Chapter 9

On the cusp of government again

1996 was the country’s first MMP election. Most sitting MPs opposed the new electoral system but not Annette. ‘I was always a supporter of the change. Interestingly, Helen and Michael and others weren’t. But I thought it was much fairer. I actively supported it.’

The next big personal issue for Annette was finding an electorate for the election. ‘I had just won Miramar and held it for three years, but under MMP Island Bay and Miramar electorates were combined, and there was only going to be one member. Either Liz Tennet or I had to go. I was preparing myself for the battle, but Liz just walked away. There was no fight between us. She just decided to retire from Parliament. She was great to work with, but she just decided, no, she had done her time. So I just walked into the Rongotai seat.’

The Rongotai electorate included the Chatham Islands, a part of New Zealand that had never occupied much of Annette’s consciousness before she became the Chathams MP. ‘One of the things I did before the ’96 election was to fly down to the Chathams with Ruth Dyson, their current MP. I have never forgotten the flight.

‘We flew in with Air New Zealand because they were still providing the service. It was dark. We came in to land and then we took off again, and then we came in again and took off again, and the third time we landed. I had no idea what was happening. When we had finally landed and got into the airport, the guy who ran the airport, John Sutherland, said sorry about that, I forgot to turn on the landing lights.

‘I have to say, I always had a few doubts after that. But, of course, the other airline, Air Chathams, with Craig Emery, runs and did run a fantastic airline, the salvation of the Chathams in many ways. I took Lloyd Falck down once, and there was no room at the inn. We had to be put up at a farm stay and the only place Lloyd could sleep was out in the annexe with the dog. He never got over it.

‘Mayor Pat Smith phoned me recently. He was a Nat in the old days, but now he’s a total Labour supporter. “They made an absolute mess of it, that previous government,” he told me, “but you and Helen!” He was a big fan of Helen! And, he added, “The young girl, she’s doing well.”’

Annette’s political fortunes definitely soared during the latter half of the 1990s. ‘When I went back in ’93 I was reasonably senior. I certainly went up the ranks after we challenged. Also, before the ’96 election, there was a walkout by the group that set up the United Party. It was really unfortunate that Clive Matthewson left. I always thought he was a potential Labour leader. He was incredibly charismatic, good-looking and intelligent. Their decisions to leave meant that their political careers, apart from Dunne and Margaret Austin, were virtually over.

‘After they had gone, Helen promoted me, and I became spokesperson for social welfare before the ’96 election. I held that position until about ’97 when I took over health.

‘The ’90s were a topsy-turvy decade for me. From 1990 to 1993 I was in Palmerston North and had an unexpectedly satisfying and happy time; 1993 to 1996 were years of absolute pandemonium for Labour, but that period finished reasonably upbeat. We almost won the ’96 election. We had several meetings at my new place in Seatoun. Helen got Mike Moore to help with the protracted coalition negotiations with New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, but eventually Winston opted to take his party into coalition with National.’

Annette remains extremely positive about Mike Moore. ‘Mike still really feels the way he was treated by Labour. He agreed to do the negotiations because, he said, I am tribal Labour. He still gets on well with Winston, and Winston goes to see him. So they’re still friends.’

Another frequent visitor to Moore is recently retired and irrepressible Labour MP Clayton Cosgrove, who took over Mike Moore’s electorate and in later years became Annette’s bench mate in Parliament. ‘Clayton is the son Mike never had.’

Annette has many strong personal memories of the late 1990s. ‘Judy Keall flatted with me for about four years in Napier Road, Seatoun. I always said if I wanted an MP as an advocate it would be Judy. She was a fierce advocate for anyone with an issue. In the end she had a fallout with Amanda. That’s why she left.

‘Lloyd stayed living in Levin after I left, but he remained my campaign manager right through. Then they shifted to Wellington and Marea became my electorate secretary again while I was in Miramar. Peter Franks was my LEC chair for 10 years. Peter Noble was my first LEC chair in Wellington. He was 19 years old. He was replaced by Mike Hearn, who’s dead now but was a wonderful man. Mike was a bricklayer and blocklayer; he could do anything. He singlehandedly knocked out my chimney in Napier Road. I sometimes worry that I might have hastened his death because it wasn’t good for him. After Mike there was Peter Franks, and he and I basically lasted together almost until I left. Eileen Brown was there the last year.’

By the time the 1990s ended, and Labour stood on the brink of government again, Annette had developed a full health manifesto. Labour campaigned to get rid of the Health Funding Authority, and to get rid of the unelected Hospital & Health Services (HHSs), which had taken over from the Crown Health Enterprises (CHEs). Labour promised to bring back local health democracy and have elected District Health Boards. It developed a comprehensive primary health-care policy and embraced a real commitment in mental health to implementing the Mason Report, and to provide funding that was identified in that report.

‘I think one reason Labour in government could achieve so much in health was that we had established exactly what our policy would be. Even before we were sworn in, I had Karen Poutasi, the director-general of health, in my office and gave her the manifesto, and over the next few years she implemented it. She’s a top civil servant.’

Annette was in her element as health spokesperson in those latter years of the 1990s, encouraging health activists who were complaining noisily about National’s failings in health. People who were noisy in Canterbury in the 1990s, such as Phil Bagshaw, Gary Nicholls and Stuart Gowland, are now being heard again. Their 1996 report, Patients are Dying, was a defining moment in health.

Annette says it is an interesting issue — when people support your policies, are you using them or are they using you? ‘It is probably a bit of both, but I certainly admired their conviction and passion. The Nats wouldn’t support Stu Gowland’s mobile surgical bus then. I did and funded it. It’s still going. Now that says something. When I became health minister, they were challenging people to work with, but you could never doubt or challenge their commitment to health.’