David Lange (1992)

David Russell Lange ( ; 4 August 1942 – 13 August 2005) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 32nd prime minister of New Zealand from 1984 to 1989.

Lange was born and brought up in Otahuhu, the son of a medical doctor. He became a lawyer by profession, and represented poor and struggling people in civil rights causes in the rapidly changing Auckland of the 1970s. After serving as legal advisor to the Polynesian Panthers, Lange was first elected to the New Zealand Parliament in the Mangere by-election of 1977. He became a prominent debater within parliament, and soon gained a reputation for cutting wit (sometimes directed against himself) and eloquence. Lange became the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition in 1983, succeeding Bill Rowling.

When Prime Minister Robert Muldoon called an election for July 1984 Lange led his party to a landslide victory, becoming, at the age of 41, New Zealand's youngest prime minister of the 20th century. Lange took various measures to deal with the economic problems he had inherited from the previous government. Some of the measures he took were controversial; the free-market ethos of the Fourth Labour Government did not always conform to traditional expectations of a social-democratic party. He also fulfilled a campaign promise to deny New Zealand's port facilities to nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered vessels, making New Zealand a nuclear-free zone. Lange and his party were re-elected in August 1987; he resigned two years later and was succeeded by his deputy, Geoffrey Palmer. He retired from parliament in 1996, and died in 2005 from renal failure and blood disease at the age of 63. Prime Minister Helen Clark described New Zealand's nuclear-free legislation as his legacy.

Early life

Lange was born on 4 August 1942 in Otahuhu, a small industrial borough since absorbed into Auckland. He was the oldest of four children of Eric Roy Lange, a general practitioner and obstetrician and grandson of a German settler, and Phoebe Fysh Lange, who trained as a nurse in her native Tasmania before she migrated to New Zealand. The family had lived in New Zealand for so long that the original pronunciation of their surname, ''lan-ge'', "had all but been forgotten"; Lange himself would pronounce it as ''long-ee''.

Lange's autobiography suggests that he admired his soft-spoken and dryly humorous father, while his demanding and sometimes overbearing mother tested his tolerance. His cousin Michael Bassett reflected that Roy "knew how to avoid trouble rather than confront it", and David developed a similar aversion to conflict.

Lange received his formal education at Fairburn Primary School, Papatoetoe Intermediate School and Otahuhu College, then at the University of Auckland in 1960, where he graduated in law in 1966. He attributed his talents with oratory to the need to compensate for his clumsiness during his intermediate school days.

Lange worked from an early age and held a number of jobs; in the third form he performed a paper-round for '' The New Zealand Herald'' in Mangere East, and later changed from delivery-boy to collecting the money. The following year he delivered telegrams, before applying to work at the Westfield Freezing Works in the role that would initially pay his way through university. The poor work conditions at the freezing works provided an opportunity to identify with the misery of fellow workers, and an appreciation for the impact of strikes on ordinary workers.

In 1961 he started a job as a law clerk at Haigh, Charters and Carthy, a role that had varied work and clients, including the Communist Party. On 13 March 1967 Lange was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of New Zealand. After his admission he spent months travelling across Australia, Asia and Britain. On 3 August 1968, he married Naomi Crampton. He gained a Master of Laws in 1970 with first-class honours, specialising in criminal law and medico-legal issues. Lange practised law in Northland and Auckland for some years, often giving legal representation to the most dispossessed members of Auckland society – he assisted the Polynesian Panther Party (and, by extension, the Pacific Island community) to disseminate legal rights information and legal aid during the '70s dawn raids.

In July 1976 Lange was involved in the legal defense of former cabinet minister Phil Amos after he protested the visit of the 20,000 tonne American cruiser in his small yacht the ''Dolphin'' by impeding its entry to Auckland Harbour. The cruiser was forced to stop mid-stream to allow grappling hooks to be thrown to pull the ''Dolphin'' clear. Afterwards Amos had been arrested and charged with obstruction. He was convicted, but the conviction was overturned on appeal by Lange. Amos' protest instantly became a headline-grabbing piece of political drama, bringing public attention to the anti-nuclear issue. Lange was inspired by Amos' stand and following his example would later pass a law banning the visit by nuclear propelled or armed ships to New Zealand.

