| The Right Honourable David Russell Lange ONZ, CH |
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| The Rt. Hon. David Lange in 1984 | |
| 32nd Prime Minister of New Zealand | |
| In office 26 July 1984 – 8 August 1989 (5 years) |
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| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Governor General | David Beattie Paul Reeves |
| Deputy | Geoffrey Palmer |
| Preceded by | Robert Muldoon |
| Succeeded by | Geoffrey Palmer |
| 23rd Leader of the Opposition | |
| In office 3 February 1982 – 26 July 1984 |
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| Preceded by | Bill Rowling |
| Succeeded by | Robert Muldoon |
| Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Mangere |
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| In office 1977–1996 |
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| Preceded by | Colin Moyle |
| Succeeded by | Taito Phillip Field |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 4 August 1942 Otahuhu, New Zealand |
| Died | 13 August 2005 (aged 63) Auckland, New Zealand |
| Political party | Labour |
| Spouse(s) | Naomi Joy Crampton Margaret Pope |
| Children | 4 (three with Crampton) (one with Pope) |
| Profession | Lawyer |
| Religion | Methodist |
David Russell Lange, ONZ, CH (who pronounced his name /ˈlɒŋi/ long-ee) (4 August 1942 – 13 August 2005), served as the 32nd Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1984 to 1989. He headed New Zealand's fourth Labour Government, one of the most reforming administrations in his country's history, but one which did not always conform to traditional expectations of a social-democrat party. He had a reputation for cutting wit (sometimes directed against himself) and eloquence. His government implemented far-reaching free-market reforms. Helen Clark has described New Zealand's nuclear-free legislation as his legacy.[1]
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Lange was born in Otahuhu, a south Auckland suburb[2] as the son of a doctor of German stock. His relatives had suffered from prejudice during the First World War due to their German ancestry, and Lange himself would face a political rival in 1984 who tried to discredit him because of his German heritage. He received his formal education at Fairburn Primary School, Otara Intermediate School and Otahuhu College, then at the University of Auckland, where he graduated in law in 1965. He paid his way through university by working in a meat-freezing works. In 1968 he married Naomi Crampton. He gained a Master of Laws in 1970, then practised law in Northland and Auckland for some years, often giving legal representation to the most dispossessed members of Auckland society.
Lange suffered all his life from obesity and the health problems it caused. By 1982 he weighed 165 kilograms, and had surgery to staple his stomach in order to lose weight. He attributed his talent for caustic wit and repartee to the need to defend himself against bullying in his youth.
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| Years | Term | Electorate | Party | |
| 1977–1978 | 38th | Mangere | Labour | |
| 1978–1981 | 39th | Mangere | Labour | |
| 1981–1984 | 40th | Mangere | Labour | |
| 1984–1987 | 41st | Mangere | Labour | |
| 1987–1990 | 42nd | Mangere | Labour | |
| 1990–1993 | 43rd | Mangere | Labour | |
| 1993–1996 | 44th | Mangere | Labour | |
Lange entered the New Zealand Parliament as the Labour MP for Mangere, a working-class Auckland electorate with a large Māori population, in 1977 in the Mangere by-election. On becoming an MP, Lange quickly made an impression in the House as a debater, a wit, and the scourge of Prime Minister Robert Muldoon. He succeeded Bill Rowling as leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party and as Leader of the Opposition on 3 February 1982.
When Muldoon called a snap election in 1984, Lange led Labour to a landslide victory, becoming at the age of 41 New Zealand's youngest prime minister of the 20th century.
Upon coming to office, Lange's government uncovered a skyrocketing public debt, ostensibly the result of Muldoon's policy of government regulation of the economy, including a wage- and price-freeze and regulation of the exchange rate. Such economic conditions prompted Lange to remark: "We ended up being run very similarly to a Polish shipyard".[3] Lange and Minister of Finance Roger Douglas engaged in a rapid programme of deregulation and public-asset sales, which brought criticism from many people in Labour's traditional support-base. The Labour Party also lost support from many elderly people by introducing a superannuation surcharge after having promised not to reduce superannuation.
Commentators coined the term Rogernomics for these policies, drawing connections with Reaganomics and with Thatcherism. After the Lange administration's first term (1984–1987), significant divisions started to form in the Labour parliamentary caucus, with Lange becoming uncomfortable with the extent of the reforms, while Douglas and Richard Prebble wanted to push on.
The stock-market crash of 19 October 1987 damaged confidence in the New Zealand economy. In 1988 consensus on economic policy amongst the Labour leadership finally broke down, with Douglas resigning after Lange over-ruled his proposed radical flat income-tax. After losing many members, the Labour Party finally fractured, with Jim Anderton MP forming a breakaway New Labour Party, which later merged into the Alliance Party.
During his tenure as Prime Minister, Lange engaged in competitive motor-sport, appearing in the New Zealand One Make Ford Laser Sport series.
During his term of office as Prime Minister Lange also held the positions of Minister of Foreign Affairs (1984 to 1987) and Minister of Education (1987 to 1989). After Geoffrey Palmer became party leader and Prime Minister in 1989, Lange became (from 1989 to 1990) Attorney-General, Minister in Charge of the Serious Fraud Office and a Minister of State. In failing health, he retired from Parliament in 1996. His Labour Party colleague Taito Phillip Field succeeded him as the Member for the Mangere electorate.
