Palmer - the Parliamentary Years
by Raymond Richards, Canterbury University Press $45
Only one New Zealander in public life in the last 30 years would use the word "pluvial" when they could just have easily used the term "rainy" to describe our climate.
That person is former Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer,
whose rare combination of intellectual power, academic background and appetite for hard work shocked a tired and worn-out Parliament when he became an MP in 1979.
Yet within four years the former law professor had become deputy leader of the Labour Party and only a few years later Deputy Prime Minister after Sir Robert Muldoon's snap election loss in mid-1984.
Palmer's grasp of legislative detail and appetite for legislative reform led ultimately to his becoming one of this country's most effective reforming legislators.
His lofty professorial manner antagonised older members of the political establishment of the day but through his appetite for legislative detail and personal humanity, many of Palmer's legislative reforms remain largely intact almost three decades later. He played a crucial role in the fourth Labour Government, ably complementing David Lange's premiership for five years, before unwisely beating Mike Moore to become Prime Minister himself for just over a year.
A glib front man Palmer was not, as this book by Waikato law academic Ray Richards outlines. But his short time as Prime Minister should not overshadow Palmer's immense legislative legacy, from the Resource Management Act, addressing longstanding Maori grievances, the foundation of the Law Commission and as a key advocate for New Zealand's anti-nuclear stance and economic reform.
This is an almost scholarly, detailed review of Palmer's decade in Parliament. While the book lacks passion, it makes up for it in extraordinary detail, clearly helped by the author's access to Sir Geoffrey's personal papers. Legal scholars will find it essential reading.
