The 1990 New Zealand Labour Party leadership election was held on 4 September to determine the leadership of the

New Zealand Labour Party The New Zealand Labour Party ( mi, Rōpū Reipa o Aotearoa), or simply Labour (), is a centre-left political party in New Zealand. The party's platform programme describes its founding principle as democratic socialism, while observers descr ...

. The leadership was won by MP

Mike Moore Michael Moore is an American filmmaker and author. Michael Moore may also refer to: Academia * Michael G. Moore (fl. 1970s–2020s), professor of education * Michael S. Moore (academic) (fl. 1960s–2020s), American law professor * Michael Moore ...

Background

By 1990 the Labour Party had been torn apart by internal frictions between the supporters of

Rogernomics In February 1985, journalists at the ''New Zealand Listener'' coined the term Rogernomics, a portmanteau of "Roger" and "economics" (by analogy with "Reaganomics"), to describe the neoliberal economic policies followed by Roger Douglas. Douglas ...

(open market free trade policy) and those still favouring Labour's traditional protectionist fiscal policies. There had been two leadership challenges in the past 12 months with opponents of Rogernomics being successful. However Labour's popularity had fallen further still due to the increasing public outrage over the reforms. After seeing off a challenge from

Roger Douglas Sir Roger Owen Douglas (born 5 December 1937) is a retired New Zealand politician who served as a minister in two Labour governments. He became arguably best known for his prominent role in New Zealand's radical economic restructuring in the 198 ...

in 1988,

David Lange 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 ...

had resigned mid-1989 and replaced with

Geoffrey Palmer Geoffrey Palmer may refer to: Politicians *Sir Geoffrey Palmer, 1st Baronet (1598–1670), English lawyer and politician *Sir Geoffrey Palmer, 3rd Baronet (1655–1732), English politician, Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicestershire *Geoffrey Pal ...

who, while respected, was unpopular. Palmer was persuaded to step aside in favour of a more suitable candidate more capable of lessening the damage of what was already being predicted as a certain defeat for Labour.

Candidates

Mike Moore

Moore was one of the senior cabinet ministers in the government and was ranked third in Labour's caucus. He was a supporter of the Rogernomics reforms, albeit less radical. As a result he was seen as a more acceptable alternative leader to both Douglas and his supporters as well as critics of Douglas. He had previously stood for the leadership in 1989 against Palmer but was defeated.

Richard Northey

Northey, an MP serving since 1984, was a surprise candidate to most. He was the sitting member for and was not a member of cabinet. Many saw his candidature as merely token and he was viewed as a

stalking horse A stalking horse is a figure used to test a concept or mount a challenge on behalf of an anonymous third party. If the idea proves viable or popular, the anonymous third party can then declare its interest and advance the concept with little risk o ...

like figure.

Result

A caucus vote was held on 4 September 1990 in which Moore was successful.

Helen Clark Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...

, Palmer's deputy leader retained her position despite the change in leaders.

Leadership ballot

Aftermath

Moore would lead Labour until he himself was defeated as leader in 1993 by his deputy

. He served as Prime Minister for 8 weeks before going on to lose the next election in a landslide, and narrowly lose in

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

. Northey lost his seat in the 1990 election, but returned in 1993 only to be defeated again in 1996. Palmer later stated he had been prepared to lead the party to a likely defeat but was just as happy to step aside "I was actually pretty pleased to get out at the end of 1990. I was quite happy to run through as PM and take the defeat, but if other people wanted to do it — be my guest"!

Notes

References

* * * {{New Zealand Labour Party Labour Party leadership

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

Indirect elections New Zealand Labour Party leadership election