1990: Prime Minister Mike Moore
May 13, 2021
By AHNZ
The former Labour 4.0 Prime Minister (4 Sept 1990–2 Nov 1990) had been convalescing for the past 5 years or so after a stroke and on 2 Feb 2020 checked out for good at the age of 71.
“Mike Moore, aptly described by David Lange as having a mind like a pin-ball machine.”- McLauchlan
“a mind that David Lange once said worked like it had been wired by a Ukrainian electrician.”
Clever as he was, Moore was out-maneuvered by Helen Clark for the saprophyte leadership and so it was she who became Labour 5.0’s next Prime Minister. Still considered a threat, even after losing the 1993 election, Moore was ‘kicked upstairs’ with some plumb overseas jobs to get rid of him. There was the usual Ambassador to the United States get-rid-of-him prize but also, more impressively, the role of Director General of the World Trade Organisation.
For a long time, in the 90s, his big Boomer mug was pointing southward to Christchurch along Papanui Road so everyone had to see. Much is made of him being a blue-collar freezing worker yet he was a politician by 17 and an MP by 23. Like other hungry politicians, Mike lost his father when he was very young.
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Image ref. Garrick Tremain; ODT; Alexander Turnbull Library
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