WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.240 I want you to picture a specific kind of person. 00:00:02.960 --> 00:00:06.620 You know the type. The war hero. We usually have 00:00:06.620 --> 00:00:09.359 this very specific archetype in our heads for 00:00:09.359 --> 00:00:12.500 that guy in politics. He's the hawk. Absolutely. 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:14.679 The peace through strength guy. It's a standard 00:00:14.679 --> 00:00:17.359 political trope because... Well, it works. It 00:00:17.359 --> 00:00:20.460 signals toughness, decisive action. Exactly. 00:00:20.620 --> 00:00:23.500 But today we are diving into a stack of source 00:00:23.500 --> 00:00:26.440 material that just completely flips that archetype 00:00:26.440 --> 00:00:29.300 on its head. We're unpacking the life of Arthur 00:00:29.300 --> 00:00:32.640 Faulkner. And let me tell you, this guy is a 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:35.859 walking, talking contradiction to everything 00:00:35.859 --> 00:00:38.579 we assume about military men in politics. He 00:00:38.579 --> 00:00:40.320 really is. I mean, we're talking about a man 00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:43.929 who was a. decorated World War II fighter pilot. 00:00:44.090 --> 00:00:47.369 Flying Spitfire. Flying Spitfires, dodging flak 00:00:47.369 --> 00:00:49.590 over Europe and North Africa, who then spent 00:00:49.590 --> 00:00:52.929 his entire political career trying to dismantle 00:00:52.929 --> 00:00:55.530 the military machine. It's wild. He fought to 00:00:55.530 --> 00:00:58.530 end compulsory military training. He protested 00:00:58.530 --> 00:01:01.250 the Vietnam War while he was the defense spokesman. 00:01:01.329 --> 00:01:02.909 And he threatened to resign his cabinet post 00:01:02.909 --> 00:01:05.349 rather than use the army for civil control. It's 00:01:05.349 --> 00:01:07.310 the central tension of his life. And frankly, 00:01:07.450 --> 00:01:09.430 it's what makes him such a compelling figure 00:01:09.430 --> 00:01:11.969 in New Zealand history. Totally. How does the 00:01:11.969 --> 00:01:14.069 man in the cockpit become the man holding the 00:01:14.069 --> 00:01:16.230 olive branch? That's the question we need to 00:01:16.230 --> 00:01:18.950 answer. So our mission for this deep dive is 00:01:18.950 --> 00:01:22.109 to look past the basic Wikipedia entry. We've 00:01:22.109 --> 00:01:24.450 got the political histories, the caucus records, 00:01:24.609 --> 00:01:27.409 the biographies. We want to understand how this 00:01:27.409 --> 00:01:30.950 specific mix of experiences, you know, the trauma 00:01:30.950 --> 00:01:33.670 of Anzio and the brutality of party politics, 00:01:33.849 --> 00:01:36.709 created a man who really shaped New Zealand's 00:01:36.709 --> 00:01:40.049 modern identity. And specifically, how he navigated 00:01:40.049 --> 00:01:42.709 that transition from a soldier who follows orders 00:01:42.709 --> 00:01:46.129 to a politician who refuses to give them if... 00:01:46.159 --> 00:01:48.640 violate his conscience. OK, so let's rewind to 00:01:48.640 --> 00:01:50.420 the very beginning, because usually when we see 00:01:50.420 --> 00:01:52.340 someone rise to the top of the Labor Party, we 00:01:52.340 --> 00:01:55.280 expect a certain background. Trade unions, maybe 00:01:55.280 --> 00:01:58.780 academia, a lawyer, perhaps. Faulkner was none 00:01:58.780 --> 00:02:01.560 of those. He was born in 1921 in Devonport, Auckland, 00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:04.599 and his start wasn't in a lecture hall. It was 00:02:04.599 --> 00:02:06.840 in the shadow of the Great Depression. The economic 00:02:06.840 --> 00:02:09.710 context is crucial here, isn't it? It is everything. 