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February 2, 2020 11:40am by David Farrar

RIP Mike Moore

Former Prime Minister Mike Moore has died aged 71.

Condolences to his family and friends.

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Lance

One of the handful of Labour politicians I had respect for.
46 2
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February 2, 2020 11:44am
- MT_Tinman
  
  Agreed.
  
  He would have made a bloody good PM had he more time in the job.
  
  RIP
  
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  February 2, 2020 11:51am
- Harriet
  
  Keating, Hawke and Douglas at the time for me. But Mike Moore was believable and had genuine concern, and you can’t probably say that about too many past or present mp’s on either side.
  
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  February 2, 2020 11:55am
- Prince
  
  The last time I voted Labour was when Moore was PM, up against Bolger.
  Bolger winning that election was a clear example of Govts losing elections rather than Oppositions winning them. National would have won with a gumboot as a leader, in fact they did.
  Then Labour turned left under Anderton/Clark, Douglas was a dirty word, and a lot of us turned to Act for a few years before settling for National.
  Anyway, respect for Moore – the last decent Labour PM.
  
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  February 2, 2020 1:31pm
  - RW Capitalist
    
    Said it better than I did….the LAST decent Labour PM
    
    6 1
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    February 2, 2020 2:36pm
    - igm
      
      Possibly the last decent Labour MP!
      
      4 1
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      February 2, 2020 4:52pm
RW Capitalist

Didn’t particularly like the man, thought he helped ruin our country….BUT
The game is over, he played it as he saw it, he was by no means, even close, to the worst Labour PM’s, they largely…followed him.
RIP Mike and peace and condolence to ALL of his family.
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February 2, 2020 11:47am
- David Garrett
  
  RWC: I think you might be confusing him with someone else…hiow exactly did he help “ruin our country”??
  
  On the contrary, he was a member of the faction that supported Roger and Lange in 1984…and those two – particularly Roger of course – saved the bloody country, not ruined it.
  
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  February 2, 2020 12:19pm
  - MT_Tinman
    
    I’ll go further DG.
    
    Had Moore replaced Lange instead of Palmer and the great and good (now) Sir Roger come back into the fold upon that happening, NZ would probably not have had Bolger, therefore not have been stuck with MMP and we would not have to put up with the absolute clowns “governing” the country now.
    
    17 4
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    February 2, 2020 12:55pm
    - RW Capitalist
      
      Some pretty big “if’s” there, politically…look at the Labour party and ask yourself…could that have ever happened.
      Think you’ll find it is a pretty big NO….especially as the unions had an even bigger say than they do now.
      Personallity wise he wasn’t an asshole like Lange and Muldoon….perhaps we could give him credit for softening the tone.
      
      2 8
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      February 2, 2020 1:38pm
      - David Garrett
        
        RWC: That is seriously the first I ever recall seeing Lange described as “an asshole”…I wonder if you actually met him, as I did? He happily rode in my Humber 90 – commenting loudly about whether the suspension could take his weight – to a meeting at the Westown hotel in New Plymouth.
        
        He had many faults – a very short attention span; obviously no control over his eating until it was forced upon him by an operation; prone to run away and hide on some Island when things got tricky (the proposed visit of the USS Buchanan); a terrible taste in women… But an asshole? I don’t think so.
        
        11 4
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        February 2, 2020 2:38pm
      - RW Capitalist
        
        David….Lange was nothing more than a smart mouth bully. He was very similar to Muldoon in style.
        Disagree with him and he would try to publicly humiliate you.
        ie ASSHOLE
        1984. started OK……later sack Douglas, (always thought at the behest of lefties in the party and unions) from that point on, all Douglas’ gains were lost. NB Me and many others felt the pain of paying ALL of my wages on the mortgage and having to ive on my wifes salary.
        
        3 6
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        February 2, 2020 2:49pm
  - RW Capitalist
    
    Roger yes …Moore not so much.
    
    2 2
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    February 2, 2020 1:35pm
  - RW Capitalist
    
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11932007
    
    My wife worked at the ANZ and had a staff mortgage of 18%…my sister’s mortgage was 22%.
    I don’t call that competent economics.
    https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/research-and-publications/speeches/2017/speech-2017-07-17
    Note: the massive rises under Labour govt.s.
    Note the leveling off under Muldoon, prior to think big, then look at the massive rise FORCED on Muldoon after think big largely due to the inaction of Kirk.
    Douglas…recovered that, then Lange/Palmer/Moore stuffed it up again. Leaving Bolger and Richardson to clean up their mess.
    I may have voted Labour, if they had kept up with the Douglas economics but they, like cowards, allowed the unions to bully them into dumping it.
    
