Mike Moore (New Zealand politician)

Moore began his parliamentary career when elected as the MP for Eden in 1972, becoming the youngest MP at 23 years of age, where he served for one term before being defeated in the 1975 election.[12][13] Following the announcement of Norman Douglas' retirement from the safe Auckland Central seat there was much speculation that Moore would seek the Auckland Central nomination. The media considered Moore one of the most able backbenchers in the Labour Party, however Moore decided to stand in the marginal Eden seat once again.[14] After his election loss, the Moores visited Warren Freer, and were insistent that he resign from Mount Albert so that Moore could take his place. Freer (who retired in 1981) said he had no intention of resigning and further stated there was no guarantee that he would be selected to replace Freer.[15]

Moore was then elected Labour's youth vice-president and proceeded to contest the Labour nomination in the 1977 Mangere by-election following the resignation of Colin Moyle. He was seen as a frontrunner but lost to local lawyer David Lange, who would go on to become Prime Minister in 1984. Several months later Moore then sought to be Labour's candidate in the newly formed Papatoetoe electorate but again missed out on selection against Grey Lynn MP Eddie Isbey. By the time of his second rejection for a candidature in an Auckland seat he had received invitations from Labour Party organisers in 16 electorates elsewhere in New Zealand prompting him to consider moving from Auckland in order to gain re-election to Parliament.[16]

In 1978 Moore moved to Christchurch and was elected MP for the north Christchurch electorate, then known as Papanui. He held the electorate until his retirement in 1999:[13] as Papanui until 1984, as Christchurch North until 1996, and as Waimakariri thereafter.[12] Shortly after his re-election in 1978 he was elevated to Labour's shadow cabinet by leader Bill Rowling. Initially he was passed over for a position, however after fellow MP Richard Prebble refused to join the shadow cabinet, in protest of being given portfolios he did not want, it resulted in Moore taking his place.[17][18]

In 1983 Moore stood for the deputy leadership of the party. In a three-way contest, in which all candidates were from Christchurch to reflect geographical proportionality, Moore won the first ballot. Lyttelton MP Ann Hercus was eliminated and on the second ballot almost all of her supporters voted for Christchurch Central MP Geoffrey Palmer, who beat Moore by one vote.[19] Leader David Lange later expressed relief at Palmer's success thinking that Moore would have been an un-reassuring deputy due to his inherent ambition.[20] Nevertheless, Lange saw fit to promote Moore to number 3 in the party rankings and appointed him shadow minister of overseas trade and tourism.[21]

As a government minister in the Fourth Labour Government he has held numerous portfolios, becoming best known in his role as Overseas Trade Minister from 1984 to 1990 with involvement in the GATT negotiations.[9] He also advanced the Closer Economic Relations (CER) free trade agreement with Australia.[22] In 1988 he became Minister of External Relations and Deputy Minister of Finance.[9] Moore was privately critical of the government’s asset sales agenda, particularly concerned with the surge in unemployment that followed, he even dry-vomited in a toilet after the sale of the Tourist Hotel Corporation.[23] He was also vehemently opposed to finance minister Roger Douglas' proposal for a flat tax rate.[24]

In 1988 Lange recalled Palmer from overseas to be acting Prime Minister to prevent Moore (who was ranked third in cabinet) doing so. Lange later reflected saying "But God alone knew what Moore might do."[25] Moore later said he found the comments to be quite hurtful.[26] When Lange resigned in 1989, Moore stood for the leadership of the party, but was defeated 41 votes to 13 by Palmer.[27] Palmer was unable to regain public popularity and resigned just over a year later. Moore stood again for the leadership and won, defeating backbench MP Richard Northey 41 votes to 15, and consequently became New Zealand's 34th Prime Minister.[28]

Moore became Prime Minister for 59 days, having convinced the Labour caucus that, while he could not win the election for Labour, he would help save more seats than had they remained led by Palmer. Moore energetically hit the campaign trail and made an impact immediately by handling hecklers and interjectors visibly better than Palmer had done. His performance closed the gap in the polls between Labour and National to ten percent, better than it had been for over a year.[29]

The Labour government did not return to power in the next election however. The circumstances of Moore's installment as Prime Minister would later be compared to the return of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister of Australia.[30] However, in the 1990 New Zealand general election, National won a landslide, and Labour lost almost 13%, suffering its worst-ever electoral defeat since it first won power in the 1935 election. Following the loss he labelled Labour's last cabinet meeting before the changeover of government 'the last supper'.[31]

