BILL ROWLING
1927 - 1995
Everything seemed to be loaded against Bill
Rowling throughout his short term as prime minister. He had not sought the
position and was still reeling with shock over the death of Norman Kirk when he
moved into the prime minister’s office as Kirk’s replacement, almost by default.
And it was an eventful era. The seventies were, if anything, even more turbulent
than the sixties regarding social change with race relations, women’s rights,
homosexual law, environmental and nuclear issues all to the fore. World economic
conditions together with Britain’s entry into the EEC rendered unworkable the
traditional Labour policy of high spending and overseas borrowing to maintain
full employment. Rowling also faced the first of several sharp rises in the
international price of oil and as a final straw had to contend with an
aggressive and abrasive opposition leader in Robert Muldoon. He faced him in his
only election campaign as prime minister in 1975 and competed unsuccessfully
against him in two further elections as opposition leader (1978 and 1981).
Bill Rowling came across as mild mannered and
non-aggressive while at the same time concealing a gritty determination. He was
jovial and well-liked and possessed boundless energy. Unlike Kirk he was tidy
and meticulously organised. He was also more attuned to changing attitudes to
moral issues than his predecessor. Like Kirk he never allowed himself to be
bullied by trade unions.
The Rowling ministry lasted a mere fifteen
months and will historically be viewed as at best a non-event and at worst a
failure. But a lesser-known fact is that Rowling was highly influential in
rebranding Labour in the years leading up to its historic election win in 1972.
When first elected in a 1962 by-election he joined a party of elderly men with
eighty-year-old Walter Nash at the helm. In the late 1960s Rowling chaired the
publicity committee and later served as vice-president and president, vigorously
re-energising the party from behind the scenes. He engaged an advertising agency
to promote new leader Norman Kirk and carefully supervised the 1972 selection of
candidates – a task of crucial importance for a party seeking a new look after
twelve years in opposition. Rowling’s hard work and intuition paid off as Labour
went on to win the 1972 election decisively.
Wallace (Bill) Rowling was born on 15
November, 1927 in Motueka where the family ran a small apple orchard and grew
vegetables by the Moutere inlet, close to where Keith Holyoake had grown up. He
was more than eight years younger that the youngest of his three siblings, was
pampered by them and felt as though he was being raised as an only child. It was
a rural upbringing and the family was well fed on produce from the farm and fish
from the inlet. He walked cross-country to Lower Moutere school. He was a quiet
but bright student and his pinnacle achievement at primary school was being
chosen dux in his final year. He was sent to Nelson College as a boarder and was
accepted into Christchurch teachers college in 1945.
His father, Arthur, had absorbed politics from
his early days working in mines and flax mills and he chaired the Motueka Labour
representative committee when it was set up in 1936. Political discussion
dominated the Rowling home. Ministers of the newly elected Savage government
would occasionally drop by and another regular visitor was Jerry Skinner who in
1938 won the Motueka seat, temporarily ousting future prime minister Keith
Holyoake from parliament.
After teaching for one probationary year in
Motueka Rowling returned to university to complete the arts degree he had begun
while still at teachers college. He had by then developed an interest in
accounting and economics. He graduated with a BA in economics at the end of
1949. Keynesian economics (high government spending during economic downturns)
was the standard doctrine taught at universities in that era. They certainly
stuck with Rowling all his life despite the changing international trends that
emerged as his political career progressed.
Bill Rowling’s fulltime teaching career began
when he took up a position at Lake Rotoiti near the Nelson lakes. He later moved
to Waverley where he and Glen Reeves married. Returning to academia in
Christchurch he completed an MA degree with a thesis entitled “The Fruit
Industry and Full Employment”. He served in two rural schools in Northland
before obtaining a Fullbright grant to teach in Seattle for a year in 1956. With
a US presidential campaign in progress his interest in politics was reawakened
after having languished somewhat since he left home. He returned to his senior
assistant position at Hukerenui school in Northland and was soon the chairman of
the Hobson Labour representative committee. In that capacity he organised the
1957 election campaign for Colin Moyle. It was a safe National seat and an
electorate where Social Credit had traditionally polled strongly. Moyle did well
to finish second ahead of Social Credit. 1957 was also the year in which Nash
led Labour into government.
While his campaigning work in 1957 was the
beginning of his direct involvement in politics his teaching career continued.
In 1958 he joined the Army Education Corps, spending some months the following
year with NZ troops in Singapore and Malaysia. He returned to tutor part-time at
Canterbury university and expanded his knowledge of economics. Then at very
short notice he was invited to contest the Fendalton seat in the 1960 election
replacing the chosen Labour candidate who had withdrawn. Needless to say the
blue-ribbon seat was won by National who swept back into power but the swing
against Labour in Fendalton was less than the national average.