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    February 2, 2020 2:15pm
- RW Capitalist
  
  1. He was part of a cabinet that gambled our economy on the international stock exchanges.
  2. Have you forgotten the 1990 election announcement….”the books balance”…only to find massive deficits.
  BUT
  Like I said….the game is over.
  I would say, in addition, I had far more respect for him ad his opinions AFTER he left office.
  
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  February 2, 2020 1:33pm
The Proper Ghandi

Even post mortem, still more to offer than his successors.
21 3
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February 2, 2020 11:52am
- RW Capitalist
  
  I agree with that.
  
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  February 2, 2020 2:23pm
Inandout

That is so young, mind I always thought he was older. I liked the guy when he was a pollie, but hell he could ramble on.
14 2
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February 2, 2020 11:54am
andrewo

Maybe the last sensible Labour PM.

RIP
21 2
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February 2, 2020 11:59am
curry4me

RIP Mike. Only Labour MP I’d ever consider voting for.
18 2
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February 2, 2020 12:01pm
Aunty

That is sad news. One of Labour’s good guys, a genuine and passionate advocate for working people and their aspirations and New Zealand as a whole. They are few and far between in Labour now I’m afraid. One of the old school. Rest in peace, Mike. Your journey is done.
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February 2, 2020 12:04pm
Chris2

The last of the genuine “working class” Labour MP’s.

It makes me think are there any “genuine” working-class MP’s in the current Labour caucus, by that I mean MP’s who actually worked with their hands as a trade (like Mike Moore), before entering Parliament.

(And fleeting university holiday jobs in freezing works or the Porirua motor assembly plants do not count Andrew Little).
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February 2, 2020 12:08pm
- David Garrett
  
  Chris2: The answer to your question is NO. When Rodney and I were in the House, between us we had more months as “workers” than the entire Labour caucus combined. In fact I don’t think there was a single worker among them; the closest was long time unionist Rick Barker…I guess at some point he must have worked with his hands doing something…
  
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  February 2, 2020 12:13pm
  - sooty
    
    Certainly was not Geoffry Palmer.
    God he was a wetdream!
    
    8 1
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    February 2, 2020 12:38pm
    - David Garrett
      
      sooty:As a politician Palmer was simply a joke… as the legal eminence grise that he is now seen to be, he’s even bloody worse. He is directly responsible for the ongoing treaty gravy train, and his RMA – supposedly his great work – was so badly drafted and so full of holes that amending legislation that was even longer that the original had to be passed the next year to make the damn thing at least half work.
      
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      February 2, 2020 1:14pm
    - Ruahine
      
      He, Palmer, was way worse than that.
      
      8 1
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      February 2, 2020 1:16pm
  - calendar girl
    
    For me, Mike Moore was a Labour MP who received, and deserved, much greater admiration for his work and principles than most other Labour Leaders. But in my opinion such admiration should not rely quite so heavily on his having been a manual worker. Would he be written off if he had ran a corner dairy, or was a good primary school teacher or successful public servant?
    
    5 2
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    February 2, 2020 12:59pm
David Garrett

Remember how he used to push the “lamburger”? At a time when our market for sheepmeat was in the doldrums, and our trade with Asia was very limited – back then we probably sold next to nothing to China – he tried to do for lamb what McDonalds did for beef. I’m not sure that particular effort did very much, but the guy was passionate in his advocacy for New Zild.

The truly sad thing is that a guy like him wouldn’t stand a dog’s show of being selected for Labour now: left school at 15 to work in the freezing works; self educated from his love of reading; resolutely heterosexual; married to Yvonne for 40 odd years…can’t quite see him mincing about on a catwalk with the transgender “community.”
31 4
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February 2, 2020 12:10pm
- Simon
  
  Is it true that Moore could have won a general election (1993?) but the Labour campaign was sabotaged by the Clark clique?
  
