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 fuelled 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. 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 in New York City, 1984. His stand against nuclear weapons attracted international attention. 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 cancelled 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. 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 [economic] gains, 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. Labour had never come remotely close to winning the wealthy east Auckland seat before, even at its high-tide victories in 1972 and 1984. Tizard's near-win fuelled 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 [National] seat 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.
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.
Leadership challenge and resignation 's letter accepting Lange's 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==