Jim Bolger the 35th Prime Minister of New Zealand has died.
He has a deeply mixed political legacy, from Free Market Stormtrooper to Decent Society Peacemaker.
He was instrumental in the destruction of the Unions with the Employment Contracts Act, he oversaw Ruth Richardson’s horrific ‘Mother of all Budgets’ that permanently scarred NZ society and his deregulation of the Building Act in 1991 was directly responsible for the leaky homes scandal that erupted a decade later.
After he was knifed in the back by Jenny Shipley he left politics for a second life where he lamented his early decisions and wandered the political landscape apologising to anyone who would listen.
In his life after Parliament, the Right disowned him while the Left embraced him.
He was instrumental in permanently mutilating NZ yet had the decency to at least be ashamed of that in later life.
As a devout catholic, guilt came naturally to him.
Snarkly dubbed ‘The Great Helmsman’, Jim’s problem was he never knew where the Christ he was steering NZ.
RIP Jim.
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Bolger was ultimately a New Zealander – the reptilians that succeeded him have no loyalty to anyone or anything.
Farmers in NZ have traditionally wanted everything deregulated except what may affect them adversely. The Irish in Jim was instrumental in his final un-brain washing from the Farmers party ethos and embrace the negative ramifications of colonisation and the plight of Maori in NZ. He faced up to begin solving long standing grievances with Maori and ultimately did the right thing. That is why he was shunned by many of the rednecks in National. I would wager Jenny Shipley has a knot in her gut today.
Wow. Ok brutally honest eulogy, which however I appreciate as he certainly was loathed for all of the above you outline here while he was in power. But then, as you say he somehow became transformed into a seemingly highly respected elder statesman voice of reason. Didn’t know he spent his time apologising to all and sundry about the mistakes he made while in power. A failed and flawed leader? Not unlike David Lange then. You are right to mock his nom de guerre The Great Helmsman, snarkly given or not (by whom?).
Jim Bolger seemed to actually get it in the end, didn’t he? Took too long though.
Being dealt to by Shipley seemed to wake him up to the literal back-stabbing that people in his beloved party were capable of but his regrets did not repair the damage.
Yes he was a terrible Prime Minister. Benefits were slashed, and charges introduced on healthcare and education. Commercialising public services, forcing them to compete with one another, loosening building rules which led to the leaky homes crisis, privatising the electricity market, the list goes on and on.
Most of the reforms under the 4th National Government need to be reversed as soon as possible.
His come back in the 2010s and 20s reeked of a man desperate to rewrite his political legacy.
Worked on his Orchard near Tauranga. Personally a nice bloke and a fair employer.(I was completely opposed to his policies, he knew it, he did not hold it against me).
I always thought of Jim as the last of the rural base of the National Party. He knew what it was like to get his hands dirty and remained convinced of the superiority of all things rural.
This piece honouring Jim Bolger, not quite an obituary, is very true and fair and appreciates his position – I like about being a Catholic that guilt was natural for him. The decent society, it sounded good to me, yet I couldn’t see how his actions worked within that framework.
Like all the avowed religious in politics, the Christians have a rich background from which to quote various things, in the Bible, and then… The sonorous recitation of the Bible principle is used as a front and the pollie and friends pervert the policy proclaimed, behind the stage setting in the scenery behind.
Second thoughts need to be had first, before the actual unchangeable actions and results. Maybe we need AI to run a simulation of the likely effects and results, to prevent these awful experiments made in the name of somebody’s deepset prejudices and ideology bereft of human empathy and understanding of the foibles of his or her fellows, and of their own illusions about themselves and ‘how things are’, embedded, almost unchangeable.
(Oscar Wilde wrote in ‘An Ideal Husband’ :
“I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.” https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/advice)
After he was knifed in the back by Jenny Shipley he left politics for a second life where he lamented his early decisions and wandered the political landscape apologising to anyone who would listen.
Not too many of the shakers at the top declare themselves agnostic, but they don’t come near to the commitment to simple Christianity as adopted by real Shakers. Perhaps it’s time for return to that worthy and livable sect – the one we hare in is not!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakers
National (under Bolger) was my very first election vote!
“Bolger’s second term in office saw the introduction of the MMP electoral system. In the subsequent 1996 election National emerged as the largest party but it was forced to enter into a coalition with New Zealand First. Bolger continued as prime minister, however his critics argued that he gave the inexperienced NZ First too much influence in his Cabinet. On 8 December 1997, Bolger was effectively ousted as leader by his party caucus, and was replaced as prime minister by Jenny Shipley.”
Sounds familiar? History repeating itself.
bolger sat back on his pompous vowels and watched fellow farmers sink under an urban greed fueled bankster triggered mudslide.
He was hot on the heels of the equally useless fucking douglas who’s only claim to infamy was, and still is, neoliberalism.
I’m proud to write that I was at the Ch Ch Town Hall during a march and called him a useless bastard then detailed why from behind a microphone and in front of 3000 other farmers.
I got a standing ovation when I stormed off after a pro natzo pro federated farmers fellow up on stage turned my microphone off while I was in mid rant. Mind you, those farmers might have just been glad to see me leave. Ba ha !
Good on ewe for representing. Keep it up, don’t despair. However cannot feel sorry for a farmer who was given money to borrow and squander to bankruptcy left right and enter as opposed to those who could not get a comparable small loan to buy a house they would have made sure to service. No leg up there. Loads of normal people suffered because of that. So fuck the farmers crying over their stupidity and squander, not to mention unsustainable farming practices we are all suffering from that the banks are still bankrolling.
His health and housing reforms are the reasons why both those sectors are so fucked today.
There you go, his legacy. Unfortunately it’s the negative stuff (pretty bad) that gets remembered.
I own a leaky home, don’t have fixed abide at the moment. Jim Bolger obviously has a lot to do with that.Seymour is an out and out dipshit when it comes to deregulation.
However, met Jim Bolger almost 10 years ago at a union event he happened to be at, and had a chat with him, a nice bloke, he lamented Donald Trump saying he was a big liar, a few weeks later Trump unbelievably won the election
He may have overseen the work of Ruth Richardson but he fired her as soon as he got the chance.
Jim Bolger probably watched David Lange’s attempts to get rid of Roger Douglas and being a smarter politician waited for the right time to get the job done.
I say smarter than Lange because it took his caucus 4 years to stab him in the back whereas Lange’s did it the same week he tried to fire Douglas.
He eventually found a job that suited, leading NZ Post, iirc he did ok at that.
Bolger was responsible for the BNZ scam. It was claimed the bank needed in todays money an $800mill bailout so it was sold for around $3billion. In 2024 it made $795million profit. That amount of profit could have been available every year for the last 33 years to pay for social services or infrastructure investment or state houses or reduce taxes or subsidise food from farmers. Instead the $795 million a year became part of the bank profits export industry otherwise known as the NZ Mortgage Mine. Over the last 33 years the government could have received $23billion in profits.
How come the National Economic Mismanagement Party couldn’t see the opportunity but the National Australia Bank could? Mates.
For his penance Labour made Bolger the chairman of Kiwibank.
Given half a chance the Nacts will give Kiwibank away to foreign banksters. I guess you can assume this hasn’t happened already because … Winston?
A DECENT PERSON was Jim but his trickle down mentality was sad to see and hear .
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