Dr. Michael Bassett Prime Ministers of New Zealand
Michael Michael was introduced by Leigh Marshall. Michael was a backbench MP in the Labour governments of Prime Ministers Norman Kirk and Bill Rowling (1972-75), and then a senior opposition member before becoming Minster of Health and Local Government (1984-97) in the Labour administration of Prime Minister David Lange. Between 1987 and 1990, he was Minister of Internal Affairs, Local Government, Civil Defence and Arts and Culture. He was Chairman of the New Zealand Lottery Grants Board and of the 1990 Commission that commemorated the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.
Dr. Bassett has published fifteen books on New Zealand History. His latest book was published in 2017 and has the title, "New Zealand's Prime Ministers: From Dick Seddon to John Key".
The three phases in our Political history that Dr Bassett referred to were:
Phase One - 1890 to 1935
New Zealand was pre-occupied with Infrastructure and had a huge borrowing programme.
Phase Two - 1935 - 1984
Our welfare state expanded rapidly.
Huge additional spending for ACC, National Super and the DPB.
There was a growing sense of entitlement.
Prime Ministers were: Fraser, Kirk, Holland, Holyoake and Muldoon.
Phase Three - Post 1984
Regulations were reduced. There was a balancing act to maintain the welfare state.
Prime Ministers wee: Bolger, Richardson, Clarke and Key.
Politics of the 20th Century
In the 1900's, politics was a sense of entertainment. The introduction of television in New Zealand was in June, 1960. Seddon was referred to as "leather lungs". Walter Nash was not good on television. Kirk was our first Prime Minister to appear successfully on television. Rob Muldoon was at home with television as were Kirk, Clark and Key.
When Keith Holyoake was our Prime Minister, high spending lead to high inflation which lead to problems which had to be dealt with in 1984.
Jim Bolger was an interesting character who worked hard.
Dr. Michael Bassett's views of what attributes are needed to become a good Prime Minister:
- High ambitions
- Good health
- Basic intelligence
- Good education
- Ability to come across well on television - you have got to give a quick summary in twenty seconds. Clark and Key excelled at this.
- Supportive home environment is vital.
- Good temperament
- Capacity to make right decisions rather than popular decisions.
- Capacity to convey the message of a better world.
Iain Valentine thanked Dr. Bassett for his wonderful presentation.