In the lead up to the 1999 election he was a lonesome figure, but a determined one, standing on the side of the road talking to no one except passing traffic.
But his message day after day was consistent: Kiwis were paying higher interest rates than their cuzzies across the ditch, even though they were dealing with the same banks. The People's Bank, the Bank of New Zealand, the last big one we owned, had been flogged off to one of the big four Aussie institutions seven years earlier.
Jim Anderton megaphoned the traffic flow until he was hoarse, telling them above the engine roar that we needed a bank of our own. Clearly he struck a chord, with that election delivering him ten MPs, double the number Winston Peters was able to muster, which put him in the box seat of forming the Government with Labour.
The next battle was to convince Labour of the need for a bank. Their Finance Minister Michael Cullen wasn't at all keen.
Listening to the Anderton monotone, which is usually delivered without a breath, has you reaching for the Mogadon. That was obviously the state Annette King found herself in, as we were reminded in Anderton's valedictory speech, when after a three-hour tirade from the Alliance leader, she told Cullen that Jim had beaten back every argument they'd put up against the bank and declared: "For God's sake, give him the bloody bank."
