Presentation to the National Library Society: 13 June, 2001.
Keywords Political Economy & History
I thought it might be interesting to describe how The Nationbuilders came to be written. It is a useful exercise because books are linear and readers – beginning at the beginning and reading through to the end – may think that is the way each is written. Some books are, but many are not – including this one. Let me tell you how it was.
Listener 26 May 2001
Keywords Political Economy & History
In front of me as I write this, is a 1990 circular to journalists by a media chief, who reports being approached by a public relations consultant complaining that too much space was being given to opponents of rogernomics (the euphemism is ‘continue to use the same small group of commentators’), and suggesting that other economists should be used. Attached was the consultant’s suggestions. The circular does not mention which interests the lobbyist represented, nor that a goodly number of those proposed were employees or advisors to the consultant’s clients.
Revised paper for The Stout Centre Research Centre conference on ‘Holyoake’s Lieutenants: 1960-1972′, 27-28 April, 2001. Parliament Buildings, published in Holyoake’s Lieutenants ed M. Clarke (Dunmore Press 2003)
Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy & History;
The term of the second National Government, from 1960 to 1972, can be split into almost exactly equal economic phases, changing at the end of 1966, when almost coincidentally the Minister of Finance also changed. The second from March 1967, was Rob Muldoon, well enough known and important enough to have a conference of his own in due course. From December 1960 to February 1967 the finance and economics lieutenant had been Harry Lake, an almost shadowy figure in the politically histories of New Zealand.
A response to an Economist article of 30 November 2000.
Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy & History;
A summary of The Economist’s position of the New Zealand economic reforms might be:
New Zealand had to change its economic policies from at least the early 1980s. The path of the reforms was riddled with ‘blunders’ and ‘hubris’. The Economist enthusiastically supported them at the time, despite warnings of the weaknesses that the microeconomic reforms were extremist and the macroeconomic reforms faulty. The outcome has been a much poorer performance than other countries – such as Australia – which tackled the same problems with a more thoughtful, incremental and technically competent approach. This conclusion applies even ignoring the rising inequality and the social distress. Nevertheless, The Economist thinks New Zealand should continue to pursue the policies which have failed in the past. Victory is about implementing ‘right’ policies, not getting better outcomes.
The Story of Our Economy has been one of Secret – and Occasionally not so Secret – Debt Crises.
Listener 11 November, 2000
Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy & History;
In 1939 New Zealand faced a debt crisis. The government had to roll over £17m of debt and borrow a bit more to pay for imports in excess to export revenue. The Minister of Finance, Walter Nash went to London to obtain the money. The terms initially offered were so harsh that expressions like ‘bankruptcy’ were used. Privately, of course, for the public had no idea how close a run thing it was. Writing up this story recently led me to think just how much the story of the New Zealand economy has been one of secret – and very occasionally not so secret – debt crises. Listing all of them would take more than this column, but many readers will recall the currency crisis of 1984.
Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Volume Five (1941-1960), 2000, p.504-506.
Keywords: Political Economy & History
William Ball Sutch was born in Southport, Lancashire, England, on 27 June 1907, the third of five children. He arrived in New Zealand at the age of eight months, when his family migrated to Wellington. His father, Ebenezer (Ted) Sutch, was a journeyman carpenter, and his mother, Ellen Sutch (née Ball), a dressmaker. Both had determined characters, and were widely read in the social fields, despite having only elementary schooling. They were staunch Methodists and were involved in the United Ancient Order of Druids Friendly Society. The household allocated various tasks to each child, independent of gender. Bill’’s included making the soap, jam, pickles and Yorkshire pudding, polishing the floors, turning the mangle, bringing the findings (such as cotton thread) for his mother’’s work, and minding the baby. His strong-minded and financially canny mother, whom he adored, gave him a lifelong commitment to women’s causes.
Chapter 11 of The Nationbuilders The ex-cabinet minister had been through many battering years including the fag end of the Fourth Labour Government, losing a safe seat in the 1990 landslide. But his paper recalling the exhilaration of Norman Kirk’s time, lifted a quarter of a century off the mid-fifty year old.[1] Kirk alone among…
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Chapter 6 of The Nationbuilders
Keywords: Health; Political Economy & History;
Douglas Robb may appear to be among the most privileged of the nationbuilders in this book. His father was a manager of the Kauri Timber Company and the father-in-law from his marriage to Helen Seabrook in 1935 was even better placed. He was too young for the First World War, too old for the Second. The depression of the 1930s did not impact as heavily on the practice of the promising young surgeon as it did for many other occupations. But a year before he was born, Robb’s father came to New Zealand because the climate would be better for his tuberculosis. Two of his sons caught the disease in their infancy. There were no particularly effective therapies in those days, and the eldest died from TB at the age of 21. The second, Douglas, suffered until he was almost 40, when the symptoms suddenly disappeared.