  15 2
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  February 2, 2020 12:24pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Simon: Yes indeed, that is exactly what happened. Thinking back, I believe that may have been the point when I really began to despise Clark…she didn’t give a fuck for the country; just her’s and the sisterhood’s social agenda…and her own personal ambition of course.
    
    27 4
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    February 2, 2020 12:36pm
    - Simon
      
      Thanks, thought that was the case. Its important that the truth is recognized in places like KB because we will not see much of it in MSM.
      
      6 2
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      February 2, 2020 1:20pm
- Ross Jones
  
  No matter the arguments on here about his politics – and even as a Labour sympathiser I was not a fan of his in my early days – but I hear DG’s comments and say “hear hear” because I saw the results of his actions since leaving the House.
  
  He had personal pain and Yvonne was there entirely. For that both are to be applauded.
  
  I shall salute his memory, because he didn’t become tribal, but like Douglas he saw ways to alleviate need and he wanted people to have opportunity rather than simply be mollicoddled.
  
  Clark? She may have ground her boot on his skull, unfortunately his brain was undamaged.
  
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  February 2, 2020 10:01pm
Happychappy

One of the guys always cheerful and deserved better from Labour , inherited the poison challis from in my opinion one of Labours worst ever Prime Ministers Geoffrey Palmer a few weeks out from a General Election and the rest is history, deserved better from Labour and will definitely go down in History as a great MP that worked hard to succeed.
21 2
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February 2, 2020 12:20pm
cmm

Hugzilla tried to say some nice words, but I suspect she thinks better of Auntie H for shanking him.
20 3
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February 2, 2020 12:21pm
- David Garrett
  
  cmm: Indeed…I well remember an awful TV interview with both Mike and the Clark woman just before she knifed him…he actually asked for her endorsement – it may have even been on live TV – and all he got was those cold lizard eyes of hers staring back at him…She knew she had the numbers, and she was going to knife him come what may…and to hell with who was best for the country
  
  At that time in my life I was still only a fairly recent convert to the right side of politics, and I had always had a lot of time for Moore…it was one of the most awful pieces of political TV I ever saw…the only worse piece was some interviewer trying his best to make Jim McLay lose it on camera, and focusing close up on a shred of spit which adhered to his lips. Scum. (the jackals of the media)
  
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  February 2, 2020 12:32pm
Sydney Alvarado

“He was elated when Jacinda Ardern became Prime Minister and thinks she’s extraordinarily gifted and has the potential to achieve more for New Zealand and on the international stage than any other leader.”

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/119210299/former-prime-minister-and-wto-directorgeneral-mike-moore-dies-aged-71

That surprises me a little.
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February 2, 2020 12:25pm
- cmm
  
  Ok, the question must be asked as to whether that is what he really thought or was he being a gentleman?
  
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  February 2, 2020 12:41pm
  - David Garrett
    
    cmm: I very much suspect the latter…Moore had more substance in his little finger than Cindy has…but then he was “Labour to the core” as many have said, and he would have been delighted that she – or anyone else – had saved them from the oblivion that Angry Andy was leading them to before she took over.
    
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    February 2, 2020 12:55pm
    - RW Capitalist
      
      My opinion of Moore,
      He made mistakes
      He went along with Labour/Union doctrine a bit too much,
      He lied in 1990 election, “the books balance”
      BUT to compare him to Helen Clark and Cindy for actual competence and genuine beliefs
      Moore 8/10
      Clark 3/10
      Cindy 0/10
      
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      February 2, 2020 2:30pm
- David Farrar
  
  The quote comes from a press release put out by her office.
  
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  February 2, 2020 1:27pm
  - RRM
    
    Really? That’s a new low…
    
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    February 2, 2020 3:38pm
- Prince
  
  To be fair, it is his wife who said that. She is clearly an Ardern fan. We’ll never really know what Mike Moore thought.
  [Mod: See David Farrar’s post at 1:27]
  
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  February 2, 2020 1:38pm
- MCos
  
  Mike Moore talking about Norm Kirk & himself in an interview with Russell Brown in 1991.
  “I realised that we have not had in this country a leader that the kids can look up to for a hell of a long time. But it’s a matter of them feeling that somebody’s on their side, that you share their values. It’s not poll-driven, they’ve just got to know that you cry at the right moments in the movie. You don’t laugh hysterically when Bambi dies.”
  https://publicaddress.net/hardnews/mike-moore-a-pretty-ordinary-rooster/
  