Political career

Lange joined the Labour Party in 1963, and helped in the campaigns of Phil Amos in 1963 and Norman Douglas in 1966. In 1974 his cousin Michael Bassett suggested that Lange should stand on the Labour ticket for the Auckland City Council. The Council was dominated by conservative interests and the only Labour candidates elected were Jim Anderton and Catherine Tizard; Lange was "...halfway down the field .... which was better than I expected." Lange's father Roy, who was a doctor at Otahuhu, had delivered Bassett. The two would later have strong disagreements, prompting Lange to remark, "My father had delivered him, and it became plain in later days that he must have dropped him."

Lange then stood for Labour in Hobson in 1975, and came third. In 1977 he entered the race for the Labour nomination in a by-election for the safer seat of Mangere. He saw off more experienced candidates (some of whom were former MPs) to win the Labour candidacy. He won the Mangere by-election, retaining the area for Labour.

Lange then represented Mangere, a working-class Auckland electorate with a large Māori population, in the New Zealand Parliament. On becoming an MP, Lange quickly made an impression in the House as a debater, a wit, and the scourge of Prime Minister Robert Muldoon. In his maiden speech, he suggested that New Zealand children had fewer rights than animals received under the Animals Protection Act 1960, and complained of "appalling" rail service from Auckland to Mangere.

After the Lange was elevated to the Shadow Cabinet. In December 1978 Labour leader Bill Rowling appointed Lange Shadow Minister for Social Welfare. On 1 November 1979 Lange, after encouragement from parliamentary friends Roger Douglas and Michael Bassett, challenged Bob Tizard for the deputy leadership. Lange succeeded in the challenge, narrowly defeating Tizard 20 votes to 18. In addition to becoming Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Lange became Shadow Attorney-General, Shadow Minister of Justice and Shadow Minister of Pacific Island Affairs.

In 1980 Lange and a group consisting of Douglas, Bassett, Richard Prebble and Mike Moore tried to remove Rowling as leader of the Labour Party. Following the coup attempt Lange resigned as deputy leader in January 1981 to offer himself for re-election as a vote of confidence. At Labour's first caucus meeting of the year he was re-elected as deputy leader. After Labour lost the 1981 general election, the group, later known as the "Fish and Chip Brigade" (in reference to a picture published at the time showing the plotters eating fish and chips) succeeded in their second attempt in 1983.

Leader of the Opposition

Lange succeeded Rowling as parliamentary leader of the Labour Party and as Leader of the Opposition on 3 February 1983. Significant debate emerged within the Labour Party on the party's economic direction, following a paper by Roger Douglas to the party's policy council. Eventually a compromise was drafted by Geoffrey Palmer, which Lange described as "A manifesto which appealed to the right, the left, the centre and the totally bewildered. It was, in fact, anodyne."

Muldoon unexpectedly called a snap election in 1984, as a result of Marilyn Waring voting for a member's bill introduced by Richard Prebble to introduce a nuclear-free zone. The timing of the election prevented Labour from creating a proper election platform, instead using the Palmer draft. Lange commented that the party went into the election with an unfinished argument for an economic policy.

Lange led Labour to a landslide victory, helped by vote splitting between the National Party and the New Zealand Party. However, before Lange was sworn in as Prime Minister a foreign exchange crisis arose, which led to a constitutional crisis. The New Zealand dollar was overvalued and following the announcement of the snap election in June, traders started selling off the New Zealand dollar on the assumption that Labour would win the election and devalue the currency.

Muldoon refused to follow Lange's instruction to devalue the currency, making the dollar's situation more untenable. Eventually on 19 July Muldoon relented, after his position as leader of the National party was threatened by members of his caucus.

Prime Minister

David Lange was sworn in as New Zealand's 32nd Prime Minister on 26 July 1984, becoming, at the age of 41, New Zealand's youngest prime minister of the 20th century, a record later surpassed by only one other, Mike Moore in 1990.

First term: 1984–1987

During his first term of office as Prime Minister, Lange also held the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Rogernomics

The currency crisis and devaluation of the New Zealand dollar spurred on the reform drive of Roger Douglas, who Lange made Minister of Finance in the new government. These reforms were soon dubbed ' Rogernomics', in a similar vein to Reaganomics.

