{"id":82056,"date":"2025-10-16T11:31:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T11:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/82056\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T11:31:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T11:31:17","slug":"jim-bolger-had-a-genuine-impact-on-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/82056\/","title":{"rendered":"Jim Bolger had a genuine impact on New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Analysis: After Jim Bolger died yesterday aged 90<\/a>, TVNZ’s Chief Correspondent looks back on the former prime minister\u2019s life and career.<\/p>\n

Jim Bolger was, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said, this morning, \u201ca leader of conviction, a reformer of consequence, and a servant of the people whose legacy has shaped our nation in profound and lasting ways\u201d. <\/p>\n

At first, the convictions appeared to belong more to his Cabinet colleagues: Finance Minister Ruth Richardson in particular. Jim Bolger seemed to grow into his. He became Prime Minister in 1990, after the Labour Government of David Lange, then Geoffrey Palmer, then Mike Moore, had proven you can spontaneously combust more than once. <\/p>\n

After leaving Parliament in 1998, Bolger served as New Zealand’s ambassador to the United States until 2002.\u00a0 (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

National\u2019s 1990 election campaign featured Bolger repeatedly promising a \u201cdecent society\u201d. It was meant as a respite from, and antidote to, Labour\u2019s chaos, unilateralism, and radicalism. The country was punch drunk. The Nats romped home. It was then, and remember this was still under first past the post voting, the most one-side election victory in our history. <\/p>\n

Three years later, only three years, National won by just a seat. One seat. From the sublime to the ridiculous. <\/p>\n

\"Jim<\/p>\n

Jim Bolger at the State Memorial Service for Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in Wellington in 2021. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

As a 3 News political reporter, I was with Jim Bolger and the National Party faithful in Te K\u016biti on election night in 1993. It felt like someone had stolen their pants. The evening grew quieter and more awkward. There has never been a one term National government. As the night stumbled on, it became a distinct possibility. \u201cBugger the pollsters,\u201d Bolger said, after having been almost assured of a comfortable victory. <\/p>\n

What, perhaps, he really meant, was \u201cbugger the past three years\u201d. <\/p>\n

The country was reacting to a policy platform, largely unmandated in 1990, that had been led by Richardson (although, not her alone). <\/p>\n

Among other things, Richardson\u2019s 1991 \u201cMother of all Budgets\u201d actually cut social welfare benefits. If it was \u201cdecency\u201d, it wasn\u2019t the version expected. The Employment Contracts Act deregulated the labour market. Its critics feared it would turn a country in which dad would work at the Post Office for 40 years into a conglomeration of frontier workplaces. <\/p>\n

Tributes flow for New Zealand\u2019s 35th prime minister who died peacefully with his family around him.\u00a0 (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Unions mobilised. National\u2019s popularity plummeted. Richardson wandered the halls of Parliament repeating her favourite acronym, TINA \u2013 There Is No Alternative. The country didn\u2019t believe her. <\/p>\n

During this period, Bolger frequently looked as confused and unhappy as someone who suffers from heliophobia being kidnapped by a lighthouse. <\/p>\n

But he didn\u2019t blink. He stared it down. <\/p>\n

After the death row reprieve of 1993, he fired Richardson. <\/p>\n

Coalition with Winston Peters<\/p>\n

In 1996, he formed the country\u2019s first MMP government by entering into a coalition with New Zealand First and Winston Peters. History being made, yes. But what\u2019s more discretely remarkable about that coalition deal is that Peters had also been in that first Bolger Cabinet, and \u201cbig Jim\u201d had fired him, too. New Zealand First was ultimately born out of that.<\/p>\n

‘Towering figure’ – Former NZ Prime Minister Jim Bolger dies – Watch on TVNZ+<\/a><\/p>\n

That only two elections later, the two men would marry themselves into government tells you a lot about both of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the leader of Mr Bolger\u2019s coalition partner,\u201d Peters said in a statement this morning<\/a>, \u201cI can attest he was a man of his word. He did what he said he would do – and we ran our Coalition Government with integrity, focus and a fidelity to New Zealanders who had delivered a majority to our two political parties.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Peters<\/p>\n

Peters and Bolger led New Zealand\u2019s first MMP Government from 1996 onwards, a coalition between NZ First and National. (Source: TVNZ)<\/p>\n

That may be history being written by the victors, but it\u2019s also the story of two men who believed in victory more than in holding a grudge. In the end, I suspect they really liked each other. (And there may be more than a few empty bottles of Scotch that would attest to that.) <\/p>\n

Bolger was frequently underestimated. He was tough, but he was also devastated when the Nats and Jenny Shipley rolled him in 1997. And philosophical, too. I once sat beside him on a flight back from a South Pacific Forum and he said to me, \u201cwant to know what\u2019s left of you after you leave politics? Take your hand out of glass of water and see how much of the hand shape remains.\u201d <\/p>\n

With him, that wasn\u2019t true. <\/p>\n

Commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi <\/p>\n

What remains, I think, is his enduring and heartfelt commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi (or the Treaty, as we tended to call it then). Younger readers may not know this, but Bolger had been a sheep farmer in the King Country. P\u0101keh\u0101 as. Conservative as. As far from woke as an alarm clock on speed. <\/p>\n

And when he shepherded the Tainui and Ng\u0101i Tahu Treaty settlements over the line on behalf of the Crown, he declared something about our history and our responsibility to acknowledge and respond to it that was meaningful in ways that have endured and made us better. <\/p>\n

He never resiled from that. There was something deeply honourable about his belief in Te Tiriti, and our collective obligation to honour it. Perhaps it was the decency he promised us in 1990. <\/p>\n

Beyond that, he was a glowingly proud husband and dad. He loved Joan and she loved him. They had nine children. At Premier House functions when I was in the Parliamentary Press Gallery, the Bolger children would carry round the hors d’oeuvre trays. (It always felt like the sausage rolls had been homemade.) He would stop, mid-sentence, to update you on the progress at school of whichever of the nine was handing you a cheese straw. He seldom spoke more happily. <\/p>\n

And maybe that\u2019s what the Treaty settlements were about \u2013 a belief in wh\u0101nau. And our obligations to care for each other. <\/p>\n

\"Jim<\/p>\n

Jim Bolger was Prime Minister from 1990-97. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

There were times when some of the policies of that National government of 1990\u20131993 felt almost wilfully cruel. That\u2019s part of his legacy, too. <\/p>\n

But when, in November 1997, as he signed the Ng\u0101i Tahu Deed of Settlement\u201d, he said, \u201cas I look across the marae and beyond I am reminded of the journey that we as a nation have embarked on since the signing of the Treaty 157 years ago\u201d, he was actually leading many P\u0101keh\u0101 on that journey. That\u2019s a legacy to hold tight to. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo other government has approached the settlement of such grievances with greater determination, goodwill and courage\u201d, he said. It was a low bar, sure, but true. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Crown has moved from ignorance about the depth of M\u0101ori grievance, to suspicion about the insistence of M\u0101ori leaders, to a willingness to work together to find solutions. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know that I speak for everyone when I say that today is a special occasion and one that will undoubtedly be recognised so by our history books.\u201d <\/p>\n

Yes, it will. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Analysis: After Jim Bolger died yesterday aged 90, TVNZ’s Chief Correspondent looks back on the former prime minister\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11507,111,43,139,69,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-82056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-national-party","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}