JENNY SHIPLEY
1952 -
Anyone who becomes prime minister by unseating
or replacing the elected incumbent invariably hopes to be voted back into office
in their own right at the next election. But nobody since Gordon Coates in 1925
has succeeded. Mike Moore, Bill Rowling, Jack Marshall – even Keith Holyoake
initially, in 1957 – all tried and failed. And Jenny Shipley shared the same
dubious honour – failing at her only attempt.
But Jenny Shipley was unlucky on several
counts. As prime minister replacing Jim Bolger she found herself having to
manage a coalition government under the new and unfamiliar MMP proportional
voting system, and with the feisty and unpredictable Winston Peters leading her
coalition partner which by now was near a state of meltdown both internally and
in the polls. She came to power just as an economic crisis in Asia was beginning
to bite. Then finally she faced a formidable opponent in the 1999 general
election. Helen Clark had replaced Mike Moore after his 1993 defeat and was
proving to be the intellectual match of any former Labour leader including Peter
Fraser. After a final fall-out with Winston Peters over the sale of Wellington
airport shares Shipley dissolved the coalition and battled on with the support
of minor parties and independents. At election time she competed against Helen
Clark bravely but could only manage 39 seats against Labour’s 49 with the
remainder shared among the minor parties.
So Shipley’s two year ministry came to an end.
It had been relatively uneventful apart from NZ hosting the APEC meeting in
1998, an economic summit chaired by Shipley and attended by all Asia and Pacific
leaders including US president Bill Clinton. The economy tried to claw its way
back but the electorate was beginning to tire of Rogernomics (the legacy of
Labour’s Roger Douglas) and its associated asset sales, welfare cuts and job
losses which had continued under National since 1990, despite the removal of
Ruth Richardson from the finance portfolio and Jim Bolger’s lack of enthusiasm
for such policies. National’s poll ratings were dropping as the 1999 election
approached and their loss was no surprise. But Shipley had cemented her place in
NZ political history as the country’s first woman prime minister, albeit an
unelected one.
Jenny Shipley was born on 4 February, 1952 in
Gore and the family of four girls later moved to Blenheim where Jenny attended
Marlborough Girls’ College. Like her father she spoke impeccably and radiated
confidence although school work interested her less than sport, swimming in
particular. She trained as a primary teacher and taught from 1971 to 1976 in
suburban Christchurch. She married an Ashburton farmer in 1973 and his
association with the National party prompted Jenny herself to become politically
active. Meeting and befriending Ruth Richardson in 1980 drew her closer to
National, now chaired by Sue Wood, the party’s first female chairperson. Having
successfully contested a seat on the Malvern county council (1983) she was now
ready (after encouragement from Richardson and husband Burton) to seek the
nomination for the safe National seat of Ashburton at the 1987 parliamentary
election. It took four ballots but she won the nomination and went on to win the
seat comfortably. She gave her maiden speech in parliament on 24 September. At
35 she was one of the youngest members.
Her potential was instantly recognised and
opposition leader Jim Bolger appointed her social welfare spokesperson in her
first term. Other roles were added and when National became the government in
1990 nobody was surprised when she became social welfare minister, ranked No 11
in cabinet. Early on she had declared herself a firm supporter of minimal
government intervention, private enterprise, asset sales and reducing dependence
on welfare. She believed such dependence to be “a debilitating condition that
leads to powerlessness”. So there were no surprises when she proved to be
savagely ruthless and immensely unpopular in her portfolio. It was Shipley who
wielded the knife to carry out the Ruth Richardson plan to cut welfare benefits.
As a member of the cabinet’s expenditure control committee and eager to save
money wherever possible she supported the withdrawal of funds to set up the
national museum Te Papa (unsuccessfully), advocated the switch to market rents
for state houses and helped move the entitlement for national superannuation
from age 60 to 65. She was a remarkably persuasive and plausible debater,
capable of demolishing an opponent in the warmest of tones.
When National was re-elected in 1993 she was
promoted to No 5 in cabinet and given the health portfolio. In this role she
advanced the Simon Upton initiated process of requiring health boards to return
a profit and reduced the funding bodies to one central authority responsible for
the purchase of six billion dollars of health services.
Her status within the party was such that she
was part of the team which negotiated with NZ First after the inconclusive
result in the first Mixed Member Proportional election in 1996. She was unhappy
with the final agreement as she was keen for the financial and social reforms to
continue apace and the document was somewhat vague in that area with NZ First
leader Winston Peters known to be lukewarm.