Upon coming to office, Lange's government was confronted by a severe balance of payments crisis, as a result of the deficits fueled by Muldoon's imposition of a two-year freeze on wages and prices, and stubborn maintenance of an unsustainable exchange rate. Such economic conditions prompted Lange to remark: "We ended up being run very similarly to a Polish shipyard". Their first move was to hold an Economic Summit on 14 September 1984, similar to the one held in Australia by Bob Hawke the previous year, to create a feeling of consensus and to lay out the underlying problems in New Zealand's economy. The summit however was dominated by advocacy of radical economic reforms similar to what had been proposed by the Treasury Department, foreshadowing the Lange government's propensity to approach issues from a fundamentally economic standpoint. Margaret Wilson, the Labour Party's president, was deliberately not invited to the summit, a sign of the speed and intolerant approach to opposition that would characterise Rogernomics. Douglas himself saw the summit as a theatrical preparation for his first budget.

Lange and Douglas engaged in a rapid program of deregulation and the removal of tariffs and subsidies. The first sector affected was New Zealand's agricultural community, a traditionally National-supporting community. The loss of subsidies hit some farmers hard. Other changes brought criticism from many people in Labour's traditional supporter base. The Labour Party also lost support from many elderly people by introducing a superannuation surcharge after having promised not to reduce superannuation.

Douglas also deregulated the finance markets, removing restrictions on interest rates, lending and foreign exchange. In March 1985, with Lange's blessing, the New Zealand dollar was floated. From 1 April 1987, several government departments were corporatised into state-owned enterprises, with massive loss of jobs.

On the role of Government Lange said "It is there to be the securer of its citizens' welfare. Where the market works well, it should be given its head. Where the market results in manifest inequity, or poor economic performance, the Government must get involved."

International affairs and nuclear-free policy

Lange made his name on the international stage with his steadfast leadership in the anti-nuclear weapons movement. His government refused to allow nuclear-capable ships into New Zealand's territorial waters, a policy the country continues to this day. In February 1985, Lange famously rejected the arrival of the USS ''Buchanan'', supported by a recommendation from the acting prime minister Geoffrey Palmer. The ship was not armed with nuclear weapons but was capable of carrying them. This displeased the United States; in response, all intelligence flow to New Zealand was stopped and joint military exercises were cancelled. In 1985, there were 22 programmed exercises canceled or restructured, resulting in approximately 6,000 man-days of training being taken away.

During a televised Oxford Union debate in March 1985, Lange gained an extraordinary international reputation. Lange argued for the proposition that "Nuclear weapons are morally indefensible", in opposition to the American televangelist Jerry Falwell. Lange regarded his appearance at the Oxford Union as the high point of his career in politics. His speech included the memorable statement:

"There is no humanity in the logic which holds that my country must be obliged to play host to nuclear weapons because others in the West are playing host to nuclear weapons. That is the logic which refuses to admit that there is any alternative to nuclear weapons, when plainly there is. It is self defeating logic, just as the weapons themselves are self defeating, to compel an ally to accept nuclear weapons against the wishes of that ally is to take the moral position of totalitarianism which allows for no self determination."

His speech also included an often-quoted statement made in response to a question posed by another debater:

In 1987, Lange's government passed the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987. This Act effectively declared New Zealand a nuclear-free zone and banned all nuclear-capable ships from entering New Zealand waters. The United States regarded this legislation as a breach of treaty obligations under ANZUS and announced that it would suspend its treaty obligations to New Zealand until the re-admission of U.S. Navy ships to New Zealand ports, characterising New Zealand as "a friend, but not an ally".

''Rainbow Warrior'' affair

Relations with France became strained when French agents of the DGSE bombed and sank the Greenpeace ship the '' Rainbow Warrior'' on 10 July 1985 while it lay moored in Auckland Harbour, killing photographer Fernando Pereira. In June 1986 Lange obtained a political deal with France over the '' Rainbow Warrior'' affair, presided over by United Nations Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar. France agreed to pay compensation of NZ$13 million (US$6.5 million) to New Zealand and also to apologise. In return, Lange agreed that French authorities could detain the convicted French agents Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur at the French military base on Hao Atoll for three years. However, both spies were freed by May 1988, less than two years later, in violation of the agreement.

