Former Prime Minister Bill English on the campaign trail with former minister Nikki Kaye. Photo / Getty Images, File
Former Prime Minister Bill English on the campaign trail with former minister Nikki Kaye. Photo / Getty Images, File
Opinion by Sue Foley
OPINION
I don’t envy any of the campaign managers for this year’s general election.
I have been privileged - or some may say have had the misfortune - to have worked on two election campaigns, for both major parties, Mike Moore in 1993 and Bill English in 2001.
Some thingshave changed but much is the same. Election campaigns are chaotic, exhausting - and not for the faint-hearted.
I don’t think anyone understood more than the late Mike Moore that you don’t wait for news to happen, you create your own platform. I had only been part of his team for a week when I was told I would be spending New Year’s Day 1993 helping launch his book, Fighting for New Zealand, at Karekare Beach, West Auckland.
The day didn’t start well when my colleague mistook Piha for Paihia. Fortunately, not too far along the motorway, we realised our mistake and headed west.
You had to cross a small stream to get to the KareKare Surf Club venue. I was already drenched when I realised the official party was about to walk in while those about to perform the powhiri weren’t yet in place, so I dashed through the water like a demented whale to ensure protocol was met.
That was where I learned your own can hurt you far more than anyone outside. One of Labour’s own candidates complained about Moore using the violent word “fighting” in the book title.
Mike Moore became Prime Minister 59 days before the October 1990 general election. Photo / NZ Herald, File
Overall though, launching a book was perfect to ensure events across the country; it was about creating content. Janet Frame showed up at a book signing in Palmerston North and ensured a front-page photograph in the local paper.
One of the toughest jobs for any political leader is how to be seen and heard by all the people you want to reach in the final, mad weeks of an election campaign.
Though he hated flying in them, Moore came up with helicoptering to hard-to-reach locations and landing in school grounds which always had at least one, if not two, decent-sized rugby grounds.
Again, this provided great for media with Mike being mobbed by schoolchildren excited about having a chopper land. They would have probably cheered anyone who stepped out but Moore understood the power of being able to tell a story.
The weather can change in a heartbeat and I recall landing in Taumarunui in 1993. We took off after a chopper carrying a TVNZ crew but when we landed they were nowhere to be seen.
We longingly looked skyward for what seemed ages before we finally spotted them coming into land. I can’t remember the journalist on board but I know they stepped out extremely pale, mumbling about getting lost amongst steep hills and clouds. This is what I mean by election campaigns not being for the faint-hearted.
Fast forward to Bill English’s election campaign of 2002 and a chopper was occasionally used but we also had the use of a small plane, which nearly resulted in a major calamity. To this day, I will not board a plane with just one pilot on board.
On board were myself, Mark Sainsbury from TVNZ and a cameraman, Hamilton MP Bob Simcock, Bill English, and the pilot. I repeat, it was a very small plane.
We were flying from, I think, Taupō but definitely into Ardmore and that allowed us to fly to our own timetable - in election time, extremely precious. The flight was meant to last an hour.
An hour and a half later we were still in thick, dark cloud. It had been bumpy but suddenly we hit major turbulence. We may not have done a complete somersault but it sure felt like it. We were all properly buckled in but Simcock, in the very front seat, clearly received a decent bump to his head.
I am sure to this day hair from my head is still embedded in that aircraft. I swear I looked up to see the pilot’s hat covering his face but he somehow kept his hand on the controls. I don’t think a single word was spoken until we landed safely.
English had a major speech to deliver, we all got on with our jobs. Like every day on the campaign trail, you keep going.
Sue Foley.
Someone in the party queried why we were flying about in a private aircraft, as though it was Air Force One. That’s the thing about elections: everyone has an opinion, your own party members more than anyone and these days with access to their own channels 24/7 to voice them.
This year already a theme seems to be coming through from all parties: Fear. Vote those people in and the worst will happen.
To me, the worst that could happen is that those hundred of thousands who didn’t vote last time fear their vote won’t make a difference and don’t bother.
Back in 1993, Mike Moore said, “unfortunately, parties have been elected on poll-driven promises, promises made to win an election, not to govern a country. They become prisoners to the 30-second TV clip or the glib promise made under pressure to the radio talk-back host.”
As I said, 30 years later some things haven’t changed.
- Former press secretary Sue Foley is also former director of corporate affairs with Westpac NZ and GM Corporate Affairs at TollNZ.