Jim Bolger was also a doubtful supporter of
the reforms which dated back to Roger Douglas and this may well have been a
factor behind a group of reform supporters beginning to check out the numbers
with a view to replacing Bolger with Shipley well before the 1999 election. In
fact there was talk of this as early as 1994 following Bolger’s “too close for
comfort” 1993 election win. By Easter, 1997 Shipley had been assured that enough
written pledges were held to guarantee success if she made a bid for the
leadership. So the question arises, why did she not move right then rather than
six months later? Michael Bassett suspects that the state of the coalition
partner was the main factor behind her holding back. NZ First had targeted the
Maori vote in 1996 and won all five Maori seats, historically always held by
Labour. The party’s decision to form a government with National when they had
the option of going with Labour had irked Maori voters and three of the five
holders of the Maori seats eventually parted company with NZ First and the
coalition but continued to support the now fragile government. It can be assumed
that Shipley didn’t wish to lead a coalition about to collapse.
But in October she made her move. Bolger was
overseas while she gathered written pledges of support from 27 colleagues, out
of the caucus of 44. She advised Bill Birch, a staunch Bolger supporter, of her
decision to challenge. There was a fiery exchange between them but there was
nothing that could be done to keep Bolger in the prime minister’s office. Birch
met Bolger at the airport with the news. Bolger then discussed the matter with
Shipley and several of her supporters, quickly realising that holding out and
forcing a vote would be futile. He announced on 3 November, 1997 that he would
step down before the end of the year. The delay of several weeks was a wise move
as the time was needed to keep NZ First on board. Initially Winston Peters
threatened to move his party’s support to Labour if Shipley took over but Helen
Clark would not accept it without an immediate election. NZ First was in no
position to contest an election with its party support languishing at 1.7%.
Peters softened when he was informed that Bill Birch would remain as finance
minister.
So Jenny Shipley became New Zealand’s first
female prime minister with the transfer of power taking place on 8 December,
1997 and the coalition still shakily in place. She moved cautiously and only
slowly revealed her desire to push for more Ruth Richardson style financial and
social reforms. She demoted several Bolger supporters and elevated allies Nick
Smith and Tony Ryall to cabinet status. Her caution was justified as Labour was
rising in the polls under their new leader Helen Clark whose popularity as
preferred prime minister had risen to 28%. There were also clouds on the
financial horizon emanating from Asia. This affected export prices and the value
of the dollar. But despite all this the public recognised that Shipley’s hand
was more firmly and confidently on the tiller than Bolger’s had been in his
later months. Social reforms were signalled by the circulation of a “Code of
Social and Family Responsibility” – a clear sign that Shipley continued to
believe the government should not provide for people if they were capable of
looking after themselves. By February, 1998 National was again ahead of Labour
in the polls. Continuing in reform mode Shipley encouraged Max Bradford to press
ahead with the corporatisation of electricity services, something coalition
partner NZ First was not happy with. A major power failure which left Auckland
without power for several weeks in early 1998 strengthened her hand.
Meanwhile internal ructions within NZ First
continued as Winston Peters sacked his deputy Tau Henare and fellow caucus
member Neil Kirton left the party to become an independent. The relationship
with National continued unsteadily until Winston Peters dug his heels in over
the sale of the government’s 66% share of Wellington Airport. Shipley allowed no
compromise and the coalition agreement was basically torn up over this issue.
Peters was fired from the cabinet and all but one of the remaining NZ First
cabinet members were moved outside cabinet while still retaining their
ministerial warrants. Only Tau Henare stayed in cabinet as minister of Maori
affairs.
National clung to power with enough NZ First
members continuing to support them and the ACT party also reliable. But it was a
minority government totally dependent on allies whose political leanings varied
widely. It was said at the time that Shipley should have called an election at
that point (mid-August, 1998) and could well have won it now that National was
free of a highly controversial and unpopular coalition arrangement. But trying
to convince the Governor-General she no longer had the numbers to govern was
futile when in fact the numbers were there, albeit somewhat shakily.
