1984 Revolution part III: How Lange-Douglas govt ushered in the age of spin
The 1984 election, 40 years ago this month, marked a momentous shift in direction for a country on the brink of bankruptcy. In this article, the final of a multi-part Listener series looking at the political upheaval and economic and social effects of Rogernomics that continue to define New Zealand, Mike Munro argues that we the Lange-Douglas government to thank for introducing spinners and fixers into the political mix to “control the narrative”. You’ll find part I here and part II here.
The whirlwind of economic change that came to be dubbed Rogernomics wasn’t the only revolution that unfolded in New Zealand politics in the 1980s. Equally transformational were the ways political management practices were modernised and the case for change was communicated and sold. Wellington’s political milieu hadn’t seen anything like it.
A number of steps to politicise and professionalise the ministerial workforce – especially the communications function, and media management more specifically – were taken soon after the David Lange-led government took office. Labour wanted strategic nous and politically “on-side” operatives in its ranks as it set about its work. Policy wouldn’t be its only priority. Messaging, market research, style and image would be getting just as much attention.
Long before the term spin doctor was coined, the domain of government communications was mostly non-partisan. Parliamentary press officers were career public servants from a standalone agency, the Tourist and Publicity Department. They were seconded to the offices of ministers, returning to the department when their secondment ended. They attended ministers’ announcements and arranged their media activity – in an admirably neutral fashion, of course.
Though there was a time when they had been outright propagandists. Wartime leader Peter Fraser had 26 information officers employed in the Prime Minister’s Department at Parliament. Their principal task was to shield New Zealanders from “alien influences”, particularly communism.
In his book All Shook Up, examining teenage subculture in New Zealand when anti-communist fever was rampant, Wellington author Redmer Yska writes that on taking office in 1949, the National government of Sid Holland wanted to clean up this “stink factory”. So, the information officers were banished from Parliament and relocated downtown to a quiet corner of the publicity division of the Department of Tourist and Health Resorts.
In 1954, this became the Tourist and Publicity Department, responsible for all government information and publicity programmes, including those of cabinet ministers. Its functions were folded into the Department of Internal Affairs during the Muldoon years, but the drill for providing ministers with communications support remained pretty much the same for 30 years.
Then the Lange juggernaut rolled into town. There was an immediate review of the employment arrangements that were being managed by the Parliamentary Service and Ministerial Services, the arm of the Department of Internal Affairs that looks after administrative support for ministers. The idea of applying a more political lens to the work of ministerial staffers emerged. It would mean having political appointees contracted directly to ministers and working in their political interests: in short, getting them re-elected.
Former television journalist and Labour Party PR supremo David Exel was commissioned by Lange’s chief press secretary, Ross Vintiner, to look at how the new regime would apply to press secretaries. Exel’s report expanded on the merits of having politically hands-on staff, freed from the constraints of public service rules of neutrality. It wouldn’t be compulsory to go on contract – press secretaries could remain part of the core public service if they wished. Cabinet gave the go-ahead and events-based contracts were soon being drawn up for those who wanted them. The pay was better, but the job certainly diminished.
“Events” that would trigger the end of the contract could be an election, or the minister to whom a staffer was contracted losing his or her cabinet post.