Comrades nip back at Lange

David Lange

The wall of silence that has traditionally greeted a David Lange verbal attack crumbled slightly yesterday as Prime Minister Helen Clark and other former colleagues delivered broadsides of their own.

Helen Clark revealed that she did not vote for Mr Lange as leader, that she had spoken up against some of the economic reforms engineered by Finance Minister Sir Roger Douglas, and she still carried "the scars" from her time as a minister in the fourth Labour Government.

"The whole period strikes a nerve, which is why I have never given interviews about it," she said.

Her comments come after Mr Lange's book, My Life, called former Labour Ministers a "terrible lot", accused Helen Clark of not speaking out against Rogernomics, described former Foreign Affairs Minister Russell Marshall as "shallow, shabby and endlessly self-seeking", former Health Minister Michael Bassett as "always venomous", and said "God alone knew" what former Prime Minister Mike Moore would have done if left in charge of the Government.

Mr Moore called the comments sad and said "You would have to ask a psychiatrist" why Mr Lange had made them.

"The people who loved him the most and supported him the most seem to cop it the most," Mr Moore said.

"I wish him well - he's going through a hard time - but we've always given David the benefit, something he's never been generous enough to give anyone else."

Sir Roger said Mr Lange's comments were "all rather sad, but I'm not saying any more".

Mr Marshall said he was "a bit surprised" to be on the receiving end of Mr Lange's venom, and also called the comments "sad".

"He's not well and I don't want to get back into that particularly," he said.

Dr Bassett said the comments showed Mr Lange's tendency to shoot the messenger when he heard things he did not like.

Helen Clark called the years between 1984 and 1990 a "particularly painful part of the Labour Party's history" and recalled the "shock" she felt when, as Housing Minister, she found officials were starting "to unpick the state housing provision as we had known it".

She went to Mr Lange and told him she could not support the changes.

Mr Lange then revealed he had had a "dismal" summer holiday and was "of a mind to re-examine things", Helen Clark said.

A short time later, he famously called for "a cup of tea" to slow the economic reform juggernaut engineered by Sir Roger.

That "cuppa" led to Mr Lange's eventual resignation. He was replaced as Prime Minister by Sir Geoffrey Palmer.

Helen Clark called Mr Lange an "outstanding New Zealander" and said that while "charismatic politicians who carry everyone off their feet with their rhetoric" made for fascinating journalism, she had a different way of achieving goals.