It was a different story in July, 1962 when he
now ran in the Buller by-election to replace Jerry Skinner who had died in
April. This huge electorate included his home territory of Motueka but it would
be an uphill battle as he was relatively unknown politically and was replacing a
popular and high profile member who was Labour’s deputy leader and had been
deputy prime minister. Rowling squeaked home by 396 votes. He took his seat in
the house on 24 July 1962. His parliamentary career had begun.
And it began well. His maiden speech as part
of the public revenues amendment bill debate urged more government assistance
for industry, especially for developing new industries in his own electorate. He
was nailing his Keynesian colours to the mast and the speech was well received,
praised even by future prime minister Muldoon and minister of finance Harry
Lake.
As mentioned earlier, it was an aging caucus
that Rowling joined. Walter Nash finally stepped down as leader in 1963 and was
replaced by Arnold Nordmeyer. Labour lost the 1963 election and there were
rumblings over the Nordmeyer leadership. When a vote was taken in December 1965
Rowling was one of only ten (out of a caucus of 35) supporting Nordmeyer in a
leadership vote against Norman Kirk. He had advised Kirk in advance that he
would not be voting for him and this created an odd relationship between them.
Kirk, now Labour leader, responded by denying Rowling the finance spokesmanship
even though with his university degree he was clearly the best qualified for the
role.
By 1969 Rowling was showing his interest in
the party’s organisational side and became party president in 1970. He heavily
influenced the selection of candidates for the 1972 election and, despite his
earlier lukewarm endorsement of the new leader, oversaw an energetic campaign
promoting “This Man Kirk”.
After Labour’s landslide win Kirk finally
recognised Rowling’s specialist area and appointed him finance minister. Kirk’s
paranoia was palpable and he viewed Rowling as the most able minister elected by
the caucus, and thus the biggest threat to his leadership. Allocating the
finance portfolio to him in what were destined to be turbulent economic times
appeared to be a good ploy to minimise the threat.
They were indeed unpredictable times. The
Kirk/Rowling relationship continued to be strained due largely to Kirk’s lack of
economic knowledge and the difficulty Rowling was faced with in implementing the
multitude of expensive election promises. This was exacerbated by Kirk’s habit
of making further spending announcements without consulting Rowling. Fortunately
for the new government the economic picture was promising in its early months
and the 1973 budget reported a trade surplus and high business confidence. It
was an optimistic budget but retained Labour’s perennial subsidies for essential
industries and a generous social welfare policy. The currency was re-valued.
Other reforms such as a comprehensive superannuation scheme were introduced. But
dark clouds were rolling in. Britain joined the European Economic Community
Market (EEC); export prices fell and there was a huge spike in the cost of oil.
Rowling was urging restraint in cabinet and would often win support but lost it
again when Kirk took his spending proposals to the full caucus.
With things running anything but smoothly the
huge bombshell struck Labour, and the country, on 31 August, 1974. Kirk’s death
was as much of a shock to Rowling as it was to the rest of the cabinet. It would
appear that only Kirk’s doctors were aware that his death was imminent. The
election for a new leader was conducted six days later and Rowling easily
prevailed over the only other candidate, Hugh Watt. Watt relinquished the deputy
leadership and was replaced by Bob Tizard. Bill Rowling’s term as prime minister
had now begun, in emotionally highly-charged circumstances.
Among his early decisions was whether to seek
a fresh mandate and hold an election. Many urged that he should but he
vacillated and any opportunity for this course of action was missed. Labour
would almost certainly have benefitted from a sympathy vote but Rowling was
reluctant to seek political advantage from such a tragic event.
Rowling had become prime minister at the age
of 46, easily the youngest ever to that point. Throughout his fairly brief
political career he was popular within his caucus and wider party, largely due
to his joviality and limitless optimism. But he lacked charisma in public and
was seen as rather weak - painted as such mercilessly by the opposition. In this
respect he was the opposite of Kirk who was perceived as a tower of strength in
public but whose relationship with the caucus was strained. Rowling was better
organised than Kirk but lacked his political intuition.
Beginning his term as prime minister Bill
Rowling maintained his staunch belief in the economic mantra that full
employment must be maintained at all costs and this led to what the opposition
saw as excessive overseas borrowing. But things were getting worse. The 1973
downturn was continuing; export prices continued to fall, oil continued to rise,
inflation soared to 9% and industrial unrest continued amid calls for
unrealistically high wages. Although weighed down by domestic issues, Rowling
also declared his hand at international level, believing, like Kirk, that New
Zealand needed to adopt a more independent position. Opposition to the Vietnam
war and to nuclear testing was expressed as Rowling attempted to make his mark
internationally.
