Jim Bolger

Abstract

This article analyses the contribution made to New Zealand's independence by Prime Minister Jim Bolger (1990-98). Bolger's contribution encompassed six significant direction-setting policies; the building of 'Our Place,' Te Papa; his reform of the honours system; his expressing confidence in our judiciary by advocating that our final court of appeal should be a New Zealand one, not the Privy Council, a reform later enacted by the Clark government; his government's significant advancement of the Crown's responsibility to right past injustices against Maori; his preparatory leadership in relation to MMP; and his sign-posting of the inevitability of New Zealand becoming a republic. A seventh element that underpins these considerable achievements, Jim Bolger's character, reinforces the crucial interaction between ideas, people and leadership that characterises any independence journey and its important milestones. Criticism of 'The Statute of Westminster Act 1931', adopted in 1947, as an independence keystone is made and the British Nationality and New Zealand Citizenship Act 1949 is viewed as a comparably significant constitution and independence milestone. A future New Zealand republic, central to Jim Bolger's independence achievements and legacy, is also discussed within the context of how New Zealand can conduct a nationwide discourse over becoming a republic, a discourse characterized by civility, mutual respect and mutual compromise.