The Queen made Lange a Companion of Honour in 1990 and created him an Ordinary Member of the Order of New Zealand on 2 June 2003.
Lange was a supporter of changing New Zealand's flag, and wrote in 1994: "[a] stranger who saw the Australian flag and the New Zealand flag outside adjacent buildings would assume that some British hotel chain was advertising deluxe and standard rooms".[4] Lange also expressed support for a New Zealand republic, stating: "Do such things matter? They certainly do. We suffer in this country from a lack of emotional focus... New Zealand will become a republic just as Britain will be blurred into Europe".[4]
Lange made his name on the international stage with a long-running campaign against nuclear weapons. His government refused to allow nuclear-armed ships into New Zealand waters, a policy that New Zealand continues to this day. The policy, developing in 1985, had the effect of prohibiting United States Navy ships from visiting New Zealand. This displeased the United States and Australia: they regarded the policy as a breach of treaty obligations under ANZUS and as an abrogation of responsibility in the context of the Cold War against the Soviet bloc. After consultations with Australia and after negotiations with New Zealand broke down, the United States announced that it would suspend its treaty obligations to New Zealand until the re-admission of United States Navy ships to New Zealand ports, characterising New Zealand as "a friend, but not an ally".
Erroneous claims sometimes suggest that David Lange withdrew New Zealand from ANZUS. His government's policy may have prompted the US's decision to suspend its ANZUS Treaty obligations to New Zealand, but that decision rested with the U.S. government, not with the New Zealand government.
An Oxford Union debate shown live on New Zealand television in March 1985 showcased Lange, a skilled orator, arguing for the proposition that "nuclear weapons are morally indefensible", in opposition to U.S. televangelist Jerry Falwell. (TVNZ has made available an audio of Lange's speech.) Lange regarded his appearance at the Oxford Union as the highest point of his career in politics.[5] His speech included his memorable statement "I can smell the uranium on it [your breath]...!".[6]
Relations with France became strained when French agents of the DGSE bombed and sank the Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior on 10 July 1985 while it lay moored in Auckland Harbour, killing photographer Fernando Pereira. In June 1986 Lange obtained a political deal with France over the Rainbow Warrior affair, presided over by United Nations Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar. France agreed to pay compensation of NZ$13 million (US$6.5 million) to New Zealand and also to apologise. In return, Lange agreed that French authorities could detain the convicted French agents Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur at the French military base on Hao Atoll for three years. However, the two spies both walked free by May 1988, after less than two years had elapsed.
In 1996 Lange sued the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Lange v Australian Broadcasting Corporation) over an alleged defamation that it broadcast about him. The ABC used the defence that there exists in the Australian Constitution an implied right to freedom of speech on political matters, and the High Court of Australia concurred.
In a key New Zealand defamation case (Lange v Atkinson [2000] 3 NZLR 385), Lange sued political scientist Joe Atkinson for representing him in the magazine North & South as a lazy prime minister. In a 1998 judgment, and on appeal in 2000, the courts affirmed a new qualified privilege for the media to discuss politicians when expressing the criticisms as the "honest opinion" of the author.
Lange was a New Zealand Rugby League board member and served as the organisation's Vice-President.[7]
Lange received the Right Livelihood Award 2003 for his strong fight against nuclear weapons.
In January 2006 Archives New Zealand released to The Sunday Star-Times newspaper a box of David Lange's previously classified documents. They revealed New Zealand's ongoing involvement in Western alliance espionage, and a threat by the United States to spy on New Zealand if it did not back down from its ban on nuclear ships.
In 1989 Lange separated from his wife of 21 years and admitted to a long-running affair with his speech-writer, Margaret Pope, whom he later married. The matter became extremely public, with both Naomi Lange and Lange's own mother publicly attacking his behaviour. He later became reconciled with both. He had three children, Roy, Emily, Byron (now[update] in their 30s) with his first wife (Naomi) and one daughter, Edith, with his second wife (Margaret Pope).
In the 1990s Lange's health declined, with diabetes and kidney disorders, mostly resulting from obesity. In 2002, doctors diagnosed Lange as having amyloidosis, a rare and incurable blood plasma disorder. He underwent extensive medical treatment for this condition. Although initially told he had only four months to live, Lange defied his doctors' expectations, and remained "optimistic" about his health. He entered hospital in Auckland in mid-July 2005 to undergo nightly peritoneal dialysis in his battle with end-stage kidney-failure. On 2 August, he had his lower right leg amputated without a general anaesthetic, as a result of diabetes complications.[8]
His declining health resulted in the bringing-forward of the publication of his memoir My Life to 8 August 2005. TV3 broadcast an earlier pre-recorded interview (with John Campbell) on the same day.
In his last interview, given to the Herald on Sunday from his hospital bed, he made a potent intervention in New Zealand's 2005 election campaign by saying he "wanted to get out of bed and get a wheel-chair to Wellington" to stop any relaxation of his ban on nuclear ships.[9]
Lange died of complications associated with his renal failure and blood disease in Middlemore Hospital in Auckland on 13 August 2005. The David Lange Memorial Trust has erected a memorial to him in Otahuhu.[10]
In an interview[15] with The New Zealand Herald (published on 3 July 2004) the Herald asked Lange:
Lange replied:
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