Jim Bolger returns to the farm

After three years on Washington's diplomatic circuit and 30 in Wellington, Jim Bolger returns to the farm, fitter and more polished, writes CARROLL DU CHATEAU.

It takes a consummate politician to turn a negative into a positive, and Jim Bolger, who people used to refer to as the old spud, does it so adroitly you actually think, "Of course, he's right. Why didn't I think of it like that?"

The question, along the lines of "Don't you have a problem moving from working with the likes of Bill Birch [arch Nat] to Jim Anderton [Kiwibank]?" produces first a twinkle in those ever-hopeful eyes - Bolger loves a challenge - followed by a skilful answer.

He stretches back happily in his green striped outdoor chair to explain that, despite the economic changes over the past 17-odd years, this is a country where the differences between the right and left are narrow.

"I rose from the ranks, led a conservative political party for 12 years - seven as Prime Minister - so it's clearly established that it's that side of the aisle I sit most comfortably on. But in reality most politics are around the centre ... It's different in America - the extreme right and left are further apart."

Here in Te Kuiti, of course, you are constantly reminded of Jim Bolger's roots. This is Colin Meads country. Bolger is a farmer, and the son of a farmer, too.

He picks his way over the cattle stop in his cream pants, dark blue checked shirt and solid lace-up shoes, drinking in the King Country sun and clear morning air. The only noise is a faint baa, baa from down the drive where some shorn ewes are grazing between the cattle stops.

This is the first time that he and wife Joan have lived on their rolling 243ha farm for 30 years. The house they moved into two weeks ago, with its threadbare carpets, cat-attacked wallpaper and marvellous rose garden, is at the other end of the farm from where they brought up the first of their nine children (the farm manager lives in the old homestead now). And yes, they are greatly looking forward to resettling.

Jim Bolger looks slimmer and fitter than when he left Parliament to take up his post as New Zealand's ambassador in Washington. While away he and Joan walked an hour every morning and often 32km in the weekend. On consecutive - and breathtaking - weekends they walked the 298km up the C&O canal from Chesapeake Bay to Cumberland.

Now he strides into Te Kuiti to get the paper at 6.30 every morning - 30 minutes each way - and they both enjoy getting stuck into the garden. But with a work commitment that will take him to Wellington a couple of days a week and Missouri a couple of times a year, it is unlikely he will again take up farming seriously.

It was here in Te Kuiti that Jim Bolger, who had grown up in Taranaki not far from Parihaka, embarked on his political career. He launches into an obviously favourite story.

"My second son had just been born and I went to a Federated Farmers meeting. I said to Joan that I was going, and that was all right. The mistake I made was saying something.

"One of my strengths - or weaknesses - is that I've always had opinions," he says.

"Also there's a certain space in farming that allows you to think. It's repetitive, hard work, but you do have that intellectual space to think. Out of that grows your value system, your beliefs and willingness to be involved."B OLGER'S instinct for and love of politics, which sometimes makes his face light up like a boy's, stood him in good stead in Washington.

While his youngest son, Aidan, went to Landon High School and Matthew to Jesuit-run Georgetown University in Washington "the second-oldest in the States" studying international business and language, Bolger elbowed for space on the political circuit. There were around 170 ambassadors - nearly all representing bigger and more powerful countries than New Zealand.

"Being a former Prime Minister certainly added cachet in a town overrun by diplomats," says Bolger. "We were all competing for the time and attention of a small number of senior people."

Bolger's ambition was clear, "which is why at the leadership change I said I'd go to Washington. America is so important to New Zealand's future - I was pleased to go where I felt I could make the biggest contribution. What I wanted to achieve was a total normalisation of New Zealand-US relations."

His method of getting his message across was typically Kiwi. Early on he and Joan started putting on relaxed business breakfasts.

"I'd get two or three people in for a quiet meeting on issues," he says. "That way we could get on with the job, not worry who was at the next table ... We enjoyed doing that - sometimes did lunch as well."

He says the Americans like the relaxed, no-nonsense New Zealand style - and they particularly enjoyed dealing with a former Prime Minister. "I had met President Clinton at all previous Apecs and also during his official visit in 1999 and first met the new President Bush as his father's son on a visit to Washington back in 1998," says Bolger.

"I'd kept in contact with him and on significant issues I made contact. We also have a close mutual friend, which is enormously helpful. The advantage is that, as a leader of a country, you both have stuff in common and you know a lot of people."

And, at the end of 3 1/2 years, Bolger had achieved what he wanted. As he says, when Helen Clark meets George W. Bush next month "it will be the first formal visit by a Prime Minister with the President since I was there in 93, other than an informal meeting with then Prime Minister Shipley in December 98 after she spoke at Al Gore's conference on reinventing government.

