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In 1941 the Australian Labor party came into office through a dirty deal by cross-bench MPs. Prime Minister John Curtin was completely unsuited to the job and thrown into an international crisis with little idea of what to do: he was saved from himself by officials and winning a ‘oncer’ landslide election victory in 1943. Curtin has also, laughably, been elevated to sainthood by left-wing journalists and historians (lipstick on a pig writ large).
Do you see the similarities with Labour and Jacinda Ardern in recent years here? I have long compared recent political events in New Zealand with the rise of Sir Robert Menzies in Australia during the 1940s.
But it gets even better: after winning another term in 1946 (to the surprise of their opponents), the Labor government couldn’t contain itself and ushered in ‘socialism’, rampant inflation, falling living standards and particularly, a plan to nationalise the banks. This saw Labor’s popularity evaporate, Menzies rise back into contention and eventually a comfortable election win for the Liberal party in 1949.
Once again the parallels with recent New Zealand politics are remarkable – even down to a Labour Prime Minister separated from his wife and carrying on with a mistress, and an ‘elder statesman’ who’d been around forever returning to prominence. I’ve stated before that Robert Menzies in Australia seems the closet historical example for Christopher Luxon today.
Bob Menzies ushered in a long period of prosperity, stability, strong leadership and ‘certainty’ for Australia. He created the Liberal party in 1944, led it to seven election victories, promoted good men to ministerial positions and was blessed with the most marvelous political opponents who did everything they could think of to assist him becoming Australia’s longest serving prime minister. Christopher Luxon is in a similar position here in New Zealand today.
One of the downsides of Robert Menzies dominating things for such a long time is that he overshadowed his successors. Every subsequent Liberal leader has faced unfair comparisons with Menzies – justified with McMahon, Snedden, Nelson and probably Morrison – an 80-year shadow that won’t disappear from Australian politics.
This has seen a sort of media cottage industry spring up (lest you thought it was just New Zealand that has breathtakingly unimaginative journalists), whereby, at approximately four-year intervals since Menzies’ retirement in 1966, some wet dullard will, his voice stentorian, discuss the neurasthenia that has engulfed the Australian Liberal party. He will then sadly shake his head and proclaim, ‘This is no longer the Liberal party of Robert Menzies.’ Such nonsense has been taking place since Harold Holt tragically went swimming in December 1967. The latest twit doing so is someone called Will Kingston, a Sky News contributor, and it is nothing more than a hit piece on Liberal leader Peter Dutton. Everyone else – from Gorton, to Fraser, to Howard, to Abbott, to Turnbull, to Morrison (and everyone in between) – has had the exact same thing written about them. Hopefully Mr Dutton takes no notice of it. ‘The Liberals are terminal, yet have been in office for 51 years out of 74’ is certainly a rather odd thing to say.
