Bill Birch: Blast from the past on the current crisis
He hails from the era of Rob Muldoon, Ruth Richardson and Jim Bolger; so what does National’s former ‘minister of everything’ have to say about the way forward on the current crisis? Tracy Watkins reports.
Bill Birch, mostly famous as the architect of Think Big and the power behind the throne of successive National leaders, was nearing the end of his reign when I entered the press gallery in 1997. I recall him as an undertaker-like figure; tall and slightly stooped, a man whose wardrobe seemingly had a never ending supply of dark suits – or maybe just the one – and who spoke in a whisper-quiet voice.
He lacked the rollicking charisma of Winston Peters or Richard Prebble in the House but, when he spoke, people listened.
He was by many accounts a genial man though I never saw him in anything other than a formal setting; I recall trips to the Pacific with his leader, Jim Bolger, drinking whiskey and singing Danny Boy down the back of the plane with journalists. But Birch was a more distant figure.
His legend was undiminished, however; he was the architect of Think Big, a flashback to the days of Rob Muldoon, carless days, the oil shock, the wage and price freeze, and the Clyde dam saga.
Back in 1997, Birch was finance minister in the NZ First-National government; a role in which he supposedly played second fiddle to the coalition Treasurer, NZ First leader Winston Peters.
Treasurer was a new invention in New Zealand; the job was created for Peters to satisfy his demands that NZ First have a hand on the economic levers, and one that ostensibly gave him seniority over Birch.
But everyone knew who was really doing the work; Peters was the show pony, Birch was the workhorse.
Birch’s biography, due for release this week, details how it worked in practice – it talks about officials turning up to meetings to find Peters hadn’t opened his Cabinet papers; of Birch having to be called into early morning meetings when Peters failed to turn up to work.
But, surprisingly, the relationship worked; in part precisely because Birch and Peters were such chalk and cheese.
Birch was happy to leave the ‘‘presentational’’ part of the job to Peters, but there was never any doubt where the real power lay.
Looking back, Birch says he feels only disappointment at the ‘‘lost opportunity’’ that Peters’ career represents.
Speaking from his bubble this week ahead of the book launch, Birch said he had known Peters well before he went into politics and ‘‘he’s a likeable character’’.
But he was never a team player.
‘‘I think he is a lost opportunity; I really do, I’ve always felt that with his communication skills and his abilities, his debating ability and his personality, generally, he was capable of becoming an outstanding leader.’’
The book is a somewhat prosaic telling of some tumultuous times – it’s easy to forget, during this time of coronavirus, that we have weathered some equally massive financial shocks: the oil crisis; the ‘‘mother country’’, Britain brutally cutting the cord with our farmers; the 1984 currency crisis; drought; the 1987 sharemarket crash; and the $1 billion BNZ bailout, to name a few.
Birch was there for much of that time – in many ways, crises shaped his career.
So his insights on the current crisis come from
vast experience – and he sees many areas of common ground on how he might have responded if this crisis had been thrown at him as National’s finance minister.
‘‘This [crisis] came out of nowhere and nobody was really prepared for it; the current government has done what any government would have had to have done . . . closed borders as quickly as possible, and put in place systems to ensure the virus didn’t create a huge amount of damage.’’
He even sees some parallels with how his former boss, controversial National prime minister Sir Rob Muldoon, might have responded.
‘‘He had a good understanding of the role of government; one of the main purposes of government is to deal with the issues of poverty and the disadvantaged . . . that’s a very important point in the context of today’s crisis; to the extent that the Government is stepping in and helping those in need. That’s a legitimate role which Muldoon had almost always uppermost in his mind.’’
But Birch worries that much of the current response is not being guided by sound fiscal principles; it’s too loose, not targeted enough at those most in need.
‘‘They’ve been sprinkling money out there . . . for most people it is needed; that’s where it should be directed, where it’s needed. But I don’t see those sorts of fiscal constraints . . . the result is going to have a huge increase in our public debt which needs to be serviced, in increased taxes and fiscal management. There’s no escaping that.’’
The legacy that it leaves behind for younger generations is what worries him, particularly when he sees them facing an even greater crisis in their lifetime, of climate change.
‘‘It’s the biggest challenge facing the globe going forward . . . we’ve just got to meet the challenge; we have to just get the sentiment out of it and be rational in determining the effects of climate change and what we can do about it and get on and do it.’’