
for re-election in 1949 and was rewarded with an increased majority of 1,808.
More importantly, National regained the treasury benches, ending Labour’s 14
year term. Holland surprised many by including Marshall in his first cabinet. He
was appointed public trust minister and minister in charge of state advances and
impressed immediately by launching a building programme to increase the state
housing stock, and by offering generous interest rates to encourage state
tenants to purchase their own home. He continued his close relationship with
prime minister Holland who had taken the finance portfolio himself and needed
assistance. Holland also frequently turned to Marshall for advice on legal
issues, notably to verify the constitutional position should a snap election be
called in 1951.
As noted elsewhere National came of age after
their successful 1951 election and now had the look of a long term government.
Marshall was elevated to the major portfolio of health. Launching into it with
enthusiasm he moved hospital funding from local rates to central government and
boosted the private hospital sector by introducing patient subsidies. But his
position as an MP became vulnerable when, in 1954, boundary changes eliminated
his Mt Victoria electorate and left him homeless. He was fortunate that the
member for the neighbouring safe seat of Karori was retiring and he was able to
win the nomination to replace him. Jack Marshall was now secure and retained the
seat until he retired from parliament in 1975. For the 1954-7 term he
relinquished the health portfolio and served, more appropriately, as minister of
justice and attorney-general.
It was during this term that Marshall first
expressed concern over his party leader. National’s fortunes were slipping and
Holland was showing signs of ill-health, particularly from 1956 onwards.
Marshall consulted finance minister Jack Watts and deputy PM Keith Holyoake with
a view to have Holyoake take over the leadership for the 1957 election. There
was considerable resistance from Holland but eventually he relented. It was a
hospital pass for Holyoake – a mere twelve weeks before the election with the
party fading in the polls and having failed in the previous election to win the
popular vote. In the event National’s 1957 loss to Labour was a narrow one and
the party looked hopefully towards the future with its new leader. Marshall
became deputy opposition leader under Holyoake and the partnership would last,
sometimes uneasily, for fifteen years.
It didn’t begin well. Now that his party was
in opposition for the first time since 1949 Marshall opted to return part time
to his law practice, an irritation to Holyoake who felt his deputy wasn’t
pulling his weight. Marshall also left the country on a foreign leaders grant to
visit the United States where he conferred with politicians and judges. He
arrived home just in time to join the fray as National lambasted Labour over the
infamous 1958 black budget (Marshall later admitted it was “economically
justifiable”). He made a useful contribution to policy formation in the lead-up
to the 1960 election which National won comfortably although it had to be
admitted that Marshall was a little too bland to be a dynamic campaigner.
Nevertheless Holyoake, prime minister again with Marshall now back full time,
set out to lead the party for the longest spell in government since William
Massey’s reign ended in 1925.
From 1961 to early 1972 Jack Marshall proved
to be an able, efficient, and hard-working minister with a deceptively soft and
courteous demeanour hiding a steely determination to secure the best possible
outcome for New Zealand when he led negotiations to protect our exports, the
role he is best remembered for.
Marshall was allocated the portfolios of
industries and commerce, customs, immigration and overseas trade as well as
being re-appointed attorney-general and minister of justice. It was a heavy
workload and his first challenge was to deal with a situation which eventually
required him to renege on a campaign promise. A binding contract for a Nelson
cotton mill had been signed by the outgoing Labour government and National’s
promise was to build a railway from Picton to Nelson to service the mill. The
garment manufacturing industry objected, predicting large price increases for
their raw material if the NZ mill was granted a monopoly of supply and lobbied
to have the project, including the railway, abandoned. Marshall was saved the
embarrassment of having to break the contract when the contractors themselves
voluntarily withdrew but substantial compensation had to be paid. There was also
opposition to his plan to reduce import controls. Manufacturers regarded
controls as a lifeline to maintain high employment. Further still, Marshall was
negotiating a free trade agreement with Australia in 1965 and NZ manufacturers
again saw this as a threat. The purpose of the agreement was to encourage local
manufacturers to begin exporting and eventually progress was made in this
direction. Exports were given a push in 1969 when Marshall chaired a national
development conference.
These issues confronting Marshall were minor
compared to the bombshell predicted to hit New Zealand economically if - or more
likely, when – Britain joined the European Economic Community (EEC). This was a
threat from the moment the National government came to power and for ten years
it occupied the minds of the prime minister, cabinet, economists, the farming
community and most of all, minister of overseas trade Jack Marshall. Marshall
had been given an early assurance by the British government that New Zealand’s
interests would be protected so his early visits to Britain were expected to
result in confirmation of this and also to reach agreement on actual quantities
of agricultural products that New Zealand would be able to continue exporting to
Britain. Things bubbled along in the background as Britain had two applications
to join the EEC vetoed by France but when their third application in 1971
succeeded and the six foundation members objected to New Zealand receiving
special treatment, Marshall had to apply all his diplomatic skill and his
iron-clad determination to secure an agreement. He made a total of eleven trips
to Europe and Britain, meeting with two British prime ministers and the leaders
of all six EEC countries, pleading NZ’s case. The tipping point came when
Marshall threatened to go to the British press and publicise the fact that
Britain would be failing to honour its promise if New Zealand, a loyal wartime
and Commonwealth ally, was denied continued access for its agricultural
products. The tactic worked and New Zealand was granted a five year transition
period during which its butter, cheese and lamb could continue to be exported to
Britain. This gave NZ vital breathing space and enabled it to diversify and seek
other markets. It was a remarkable achievement against considerable opposition
and Jack Marshall, with his polite urbanity coupled with gritty and determined
perseverance, was just the man for the task.
