Scaled heights of politics from humble start
WHEN Michael Cullen arrived at the other end of the world in 1955, he could scarcely have imagined he would depart this earth a knight of the realm and hailed as one of his adopted country’s best ministers of finance.
Sir Michael, a respected University of Otago academic before he scaled the political heights from MP for St Kilda to become deputy prime minister, died on August 19 aged 76 of a heart attack caused by renal and liver failure, after a very public battle with cancer.
He was one of the most ardent and articulate defenders of the Labour Party during his time in Parliament, and sincere tributes from all sides of the House recognised him as one of the most skilled politicians of his generation.
Born in Tottenham, North London, on February 5, 1945, Sir Michael’s father John was a spectacle frame maker and his mother Ivy — the first person in the family to attend secondary school — a secretary.
The family migrated to New Zealand in 1955, settling in Christchurch, where Sir Michael’s eventually famed intellect was quickly spotted, earning him a scholarship to attend Christ’s College.
He went on to study history at the University of Canterbury, earning a BA and then a master of arts, before using a Commonwealth Scholarship to attain a PhD in social and economic history from the University of Edinburgh.
In the midst of his studies, he married Rowena Knight, and the couple had two children, Louise and Imogen.
Their 1967 marriage ended in divorce in 1989.
Some time in 1974 Sir Michael was bailed up in the George Street Tavern by modern languages professor Eric Herd and urged to join the Castle St branch of the Labour Party.
Before long he was chairman, and friend and future Cabinet colleague Pete Hodgson was secretary, and in 1978 he was publicity officer for Labour Dunedin North candidate Stan Rodger.
In 1981, after five years on Labour’s executive and council, Sir Michael stood for the party in the St Kilda electorate (now Taieri) and won handily.
Sir Michael came to Parliament with a high local profile from battling against the Springbok tour and the proposed Aramoana aluminium smelter, but was a touch unsure about his new role.
‘‘It was an odd career choice for somebody who used to have a strong fear of flying and was ill at ease with strangers,’’ he recalled in his valedictory speech.
In 1983 he was named Labour’s environment spokesman, but when the party swept to power the following year he was named senior whip, having been unsuccessful in the caucus ballot for who should make Cabinet.
His three years as a whip convinced Sir Michael that reform of the parliamentary process was well overdue, and when he eventually became Leader of the House he got the chance to put his ideas into practice.
After Labour retained the Treasury benches in 1987 Sir Michael made it to Cabinet, as associate finance minister and minister of social welfare.
Thenprime minister David Lange later wrote this was an enormous burden to put on a new minister, but he wanted an effective barrier between controversial finance minister Sir Roger Douglas and the social portfolios.
The other MP Mr Lange promoted for the same reason, Helen Clark, was to be a central figure in Sir Michael’s life.
Sir Michael repaid Mr Lange by being the only minister alongside him to oppose a proposed tax regime, Mr Lange calling him ‘‘persistent, determined and articulate’’.
A tumultuous term in which three men became prime minister was wearying on Sir Michael, who given both the political and personal turmoil at a time considered giving away politics entirely.
In 1989 Sir Michael married fellow Labour MP Anne Collins and helped raise their blended family of four.
Labour’s shattering election defeat in 1990 was in many ways the making of Sir Michael as a member of Labour’s inner circle.
Initially the party’s social welfare spokesman, within a year he was named shadow finance minister.
Following electoral defeat in 1993 Sir Michael narrowly failed to be elected Miss Clark’s deputy leader, a role he was finally to assume in 1996 with David Caygill’s retirement from politics.
While later lauded as the epitome of a loyal deputy — Sir Michael called himself ‘‘the snow on which Helen’s skis glide’’ — their relationship was rocky at the beginning.
Before the 1996 election, on the back of some disastrous polling Sir Michael led a delegation of MPs to Miss Clark’s office to ask her to stand down.
Miss Clark faced them down, kept her job and in the ensuing election could have become prime minister but for New Zealand First leader Winston Peters opting to work with National.
As a measure of how Miss Clark and Sir Michael had quickly formed an effective partnership, some commentators believe Miss Clark’s adamant stance that Sir Michael should be finance minister cost Labour the chance of government in 1996.
That may have been a blessing in disguise, as National imploded in the following three years and Labour’s leadership grew in strength, to the point where the party, supported by the Alliance, easily won the 1999 election.
That election also marked a change in scene for Sir Michael who, despite reservations about the success of the MMP electoral system, had moved to the North Island and eventually opted to become a list MP.
For the next nine years Sir Michael was the minister of finance, and at each year’s Budget was able to announce that the government accounts were in surplus.
He was also the architect of three major policy initiatives which survive to this day, KiwiSaver, the New Zealand Super Fund and Working For Families.
While known as a historian, Sir Michael also had a degree in mathematics — his doctorate thesis was on social statistics in Britain.
That extra degree proved to be an invaluable tool, and Sir Michael was soon regarded as a careful steward of the public purse.
At various times during the Fifth Labour Government Sir Michael was Leader of the House, minister for tertiary education and Treaty negotiations minister.
Sir Michael rated his work in that portfolio as some of his most important: he negotiated the first cogovernance agreement with Tainui for the Waikato River and went on to work for Ngai Tuhoe, Ngati Tuwharetoa and Ngati Ahuriri after he stepped down from Parliament.
He also, controversially given he was not a lawyer, served as attorneygeneral, a role which informed one of the eminently quotable Sir Michael’s bestremembered lines: ‘‘the attorneygeneral does not have to be a lawyer, any more than the minister of education has to be a teacher, the minister of health a doctor, or the minister of corrections a convict.’’
That quick wit could be used to devastating effect in the House where, when roused, Sir Michael could excoriate the Opposition.
Intelligent, sharpwitted and perceptive, Sir Michael was both a useful sounding board and important counsellor for the prime minister.
He was also an incredibly hard worker, although he would occasionally slip away for a round of golf, played at a sprint rather than a stroll.
Miss Clark was able to repel a stern challenge in the 2005 election from thenNational leader Don Brash, but in 2008 was unable to withstand Dr Brash’s successor, John Key.
Sir Michael retired as an MP soon after, although he continued to make an important mark in public life, and was appointed to important roles by both National and Labourled governments.
His various appointments included chairman of NZ Post, carrying out of a review of the intelligence and security agencies, chairman of the Earthquake Commission, serving on the Constitutional Advisory Panel and acting as chairman of the Tax Working Group.
Sir Michael was knighted in 2012, an honour he accepted with some reluctance, but with typical humour: ‘‘Under the former honours system I would have been a PCNZM or something. It sounds like the lower ranks of the constabulary.’’
Sir Michael was also, briefly, chairman of the Bay of Plenty District Health Board, but soon after his appointment stood down from most of his roles after announcing he had been diagnosed with stage 4 smallcell lung cancer.
Typically forthright, Sir Michael knew he had limited time available and sought to maximise it, campaigning for the ‘‘yes’’ vote in the 2020 euthanasia referendum and showing surprising exuberance when coming to Dunedin to campaign for Labour candidates standing for election in his old home town.
Sir Michael also put the finishing touches to his memoir,
Labour Saving, published in June this year.
As befits both a historian and a finance minister, it both told a story for the ages and balanced the ledger at the end of a life full of achievement. —
❛
It was an odd career choice for somebody who used to have a strong fear of flying and was ill at ease with strangers.
Michael Cullen