He was almost certainly supported by the great majority of Australians.
As the Tampa turned towards Christmas Island, Australia sent troops to board the vessel. Captain Rinnan later said:
"I have seen most of what there is to see in this profession, but what I experienced on this trip is the worst. When we asked for food and medicine for the refugees, the Australians sent commando troops on board. This created a very high tension among the refugees.
"After an hour of checking the refugees, the troops agreed to give medical assistance to some of them ... The soldiers obviously didn't like their mission".
Eventually the refugees were taken by the HMAS Manoora to Nauru where Australia had set up the first of its detention centres.
There is little doubt that New Zealanders had the same attitude to "boat people" as Australians, so it was an act of great political courage on the part of Prime Minister, Helen Clark to offer asylum to around 150 of the most vulnerable refugees from the Tampa.
I well recall a sharp intake of breath from senior Labour Party politicians at the time. This did not seem to be a wise move.
Helen's judgment proved sound. Public opinion turned on a sixpence, and polls universally endorsed her initiative. Whatever the details of the situation amounted to, most people thought Helen had done the right thing.
Over the years, Helen kept a close eye on these new Kiwis and I recall her recounting how she saw some of the rescued boys at a high school swimming pool. Despite coming from a society where women covered up head-to toe, they were completely adjusted to girls in swimsuits.
Ruth Lamperd, writing about Tampa refugee children in Melbourne's Herald Sun in 2013, said:
"Theirs are typical migrant stories. The parents settled and worked hard, they learned trades, and they set up businesses. And the children went to school, hit the books and grew up, like the rest of us. They are university students, engineers, nurses. One is an airline pilot. They are patriotic Kiwis grateful for their new lives. They are the children Australia didn't want."
Arne Rinnan was awarded Norway's highest honour and Helen went on to head the UNDP. Their bravery and principled actions were rightly recognised.
Some years later addressing a group of students at Auckland University, a student asked me if I could think of an occasion when a politician acted against poll results. I was able to quote the Tampa affair as a shining example of how this could happen.
With every party except National calling for an increase in New Zealand's refugee quota as a principled response to the crisis in Europe, I wonder if Prime Minister John Key's much vaunted political antennae are getting rusty.
We have accepted 750 refugees annually for as long as I can remember and Key's refusal to budge even slightly on the quota may be a rare misjudgment. It's hard to see how another 250 refugees would make much difference.
The great flag debate may be another misjudgment.
Changing the New Zealand flag may amount to John Key's major legacy, but getting there might be more gruelling and possibly damaging than his minders anticipated.
While I'd be sure that polls told Mr Key that there was dissatisfaction with the current flag, as we've seen with the Tampa business, opinions can adjust rapidly.
Having had a good look at the four options that we'll choose from in the first referendum, I find myself increasingly attracted to our current flag.
The Union Jack reflects the British connection which gave us a heritage of good governance and eventually democracy going back to the Magna Carta, a solid legal system and what is rapidly becoming the universal language. The Southern Cross showed the way here to the Maori, the best navigators the world has seen.
I don't even mind the similarity to the Aussie flag. They are, after all, our mates.
-Mike Williams grew up in Hawke's Bay. He is a supporter of pro-amalgamation group A Better Hawke's Bay. He is chief executive of the NZ Howard League and a former president of the Labour Party. He is a political commentator and can be heard on Radio NZ's Nine to Noon programme at 11am Mondays, and Sean Plunket's RadioLive show 11am, Fridays.
All opinions in this column are his and not those of the newspaper.