So National battled on with their fragile
majority and a power-hungry Labour party lying in wait. The electricity reforms
were implemented (with Winston Peters out of the way) and ACC was opened to
private insurers. Single desk selling of primary produce was also reviewed, all
these years after Roger Douglas had first questioned it. The cabinet was
rejuvenated after several senior ministers had signalled their intention to
retire at the 1999 election. Jenny Shipley remained supremely confident going
into election year.
Maybe overconfident. One of her few
misjudgements involved a meeting at a private dinner with an advertising
executive in which a contract with the NZ tourism board was purported to have
been discussed. It was deemed improper for the prime minister to discuss a
government contract in a social setting when the advertising executive was a
personal friend. When questioned in the house she initially denied the meeting
had even occurred, then changed to admitting it but denied politics or tourism
had been discussed. She disappeared into her shell as the truth gradually came
out, with her confidence dented. There were other instances in which her silver
tongue and impeccable diction let her down.
But it was election year. A budget had to be
presented and the government, free of the coalition agreement, could resume its
own programme to sell assets and reduce the size and cost of central government.
A bonus for National just prior to the election was the APEC meeting hosted by
New Zealand in Auckland and chaired by Jenny Shipley. The glamour and dignity
associated with this event, attended by US president Bill Clinton, was to the
clear advantage of any incumbent party leader just two months before an
election.
The media revelled in the fact that two women
leaders were facing each other in a general election. It had never happened
before and comparisons between the two were inevitable. Helen Clark emerged as
better educated with wider interests while Shipley combined an element of small
town charm with strong family values. In at least one of the three televised
debates Clark was declared the winner. She was the bright newcomer, albeit
staid, serious and cerebral. Shipley carried baggage as an unpopular and
ruthless social welfare minister and with a mixed record in her short term as
PM.
As the election drew near Labour was leading
in both the party vote and preferred prime minister polling. Of the minor
parties the Alliance and ACT appeared to have enough support to remain in
parliament with the Greens on the borderline. NZ First, not surprisingly
considering the coalition debacle, were below the threshold and Peters was
running third in his electorate. Labour were now ahead in the Maori seats and
looked set to re-take them. All predictions were that Helen Clark would lead a
coalition government with minor party support.
The predictions were correct. Shipley’s party
won 39 seats and ACT 9. Peter Dunne had won his electorate but his party vote
was infinitesimal leaving him as United Future’s only MP. Winston Peters won his
seat narrowly and brought in four more MPs on the back of his party vote which
had increased to 4.26% after strong campaigning. No other party would ever
support National so the sum total of centre-right seats, even including NZ
First, came to only 54. 61 were needed to form a government. Labour (49),
Alliance (10) and Greens (7) cleared the threshold without needing NZ First.
When the numbers became clear, Jenny Shipley called Helen Clark to concede
defeat on the evening of 27 November, 1999. Her resignation was lodged on 10
December. Her two year term as New Zealand’s first female prime minister was
over.
She remained leader of the National party for
nearly two years but throughout that time deputy leader Bill English was
bristling to take over. In 2001 he replaced her but led National to a heavy
defeat in 2002. Shipley resigned from parliament prior to that election.
Jenny Shipley’s career after politics is
probably more prestigious than any other former prime minister up to that point
– more even than Geoffrey Palmer although Palmer’s profile remained higher as
did Jim Bolger’s. Away from the public eye Shipley took on several
directorships, chairing Genesis Energy and global management team Oravida. But
perhaps her greatest achievement has been improving New Zealand’s relationship
with China. She chaired the NZ arm of China Construction Bank – the third
largest bank in China – and served on its board. She developed an impressive
international profile in banking and management circles (not without
controversy) and has encouraged not just New Zealand businesses but entities
throughout Europe to pay more attention to China. She is active in many other
spheres. Every year she devotes six weeks of her time to the world women
leaders’ council. In New Zealand she is involved with a range of charitable
organisations.
Jenny Shipley was far from perfect as prime
minister. When following her planned course of action she was superb but when
distracted from it she floundered. She was occasionally guilty of neglect and
carelessness. Nonetheless she was a powerful figure. Tall and authoritative,
impeccably dressed, articulate and good at defending herself she held the
National party and the government together through two difficult years. But in
the final analysis her rigid adherence to the reform politics of Roger Douglas,
leading to welfare cuts and a restructured health service, left her with a
reputation for heartlessness and for neglecting the needs of the disadvantaged.
While claiming to be aware, and regretful, of the hardships caused she believed
there was no other way.
She was knighted in 2009.
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