The big test of Bill Rowling’s leadership
loomed in 1975 when the party faced an election. It was always going to be a
major challenge, having to defend bad economic conditions against an opposition
now led by an aggressive Robert Muldoon who had replaced the more gentlemanly
Jack Marshall as National party leader in 1974. But it was made even more
difficult by the introduction of two divisive bills on controversial issues, one
by an opposition member and the other by one of Labour’s own. National’s Venn
Young promoted a bill legalising homosexual activity and Labour’s Gerald Wall
introduced a private member’s bill limiting the activity of NZ’s only abortion
clinic. Debate on these two bills destroyed unity within the Labour party as
they were conscience issues, not requiring members to vote along party lines.
And this at a time when party solidarity was essential. National remained more
united. The homosexuality bill was defeated while the abortion bill passed its
first reading but was relegated well down the government’s agenda and never
enacted.
Labour campaigned for the 1975 election on its
standard diet of keeping unemployment down by whatever means and National
lampooned this by depicting Labour as over interventionist, producing a series
of campaign cartoons featuring “Dancing Cossacks” and warning that Labour was
about to turn the whole country red. It was a powerful device and almost
certainly influenced the election result. After a brutal campaign Labour was
heavily defeated. They had won a 23 seat majority in 1972 and this result was
now exactly reversed. Bill Rowling’s 15 month term as prime minister was over.
Billl Rowling’s morale was shattered by the
heavy defeat and his caucus was decimated. The exciting influx of new members
who had ridden into parliament on the 1972 tsunami had almost all gone – only
two survived, leaving Rowling with the ageing pre-1969 group forming the bulk of
his dispirited team.
One experienced Labour member who had been a
reliable cabinet minister in the Kirk/Rowling government was Colin Moyle, in
parliament since 1963. There were rumblings after the election loss that if
anyone was to replace Rowling as leader Moyle could well be the one. But an ugly
event in November, 1976 destroyed any ambition he may have had. In the heat of a
torrid late night debate prime minister Robert Muldoon charged Moyle with
unsavoury behaviour sixteen months earlier when he had been questioned by police
in an area known to be the haunt of homosexual men. The outraged Labour caucus
walked out of parliament in disgust.
Rowling over-reacted, calling for an inquiry
which he hoped would settle the matter in Moyle’s favour and humiliate Muldoon.
But in fact the former minister’s statements to police at the time and his
testament to the inquiry all contradicted each other, leaving Rowling with no
option but to insist on Moyle’s resignation. It was not the end of Moyle’s
career as he served again as a minister in the 1980s but Rowling had done
himself no favours by instigating the inquiry when the parliamentary incident
could, and should, have been left to languish and fade away.
But Labour tried to put the incident behind
them and attack the government over the economy which had not improved. Rowling
seemed to remain secure in the leadership and conducted a creditable campaign in
1978. But it was unsuccessful. Although Labour won slightly more votes, National
retained power with a reduced majority of eleven seats.
Labour was poised to enter a new era. Its
profile had been raised in 1977 by the arrival in parliament of charismatic
lawyer David Lange in a by-election (ironically, to replace Colin Moyle). This
presented Labour with a potential alternative leader and indeed at the end of
1980 a vote was taken which narrowly favoured Rowling over Lange. Despite yet
another (even narrower) election loss in 1981, Rowling retained the leadership,
largely thanks to the support of national executive members Jim Anderton and
(future prime minister) Helen Clark. But it was to become a losing battle and at
the end of 1982 Bill Rowling announced he would not contest the leadership
ballot which was scheduled for February, 1983 and certain to be won by David
Lange who now had the numbers. After relinquishing the leadership he was
honoured with a knighthood but his parliamentary career came to a low-key end
with his retirement at the 1984 election.
A term as ambassador to the United States and
chairmanship of the board set up to oversee the establishment of the national
museum of Te Papa occupied the years between Rowling’s political career and his
sudden death from a brain tumour in 1995.
Bill Rowling had proved himself a good
organiser as party president, contributing to its big win in 1972. As a minister
he was capable and when propelled into the prime minister’s office did his very
best but was unable to fire public enthusiasm as Kirk before him and Muldoon
after him could, and did. But he was gritty and determined – he had to be to
hold on to the party leadership after three election losses. He was never going
to win in 1975 – everything was stacked against him. But with an ounce more luck
in 1978 and 1981 and perhaps a more flexible economic philosophy (and a more
proportionally representative electoral system) he may well have been remembered
as a successful prime minister. But that didn’t happen and he instead spent
seven years as opposition leader. In itself that was no disgrace - Bill Massey
and Sidney Holland led their respective oppositions for even longer. But those
leaders also enjoyed the luxury of multiple election wins. Rowling didn’t. He
deserved better.