David Lange: Nuclear free warrior
Former Prime Minister David Lange’s legacy is that of making New Zealand nuclear free.
He is remembered as the Prime Minister who was a mercurial, witty and outspoken politician, accused by his opponents of shooting from the lip.
He was a political leader who introduced an unlikely mixture of right-wing economic reforms and an adventurous anti-nuclear policy. If he annoyed and confounded both the Left and the Right for being simultaneously against nuclear weapons and for free-market reform, he united pretty much all for his distinctively Antipodean sense of humour.
Growing up in, leaving and returning to New Zealand
David Russell Lange was born on August 4, 1942, the son of an Auckland doctor. He developed into a Billy Bunter of a youth at school and, according to his mother, developed his bantering style to fend off the inevitable teasing which his large and imposing figure attracted. At Auckland University he graduated in law in 1966, and then worked for an insurance company and a bank in London.
While in England, Lange married Nottinghamshire woman Naomi Campton whom he had met at a West London mission. Both returned to New Zealand in 1968, and Lange spent several years tutoring at Auckland University. He completed a masters degree in law, as well as representing the underprivileged in Auckland courts, often without payment.
Lange practised law in Auckland from 1970 until he entered Parliament in 1977.
Quick rise to the top
In 1977 Lange began his rapid rise to the top of the New Zealand Labour Party when he won the safe Auckland working-class seat of Mangere in a by-election. Two years later he was elected party deputy leader and the next year his supporters failed, by a single vote, to install him as party leader.
His party lost the 1981 election, which in effect confirmed Lange’s succession. It also gave Lange, then an obese 23 stone, a chance to withdraw briefly from the political scene in 1982 for stomach-reducing surgery. As a result he shed several stone, making a dramatic improvement to his image as well as his figure. After the operation Lange said: "It was an important decision — otherwise I would be 28 stone by now." In 1982 Lange was elected party leader, and in 1984 he defeated the long-time Prime Minister Sir Robert Muldoon in a snap election.
Prime Minister Lange
While the Labour Government’s anti-nuclear policy precipitated a row with Washington that led to New Zealand’s effective suspension from the ANZUS alliance with United States and Australia, this did not harm Lange’s popularity. The French effectively added to his public support when they sent secret agents to New Zealand in July 1985 to blow up the Greenpeace protest ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour, killing a crew member. Describing this as "state-sponsored terrorism," Lange said that it showed the desperation of nuclear powers.
After winning the 1987 election with an increased majority after an unprecedented switch in allegiance by many former Tory voters, events began to go awry for "Lucky Lange". He had major clashes with his Finance Minister, beginning in January 1988, when he sidelined Douglas’s proposal for a flat tax of 23 cents in the dollar.
Douglas won the second round in July 1988 after a budget deficit blowout forecast. Lange wanted revenue adjustments so that he could maintain his pledge for a distributive second term — the reward to follow the pain of the austerity restructuring method of the first. Douglas convinced the Cabinet that the deficit had to be controlled by spending cuts.
It was this disagreement that Lange entered hospital complaining of chest pains. An X-ray showed a restriction of the left coronary artery which was cleared with a balloon angioplasty. Emerging from hospital in July 1988, Lange announced his plans to reduce his workload and to take care with diet and exercise.
He survived a vote of no-confidence in the middle of 1989. His response was to stand down as party leader and prime minister — citing ill-health — and he retired from Parliament in 1996. By this time, the conservative National Party was in power, and continuing Lange’s implementation of laissez-faire economics.
The last years
Throughout the 1990s, Lange continued to maintain a presence in New Zealand life, in which he was still renowned for his jovial disposition, booming voice and legendary irreverence. He also suffered throughout his life from ill-health, and in 1999 he admitted to joining Alcoholics Anonymous.
He retired from Parliament at the general election of 1996.
He was appointed to the Order of New Zealand in 2003.
David Lange died of kidney failure on August 13, 2005, aged 63.
David Lange is survived by two sons and a daughter by his first wife, Naomi Campton and a daughter with his second wife Margaret Pope.
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