One party's struggle to come in from the cold

By ANNE BESTON

The verdict from the voters was brutal, the party's share of the vote its lowest since 1931.

The campaign strategy was deemed a miserable failure and, post-election, the party president desperately tried to steer talk to the future.

That president was Ruth Dyson and the party was Labour after the 1990 general election. Under the first-past-the-post electoral system, the number of Labour MPs was slashed from 56 to 28. National basked in victory with 68 MPs, up from 40.

Labour post-1990 has become almost a benchmark for the depths to which a major political party can sink. Twelve years on, and under a new electoral system, it has been re-elected for a second term and MP Ruth Dyson is a contender for a Cabinet post.

Dyson isn't offering her political rivals any helpful advice. "I'm not going to give them free advice, although they desperately need it."

She claims Labour was more united in its future direction post-1990 than National is now, but that's debatable.

Post-election, the party adopted a "Labour is listening" campaign, but probably more important was the eventual departure of two key figures involved in the 1980s economic reforms, Roger Douglas and Richard Prebble.

Dyson escaped the worst of the scapegoating. There was no public call for her head and she doesn't remember any private knives in the back, either. She did not think about standing down.

"I don't think anybody wants to leave a job unless they've made a positive difference. Most people who get involved in the organisational side of political parties are motivated by much more than just themselves. I was determined to be part of the rebuilding."

Predictably, she says it's different for Michelle Boag. National's president appears to have set herself up.

"You can't claim to have the solution and say 'I'm going to deliver this' and when it doesn't work say 'it wasn't my fault'. I just think anybody in politics who thinks that they as an individual can change everything is wrong."

Dyson admits that when she left the president's job in April 1993 the party still had a long way to go. A rapid turnaround of leaders, a factionalised caucus and a relationship between the parliamentary wing and the party organisation perhaps best described as septic, combined to make Labour's political comeback a long and painful process.

"Realistically you would have to say it took nine years for us.

"It reminds me of one of the great sayings of Mike Moore [after 1990]. He said New Zealand had the phone off the hook and I think that's going to be one of the problems for the National Party."

Full election coverage

Graphic: Seats in the 47th Parliament

Full election results

Election links:
The parties, policies, electoral information, and more