Social reforms

During Lange's first term in office, the Lange government implemented many social reforms. On 8 August 1986, the Lange government enacted the Homosexual Law Reform Act which legalised consensual sex of males 16 years and older and allowed them to enter into sexual relationships with one another without the fear of being prosecuted. On 1 August 1987, the Māori Language Act 1987 was enacted making te reo Māori an official language of New Zealand.

1987 general election

Lange's government was re-elected at the August 1987 general election, the first time a Labour government had won a second term since 1938. The government increased its share of the popular vote, although this may have been due to less vote splitting. Lange toured the country throughout the campaign and faced, for the first time, protests against his government, especially in provincial areas. Unusually, Labour did not produce a manifesto for the election, primarily due to disagreement between Douglas and Lange over the direction the government would take if re-elected. Lange sought to focus on social services in the second term, and declared in his victory speech, "I'm proud that we are now, in the next three years, going to seal those conomicgains, in health and education and social welfare progress."

On the night, Labour's candidate Judith Tizard came within 406 votes of winning the traditionally National-held seat of Remuera; she had been forecast as the winner by initial vote counting. Tizard's near-win fueled Lange's misgivings about the direction his government was taking. He commented, "That election night was a great revelation for me. That was an apprehension on my part that we had actually abandoned our constituency. And it set me to think what on earth have we done that we come within 400 votes of winning the true-blue ationalseat of Remuera. And that struck me as being a dangerous flirtation, and an act of treachery to the people we were born to represent."

Second term: 1987–1989

Following the 1987 election, Lange made himself Minister of Education. He stated that he gave himself the portfolio to "draw a line in the sand" against the influence of the "Treasury " (Douglas, Prebble and David Caygill), and in accordance with his wishes to emphasise social policy in his second term.

Fijian coups d'état

Lange was criticised for his reaction to the coups d'état in Fiji in May and September 1987. Later, in his autobiography, Lange stated:

There was never any question that New Zealand might use force to restore the democratically elected government, since we were not asked to intervene by its representatives and had we been, we did not have the military resources. I did however ask our military leaders to ready themselves to come to the assistance of any New Zealand citizens who might be endangered, and I met with considerable obstruction.

Stock market crash

The stock market crash of 19/20 October 1987 damaged confidence in the New Zealand economy, which went into a prolonged recession from December of that year, and remained so until June 1991. During that time unemployment skyrocketed 170%, the unemployment rate rose from 4.2% in the September 1987 quarter to 7.5% in the June 1989 quarter. Lange noted with bitterness that Douglas took advantage of the crash to "rubbish" his stated ambitions to have the government focus on social policy, and push for more economic reforms.

Tomorrow's Schools

As Minister of Education, Lange pushed the introduction of ''Tomorrow's Schools'', a radical restructure of New Zealand's primary and secondary school education system. The Department of Education was downsized to become the Ministry of Education and have a supervisory role, education boards were abolished and parents at each school elected their own boards of trustees.

The reforms were criticised for the influence of New Right ideas and their effect of introducing market mechanisms and notions of competition in the education system. Lange's appointment of businessman Brian Picot to head a task force into educational reform was taken as a sign of the government giving too much priority to economic and competitive concerns over the social aspect of education.

Leadership challenge and resignation

In 1988 consensus on economic policy amongst the Labour leadership finally broke down, with Douglas resigning after Lange overruled his radical flat income-tax and universal basic income proposal. Douglas continued his campaign against Lange through public statements, the unauthorised release of cabinet papers and on 21 December 1988 an unsuccessful challenge against Lange's leadership in the Labour caucus. To date it is the only instance when a sitting Prime Minister has been challenged for leadership.

The radical economic reforms had alienated much of the Labour Party, and it fractured; in April 1989 Jim Anderton, a backbench MP, formed a breakaway NewLabour Party, taking approximately one third of Labour's membership.