"I believe that New Zealand has regained considerable credibility - now it's a matter of maintaining that."

There were also plenty of thrills. "It was a time in the world that was unique," he says. "The disputed election, the belief that the boom would last forever, the dotcom collapse, the awful September 11, through to the lamb [tariff scandal], the WTO case and the work done to make them move."

The WTO ruling against America's surcharge on our lamb, ("New Zealand has always won its cases ... that's why international rules underpinning national trade are very important") was crucial, as was Bolger's part in persuading the US to support Mike Moore's appointment to the WTO.

Then there was his own appointment as vice-chairman of the World Agricultural Forum based in Missouri. "Only one of three vice-chairmen," he downplays. "Our aim is [to answer the question]: how do you feed the world with the degradation of land, salt water intrusion into so many formerly fertile areas? Clearly we need to use all the tools of science to meet that goal."

I T IS on free trade that Bolger made the biggest strides. "The US is seriously considering a free trade agreement with New Zealand," he continues. "Singapore and Chile are quite well advanced, the deal with the Americas, which embraces South America and the Caribbean is inside the door and Australia and New Zealand, which are part of the original P5 [US, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Chile] agreement, are waiting to get formally inside the door."

But, he stresses, New Zealand has to play the game carefully. "Dealing with the US you have to be a complete participant, not just cherry pick only that which is important to us," says Bolger.

Then there were the parties. Bolger has a story to tell about getting into the Republican and Democrat Conventions when they announced their presidential candidates during the 2000 election convention.

"Being a political animal I wanted to get closer to the action than diplomats usually do, so I got a [hotly contested] floor pass ... the main thing is to get as close as possible to the major speeches.

"There were thousands of people, Texans with sombreros - it's a stage-managed extravaganza designed to send a message to 280 million Americans."

Bolger particularly enjoyed the whirlwind of events held round the primaries - Republicans in Philadelphia and Democrats in Los Angeles, both trying to outdo each other's huge parties.

"On style, substance and length [of parties] the Dems won hands down. I was pleased there were only two major political parties - don't think we would've survived three."

It was the same during the impasse after voting closed and Al Gore and Bush were fighting for a win. "The media were camped out next door - they had all these OB vans, even a tent, and Joan and I would go walking every day at 7 and walk between them.

"I'd always offer advice," he says with a twinkle. "Like, on the day before it was settled [I said] 'I think this'll be your last day'."

Then, says Bolger, came September 11. "I was at a briefing on the economy at a big broking house. It's very difficult to capture the mood of shock and horror. The sense of invasion of your privacy - that anyone would do this to them struck them as much more heinous."

He pauses. "One thing it's done is remove a layer of innocence. That sense of invulnerability has been replaced with a sense of vulnerability. It's a huge change in attitude.

"Everything that followed from there is different. New Zealand certainly had the right response - to work with them against terrorism was very well received. At the time President Bush put it so bluntly to the world: 'You're with us or you're not'."

A T 66, a couple of days after celebrating his mother's 100th birthday, Jim Bolger looks more polished than ever. He is more charming, and more fun in person than on TV, with an Irish joy in a good story. Probably because he doesn't naturally speak in sound bites, he also makes more sense.

He is looking forward to his new jobs, first as chairman-designate of New Zealand Post, second as chairman of Kiwibank.

He reminds me that his own Government deregulated the Post Office in the first place. Now it turns over $1 billion annually, is the country's largest employer and a high-performance, dynamic organisation ("the only postal service anywhere in the world to reduce the price of stamps") with much to sell to the rest of the world.

Although he won't talk details, Bolger does say that Kiwibank - its first branches in Hawkes Bay and Palmerston North open next week - will be very different from the old Post Office Savings Bank. Yes, we will be able to get an eftpos card and yes, there will be an internet banking service. And yes "of course" he and Joan will have an account at the bank.

"It will be a modern banking service that does all you want it to do."

Bolger takes the Kiwibank concept back to his own idea of what the world is all about - and his belief in the rural sector. "One of the reasons I accepted the job was because of a desire of people to have a bank that understood their needs.

"Banking is a very personal thing. One-and-a-half billion dollars in profit goes overseas from banks annually. It's not unreasonable of New Zealanders to ask, 'Couldn't we benefit from those profits?"'

He seems to have the kind of common sense that cushions us against great rolls to either left or right.

"Yes, I have noted that agriculture is no longer a sunset industry," he says so drily that I have to blink to get the joke while he surveys this farm that has done so well for him.

"It never was. Agriculture was always right up the front end of how New Zealand earns its place in the world ... I make an observation to people - you might buy a state-of-the-art computer every two years. You actually need a meal three times a day."

He's very reassuring, very smooth. Could it be that the old spud has come back a statesman?