The stress of the job was taking its toll on
Marshall’s health. As early as 1964 he began having heart trouble and had a
number of heart attacks including a near fatal one in Tehran while attending an
Asian and Far East Economic Commission meeting in 1964. By 1967 he was mindful
of his fragile condition but maintained his ambition to one day become prime
minister - tantalisingly close ever since he’d been Holyoake’s deputy. The
condition of his health was a major factor in his approach to Holyoake in 1967
suggesting that he might want to consider retiring. In December, 1968 he wrote
Holyoake a letter noting that general criticism of his leadership seemed to be
increasing. Holyoake ignored the warning and, possibly in retaliation, added the
labour portfolio, vacant since the death of Tom Shand, to Marshall’s already
heavy workload.
Marshall continued to serve the government
loyally. He changed his lifestyle to better suit his health and, even while the
EEC negotiations were coming to a head, dealt with some awkward industrial
problems back home as minister of labour. A ‘nil” general wage order had caused
chaos among the unions and required a political settlement which fuelled
inflation. Rather strangely, Marshall seemed more comfortable dealing with the
union leaders than with those representing employers and manufacturers but when
the seamen’s union embarked on an illegal strike Marshall revealed the steel
core under his gentlemanly exterior and de-registered the union. A major triumph
for Marshall in the labour portfolio was the introduction of accident
compensation legislation – a scheme expanded by the next Labour government but a
major step for National as it added another tier to the social welfare system
and had support from both ends of the political spectrum.
In 1956 Marshall had expressed concern over
Sidney Holland’s leadership. In 1971 he did exactly the same regarding Keith
Holyoake’s. Comfortable election wins in 1963 and 1966 had kept National in
power but they had just scraped through in 1969 and had been behind in the polls
since then. Holyoake was becoming stale and past his best. As in 1957, it was
now obvious that without a leadership change prior to the 1972 election National
would almost certainly lose. Having Holyoake removed was Marshall’s only chance
to attain the top job. And minister of finance Robert Muldoon was also becoming
a threat. His high profile and aggressive nature made him a rival for the
leadership.
A poll taken in November, 1971 showed 43%
public support for Marshall to lead National into the 1972 election, against 20%
for Muldoon and 18% for Holyoake. Marshall was breathing easier when Holyoake
finally agreed to step down in February, 1972. A secret caucus vote elected Jack
Marshall as leader - by a small majority.
Marshall was now prime minister, with Muldoon
his deputy. His apprenticeship had been longer and more varied than any other NZ
leader (twenty years of commendable service in cabinet) but his term as prime
minister was always going to be an anti-climax. Like Joseph Ward, Gordon Coates
and Walter Nash, his best work was performed as a minister - initially under
Sidney Holland, then, for more than eleven years in a slightly less friendly
relationship, under Keith Holyoake.
Marshall’s ten months in office were dogged by
financial issues. Collapsing export prices in the late 1960s had forced Muldoon
to apply severe measures and Marshall came to power amidst rampant wage and
price controls. Pressing on with these, he announced a set of measures billed as
“all round restraint” – a somewhat transparent euphemism for extending controls
further still. Marshall seemed to be abandoning his lifetime goal of economic
freedom and was instead adhering to a level of control reminiscent of the
measures taken by the Labour government that Marshall had entered parliament in
1946 specifically to oppose.
It was a pragmatic attempt to reassure the
electorate prior to the election. Indeed, inflation did drop (to 5.5%) but
Marshall and any economist would have been aware that it was the result of a
series of band-aid measures and the dam would burst when controls were lifted,
however gently.
It would have been difficult for National to
win the 1972 election against almost any Labour leader given the financial
situation and a weary looking 12 year old government (Marshall had made few
changes to Holyoake’s cabinet). But with a charismatic and energetic prime
minister-in-waiting in the person of Norman Kirk leading Labour, National’s
chances were about zero. In the event, their slender lead of four seats was
turned into a deficit of 23 on election night. Jack Marshall’s term as prime
minister was over after just ten months.
If that was an anti-climax, his period as
opposition leader was little more than a damp squib. He was clearly on his way
down. Muldoon equally clearly was on his way up and the inevitable occurred on 4
July, 1974 when Marshall surrendered the leadership to Muldoon. Ironically
Norman Kirk, the man Muldoon was specifically elected to compete against, died
suddenly a mere month after Marshall’s resignation.
Jack Marshall retired from parliament
altogether after the 1975 election.
His political career was bookended by
church-related activity and his Christian beliefs had guided him throughout his
life. After leaving parliament he served on the boards of various companies and
also dabbled in children’s story-writing. He died in England on 30 August, 1988.
Marshall’s strong morals and his belief in
individual freedom drove him. Despite his gentlemanly demeanour, faultless
diction and unruffled temperament (“Gentleman Jack”, the media called him) he
also came across as rather aloof and certainly not as a man of the people in the
way that both Keith Holyoake did and Norman Kirk would. Nonetheless he can
rightfully claim to have done his country a tremendous service in negotiating
the EEC deal and in introducing world-leading accident compensation legislation.
His overall achievements eclipsed anything Keith Holyoake did as either a
cabinet minister or as prime minister. It is something of an irony that
Marshall’s best years were in turn eclipsed by that same man’s looming shadow.
Goto next Prime Minister: Norman Kirk