Chapter 3 of The Nationbuilders Keywords: Political Economy & History; It is easier to become prime minister than to be a good one, for that involves transcending the leading a political party to leading a nation. Unlike the much beloved Michael Joseph Savage, Peter Fraser was bereft of public charisma. Yet he is the greatest…
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Listener 16 September, 2000
Keywords: Political Economy & History;
Barry Gustafson’s comprehensive biography of Rob Muldoon was launched in the same week that the New Zealand exchange rate sunk to a record low against the US dollar. Had Muldoon been alive he would have predicted the collapse (although not its exact date), and he would be predicting further turbulence on the world financial markets (as he did before the 1987 sharemarket crash). Of course Muldoon got a lot of things wrong, but his single biggest prediction proved far too correct. He resisted the advice to liberalise the New Zealand economy other than at a cautious pace, because he said it would not work and it would damage people.
Auckland University Press. 2001. 318pp.
Who shaped the New Zealand nation in the middle years of the twentieth century: Whose were the ideas. the visions. the practical skills: The Nationbuilders is a collection of linked essays on individuals and companies in the years from 1931 to 1984 who contributed in major ways to building a New Zealand nation. They include well known individuals like W.B. Sutch and forgotten influences like Douglas Robb. The book captures the intertwining of the lives of politicians. their advisors and their mentors as well as the experiences which drove them.
While the focus is on the economic strategy of the times. Brian Easton also looks at the cultural. social. union. business and foreign policy strands in the nationbuilding project. The book finally explores what happened to nationbuilding in recent years and options for the future. An original lively and provocative book. it is backed by powerful nationalistic emotions and by a deep distaste at the kind of country that has been fashioned since 1984.
Chapter 14 of The Nationbuilders
Keywords: Political Economy & History;
The day I finished the first draft of this chapter I walked past the Henry Lang Memorial sculpture, in a small park nestled between various government buildings, where once had been Broadcasting House, an architectural gem in its own right, and an important centre of the nation’s culture in general, and drama and music in particular. In the Great Hall of Parliament House, magnificently restored by the Warren & Mahoney partnership, Helen Clark, the Prime Minister announce a major funding and structural package, ‘Building Cultural Heritage’, for her adjunct portfolio, Arts, Culture and Heritage. Did I hear Peter Fraser and Norman Kirk chuckle? Henry Lang would have said, ‘absolutely first rate.’
Chapter 10 of The Nationbuilders The earlier part of his life. Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History; Sutch must have returned to New Zealand in 1951 with renewed self-confidence. His overseas sojourn had proved he was world class, while he had successfully published two books in the previous decade, and…
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Chapter 7 of The Nationbuilders Chapter 10 – later life from 1951Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History; Bill Sutch was not only one of a handful of public servants who shaped economic and social policy between the 1930s and the 1960s. His thinking has continued to influence economic and…
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Chapter 3 of The Nationbuilders Keywords: Political Economy & History; ‘Fraser ruled in very close consultation with the Federation of Labour. The other powers in the land were Walter Nash and Bernard Ashwin.’ [1] ‘[He] was clearly one of a small group – Nash, Fraser, and Walsh being the others – who were at the…
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This was originally intended as an appendix to Chapter 10 of The Nationbuilders. It was decided that the story distracted from the main themes of the chapter (and the book) and was omitted. It is placed here on the record. This is the version prepared in September 2000.
Keywords: Political Economy & History;
The evidence that Sutch was security compromised before the meetings which led up to the incident in Holloway Road in 1974 is almost non-existent. It is true he admired the Soviet Union, and the US government treated him as a security risk in the 1950s, although given its McCarthiest frame of mind that may say no more than he had thwarted the US over UNICEF, and in New York he was friends of East-Central Europeans (some of whom subsequently fled to the West), although apparently he had little to do with the Russians.
Chapter 12, The Nationbuilders. (This was published in 2000, and does not record that Sonja died in June 2005.)
Keywords: Labour Studies; Political Economy & History;
The choice of people to be included in this book is based on a list of over forty names. For reasons similar to those of The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, only dead nationbuilders were considered. There were a number of women in the list, but despite my trying – with a grim political correctness – none fitted into the story the book was telling. (For instance, Te Puea was building the Tainui nation.) It is, after all, but one story from all of those of the New Zealand nation. Those who saw early drafts often drew attention to the omission, but could not suggest a suitable candidate.
Listener 10 June, 2000
Keywords: Political Economy & History;
So much history in New Zealand ignores the economic context in which the people’s lives take place – censored out, like death itself. Attending a recent funeral of an ordinary New Zealander, it occurred to me that I could illustrate my point in his life.
My oration for Dad at his funeral service, 2 May 2000.
Keywords: Political Economy & History;
Tena kotou katoa. Friends of my father, and so friends of mine, and of his family, welcome to this service of remembrance of Harold Stewart Parnell Easton.
The Shift To A More Socially Responsible Economic Policy Is Also Supported by Public Opnion – With Real Political Implications.
Listener Cover Story: 25 March 2000
Keywords: Political Economy & History; Social Policy
The success of Rogernomics depended on New Zealanders changing their beliefs. Reforming economic and political institutions would not have been enough. People also had to think about governing the economy in quite different ways. The rhetoric of the reformers was that New Zealand had been a “nanny state” that did everything for its people. New circumstances and a poor economic performance (So they claimed) required a greater reliance on private enterprise and a major reduction in the range of activities of the state. New Zealanders had to reject their dependence on nanny and take greater responsibility for themselves.