Editorial: Prebble's remarkable political career ends

If the ultimate test of good leadership is knowing when to step aside, the Act party has been unusually well-served. Its founder and inspiration, Sir Roger Douglas, realised quickly he was not likely to be an effective leader in election campaigns and handed the role to his former right-hand man in the Cabinet, Richard Prebble. Now Mr Prebble, having led the party into Parliament and having kept it there through three elections, has realised its need of a new face. His decision to stand aside relieves Act of the trauma parties too often suffer when almost everyone but the leader senses the need.

So ends one of the more remarkable careers in New Zealand politics. Mr Prebble will be best remembered, like Sir Roger Douglas, for his role in the phenomenal achievements of the fourth Labour Government, elected 20 years ago in July. Mr Prebble seemed as surprised as anybody when he was named as an Associate Minister of Finance in its Cabinet. During nine years in Opposition he had become a parliamentary terrier, making merry mischief against the Government wherever possible. In fact, it was Mr Prebble who piloted the anti-nuclear shipping bill that caused Marilyn Waring to cross the floor and bring the Muldoon Government down.

But Sir Roger knew what he was doing when he took the terrier under his wing. The Government was going to shake the economy out of a cocoon of false security and some of the Labour Party's most cosy supporters were going to be among the shaken. Mr Prebble was given the job of bringing bad news to state-sector employees, particularly in railways where he had led a featherbedded payroll to believe Labour would "save rail" from National's comparatively gentle deregulation programme.

Rail and postal services and most other state operations found Mr Prebble unapologetic. He was a hard-headed realist who did his toughest talking behind the scenes. Though he was popularly portrayed as a rabid dog straining at a leash, he was cautious in public comment when it mattered. Perhaps his most effective reforms - to industrial practices on the waterfront - proceeded largely unnoticed for most of the time.

As MP for Auckland Central, Mr Prebble's links with the country's largest port were intimate. Though trained as a lawyer, his base was in the labouring branches of the party and he was constantly at loggerheads with the academic left in Auckland Central. When the Lange-Douglas Government split in its second term it was Mr Prebble who brought the thing to a head. He questioned the Prime Minister's actions and was sacked, followed shortly by Trevor de Cleene and Sir Roger himself.

With a previous National renegade, Derek Quigley, they formed the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers, the precursor of the party known as Act. None of them was a natural popular leader. Mr Prebble was the most pragmatic politically. Under him Act has not made much attempt to popularise its core economic philosophy. The party has preferred to campaign on issues such as law and order and race relations, presenting itself more as a conventional conservative party than a promoter of economic liberalism.

Act's problem now is that National is also led by an economic liberal who has begun to mine the racially conservative territory that previously was left to Act and New Zealand First. While NZ First has responded by siding more often with Labour in Parliament, Act under Mr Prebble has seemed uncertain whether to embrace the Brash campaign or to criticise it.

Act voters want a party in Parliament capable of keeping a National-led Government on the track of economic liberalism. The party's next leader needs to leave racial concerns to Don Brash and take Act back to its original mission.