He led the Official Opposition until 1993 and was spokesman on Foreign Affairs and Trade until 1999.[9] He attempted a rejuvenation of Labour's ranks with several important portfolio shifts, including giving the finance portfolio to Michael Cullen, designed to blunt the growth of the newly formed Alliance party (which was made up largely of Labour dissidents).[32] He then led Labour in the 1993 election where he managed to gain 16 seats, coming within two seats of clinching an unlikely victory just three years after the landslide 1990 defeat.[33] On the night of the 1993 election he delivered a televised speech (dubbed the "long, cold night" speech) later described by political scientist Jack Vowles as "damaging" and "more appropriate for a decisive Labour win than a narrow defeat."[34]

Moore said he was pleased with the result, thinking Labour was back in striking distance of forming a government in the future, and believed the result might give him a chance to retain the leadership. However he was deposed as leader at the first post-election caucus meeting by his deputy Helen Clark. His replacement did not surprise him, but he felt begrudged that he was given little appreciation, thinking he would "... have got thanks – then axed [but] the axe went before even 'thank yous'."[2] The irony was not lost on Moore that Clark's allies had installed candidates in the seats Labour had picked up from his campaign who then voted to replace him, making his success the architect of his own downfall.[33]

After the 1993 referendum to adopt mixed-member proportional representation (MMP) Moore considered forming a break-away party, the New Zealand Democratic Coalition, for the 1996 MMP election, but then decided against it. He received countless letters in support of a new party, but despite his ousting as leader, he felt too much affinity to the Labour Party to ever leave it.[35] He won his seat in the 1996 election, obtaining more than twice as many votes as the next-highest candidate, National's Jim Gerard.[36]

Also after losing the leadership, Moore defended the record Fourth Labour Government and was critical of subsequent leaders of the party denigrating its record. He thought that Clark and Cullen's semi-repudiation of Rogernomics was conducted purely to make themselves look better and labelled their remembrances as 'manufactured history'.[37] Clark performed poorly in opinion polls after becoming leader and by early 1996 there was an active movement within Labour to replace her either with Moore of frontbencher Phil Goff.[33] Clark stared down the challengers and remained leader when Cullen shifted his allegiance to Clark after becoming deputy leader. Moore, who still held leadership ambitions, refused to comment on the positional change, saying only that he did not contest the deputy leadership because he was "a leader, not a deputy" but was eventually promoted to the frontbench by Clark in a surprise move.[38]

In 1998, he ran for the post of Director-General of the World Trade Organization and was elected to this position on 22 July 1999, taking up the post on 1 September 1999 which was close enough to the 1999 election to not trigger a by-election.[8][39]

Moore in 1992 while Leader of the Opposition.

• Member of Parliament for Eden, 1972–75.[13]
• Member of Parliament for Waimakariri (formerly Papanui and Christchurch North), 1978–99.[13]
• Minister of Tourism, Sport and Recreation, 1984–87.[9]
• Chairman of the Cabinet Economic Development and Employment Committee, 1984–90.[9]
• Minister of External Relations and Trade, 1988–90.[9]
• Minister for the America's Cup, 1988–90.[9]
• Deputy Minister of Finance, 1988–90.[9]
• Minister of Overseas Trade and Marketing, 1984–90.[9]
• Prime Minister of New Zealand, 1990.[9]
• Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party, 1990–93.[9]
• Leader of the Opposition, 1990–93.[9]
• Opposition Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Overseas Trade, 1993–99.[9]

• New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal (1990)[68]
• Order of New Zealand (1999)[69]

• Commander of the Order of the Equatorial Star (2000) – Government of Gabon[9][68]
• Chancellor's Medal (Medalla Rectoral) – University of Chile[9][70]
• National Order of the Ivory Coast (2002) – Government of the Ivory Coast[9]
• Order of the Golden Heart of Kenya (2002) – Government of Kenya[9]
• Order of Duke Branimir with Ribbon (June 2002) – Republic of Croatia[9]
• National Honour of Georgia (July 2002) – Government of Georgia[9]
• Medal of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay (August 2002) – Government of Uruguay – highest national honour[9][68]
• Pope John Paul II Annual Medal (August 2002) – The Holy See[9]
• Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia for service to the South Australian Government by developing initiatives in economic reform and for service to the education sector[71]

• Honorary Doctorate in Commerce – Lincoln University, New Zealand[47][72]
• Honorary Doctorate in Economics – People's University of China, Beijing[47][61]
• Honorary Doctorate in Commerce – Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand[47][61]
• Honorary Doctorate in Commerce – University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand[47][73]
• Honorary Doctorate in Law – La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia[47][61]