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  February 2, 2020 3:50pm
Piticus

Yep great guy. Years ago and just prior to a general election I saw him introduce himself to a person who had been selected for National in a safe National seat and saying he was looking forward to working with him in a few months. Nothing but respect for this bloke ! In recent times he must have found it very difficult to accept the direction of his former party.
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February 2, 2020 12:33pm
stewmar

A unique character
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February 2, 2020 12:59pm
Monique Watson

He seemed to me when I saw him speak and upon meeting him, a gentleman and an intellectual. Sorry to hear of his passing.
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February 2, 2020 1:13pm
Humble Capitalist

The one and only time I voted left was for Moore in 93 (ok I was only 20). I couldnt help liking the guy. A bit of a character vs the dour Bolger. Mike just about won that election and would have had it been MMP. Unfortunatly for him in was the last FPP. RIP Mike a great Kiwi.
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February 2, 2020 1:20pm
Jack5

Moore, a self-taught man who left school at 14, did a remarkable job of educating himself. He became Director-General of the World Trade Organisation from 1999 until 2002, overseeing China’s entry into the rules-based trading system.

Moore was an old-style Labour MP – a man from the working class. This, about the Labour Party, is from his farewell speech in Parliament in 1999:

It is the success of the welfare State that has changed my party. The sons and daughters of cleaners and carpenters can now become university lecturers, professors, or whatever. That is a good thing. I know I have always been a bit of a dinosaur. The movement has been good to me. Without the movement I would just be another overweight, unemployed, white-trash freezing worker in the far north. It was Nye Bevan – some of my colleagues will not even know who Nye Bevan was -who said that Labour used to be the cream of the working class, and now it is an intellectual spittoon for the middle class.
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February 2, 2020 1:34pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  love the last few lines
  
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  February 2, 2020 4:13pm
Gravelroad

Chutney Mike – I admired him because he advanced the options for value-added primary production exports as outlined in the 2012 article here.
Mr Muldoon called him Chutney Mike for suggesting that NZ made chutney could be an
export item to go with the lamburgers.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10827159
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February 2, 2020 1:43pm
Kevin Herlihy

Mike was a curious blend of old school Labour and progressive New Labour, he was a strong advocate for reform during the Lange/ Douglas era but also a down to earth man who valued the archetypal Kiwi lifestyle.
At trade union meetings in the early eighties Mike argued for the politics of inclusion where everyone’s point of view was valued. He was also an outspoken critic of Muldoon and New Zealand’s closeted economy and signaled the changes to come with Douglas. He was an upbeat sort of guy, full of idea’s which he was only to happy to chat about over a cup of tea at the end of meetings.
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February 2, 2020 1:52pm
Bingo99

A really decent guy and a classic example of how any kiwi, from any geographical, educational, professional or community background can rise to be PM. Compared to the elite models of France and, to an extent, the UK.

But would have expected a little bit more from DPF. A former PM that was part of a small group that transformed our country and was more right than a moribund National. Deserves more.
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February 2, 2020 2:43pm
Gandolfo

I was in Bert Walker’s campaign team when the seat was lost to Labour’s Mike Moore, who was a neighbour as well as a frequent visitor to our home, and despite our political differences he was a very nice person to chat with. We kept in touch sporadically, even during his tenure as PM. I really liked him as a person, but the party leadership would not allow him to be Mike Moore, they wanted him to be them.RIP my friend.
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February 2, 2020 3:07pm
RRM

I remember him being in the news when I was at primary school.

Thanks guys for filling in some gaps in my knowledge.

Not a peep about him at The Standard, are they busy cutting him out of the group photos maybe?
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February 2, 2020 3:31pm
- Ross Jones
  
  He had been cut out of the Labour standings for some time.
  
  In Cabinet with Douglas ??? Even though a Lange supporter? Uh-oh
  Challenged by Clark even though supporting her honestly afterward – history.
  
  Integrity – acknowledged by the WTO, and National as Ambassabor in Washington.
  
  Honest – YES
  
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  February 2, 2020 10:12pm
Ross Jones

There were a few cars outside his place today, not quite the CR plates types though. I hope that the eulogies are honest and not just platitudes.
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February 2, 2020 10:05pm

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