However, the caucus re-elected Douglas to the Cabinet on 3 August 1989, and Lange interpreted this as a vote of no-confidence in his leadership. He tendered his resignation five days later on 8 August 1989. Lange became the first elected Labour Prime Minister who neither died in office nor was voted out in an election.

Leadership

Lange's leadership abilities were mixed and at times contradictory. As one of the most media-capable New Zealand prime ministers, he was a quick-witted orator and able to speak inspirationally to topics, yet was sensitive to criticism and averse to conflict. He often became caught up in how he was seen to perform and would often avoid confronting angry ministers by using a rear entrance. Despite being media-savvy, Lange's political skills were judged to be poor by political scientist Stephen Levine.

Motor racing

During his tenure as Prime Minister, Lange engaged in competitive motor racing, appearing in the New Zealand One Make Ford Laser Sport series.

Post-premiership

Cabinet minister: 1989–1990

Geoffrey Palmer succeeded Lange as Labour party leader and Prime Minister in 1989, Lange became Attorney-General, Minister in Charge of the Serious Fraud Office and a Minister of State. Palmer was then replaced by Mike Moore as Prime Minister shortly before the 1990 general election in November, which Labour lost by a landslide. Lange was re-elected at this election (and again in 1993) as the member for Mangere.

Opposition and resignation from parliament

After the government was defeated in 1990, he was appointed Shadow Attorney-General by Moore. After Moore led Labour to narrow loss in the 1993 general election, Lange backed deputy leader Helen Clark for the leadership against Moore. Clark replaced Moore as Labour leader and made Lange Shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs and Shadow Minister of Racing. In 1991 and 1992 he wrote a Monday column in ''The Dominion'', published alternately with Simon Upton who, Lange commented, "writes erudite obfuscation tempered by occasional attempts to explain the arcana of the health reforms."

Lange was a supporter of changing New Zealand's flag, and wrote in 1994: " stranger who saw the Australian flag and the New Zealand flag outside adjacent buildings would assume that some British hotel chain was advertising deluxe and standard rooms". Lange also expressed support for a New Zealand republic, stating: "Do such things matter? They certainly do. We suffer in this country from a lack of emotional focus... New Zealand will become a republic just as Britain will be blurred into Europe".

In failing health, Lange retired from Parliament before the 1996 general election. In his valedictory speech, he reflected on the pain caused by his government's economic reforms: "I want to thank those people whose lives were wrecked by us. They had been taught for years they had the right to an endless treadmill of prosperity and assurance, and we did them. People over 60 hate me. They hate me because I was the symbol of what caused that assurance of support and security to be shattered. That is something that has always been part of my burden." His Labour Party colleague Taito Phillip Field succeeded him as the member for the Mangere electorate.

Life after politics

Lange was a New Zealand Rugby League board member and served as the organisation's Vice-President.

In an interview with ''The New Zealand Herald'' (published on 3 July 2004) the reporter asked Lange:

:''Do you think if the election of 1984 had not been a snap election, there would have been time for the opposing forces within the party to have successfully blocked the reforms or to have severely limited them?''

Lange replied:

Litigation

In 1996 Lange sued the Australian Broadcasting Corporation over an alleged defamation that it broadcast about him. The ABC used the defence that there exists in the Australian Constitution an implied right to freedom of speech on political matters, but the High Court of Australia found against them, reversing the then existing law (see '' Lange v Australian Broadcasting Corporation''). The case was later settled on terms favourable to Lange.

In a key New Zealand defamation case ('' Lange v Atkinson'' 0003 NZLR 385), Lange sued political scientist Joe Atkinson for representing him in the magazine '' North & South'' as a lazy prime minister. In a 1998 judgment, and on appeal in 2000, the courts affirmed a new qualified privilege for the media to discuss politicians when expressing the criticisms as the "honest belief" of the author.

Accidental release of secret report

In January 2006, Archives New Zealand released to the ''Sunday Star-Times'' newspaper a box of David Lange's previously classified documents. They revealed New Zealand's ongoing involvement in Western alliance espionage, and a threat by the United States to spy on New Zealand if it did not back down from its ban on nuclear ships. Archives New Zealand chief executive Dianne Macaskill

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