00:02:09.930 --> 00:02:12.669 He didn't go to university. He went from Otago 00:02:12.669 --> 00:02:15.689 District High School straight into the workforce 00:02:15.689 --> 00:02:18.810 as a sales clerk. OK. But the detail that just 00:02:18.810 --> 00:02:21.490 stops you in your tracks, and I had to double 00:02:21.490 --> 00:02:24.229 check this in the source material, is his political 00:02:24.229 --> 00:02:27.569 awakening. He joined the Labor Party at age 15. 00:02:27.830 --> 00:02:30.830 15. I mean, at 15, I was barely organized enough 00:02:30.830 --> 00:02:33.870 to catch the bus. He's signing up for party organization. 00:02:34.330 --> 00:02:37.870 It speaks to the volatility of the 1930s. If 00:02:37.870 --> 00:02:39.710 you were a working class kid in New Zealand then, 00:02:39.810 --> 00:02:42.810 politics wasn't abstract. It was about whether 00:02:42.810 --> 00:02:45.349 your family ate. It was survival. It was survival. 00:02:45.449 --> 00:02:47.750 He was working as a branch secretary before he 00:02:47.750 --> 00:02:50.409 could legally vote. That suggests a level of 00:02:50.409 --> 00:02:52.750 conviction that wasn't just a hobby. But that 00:02:52.750 --> 00:02:55.110 political apprenticeship gets cut short. The 00:02:55.110 --> 00:02:57.169 world catches fire. World War II breaks out. 00:02:57.330 --> 00:02:59.310 And this is where the story shifts from like 00:02:59.310 --> 00:03:02.270 teenage political organizer to action movie. 00:03:02.509 --> 00:03:05.270 He joins the Royal New Zealand Air Force. And 00:03:05.270 --> 00:03:07.810 he doesn't land a desk job. He ends up in the 00:03:07.810 --> 00:03:10.289 cockpit of a submarine Spitfire. For those of 00:03:10.289 --> 00:03:12.689 us who aren't aviation buffs, can we just pause 00:03:12.689 --> 00:03:14.909 on that for a second? What does it actually mean 00:03:14.909 --> 00:03:18.930 to pilot a Spitfire in that era? I mean, it means 00:03:18.930 --> 00:03:22.030 you are strapped into a very small, very fast 00:03:22.030 --> 00:03:24.969 metal tube with a massive Merlin engine on the 00:03:24.969 --> 00:03:27.909 front. Okay. It's agile, it's iconic, but it's 00:03:27.909 --> 00:03:30.689 incredibly dangerous. There are no computers 00:03:30.689 --> 00:03:33.310 flying the plane. It is all instinct, physics, 00:03:33.550 --> 00:03:36.300 and nerves. And he wasn't just flying patrols. 00:03:36.300 --> 00:03:38.319 No, he was in the thick of it, both Europe and 00:03:38.319 --> 00:03:40.780 North Africa. The sources highlight one specific 00:03:40.780 --> 00:03:43.500 operation that really underscores the intensity 00:03:43.500 --> 00:03:46.860 of his service. Operation Shingle. The landing 00:03:46.860 --> 00:03:50.580 at Anzio, Italy. This was 1944. The Allies were 00:03:50.580 --> 00:03:53.080 trying to bypass the German winter line. It was 00:03:53.080 --> 00:03:56.240 an amphibious assault and it was notoriously 00:03:56.240 --> 00:03:58.319 brutal. The beachhead was shelled relentlessly 00:03:58.319 --> 00:04:00.740 for months. And the record shows Faulkner has 00:04:00.740 --> 00:04:02.879 a very specific claim to fame here. He does. 00:04:03.039 --> 00:04:05.360 He was the first Allied pilot to actually land 00:04:05.360 --> 00:04:07.819 at Anzio during that operation. Which is a terrifying 00:04:07.819 --> 00:04:10.139 distinction. I mean, landing a Spitfire is hard 00:04:10.139 --> 00:04:12.789 enough on a proper runway. Landing one on a makeshift 00:04:12.789 --> 00:04:15.150 strip on a beachhead while artillery is raining 00:04:15.150 --> 00:04:17.269 down and the German army is trying to push you 00:04:17.269 --> 00:04:19.750 back into the sea. That is a level of stress 00:04:19.750 --> 00:04:22.970 that just rewires a person. That's the aha moment 00:04:22.970 --> 00:04:25.490 for me. You can't go through Anzio seeing that 00:04:25.490 --> 00:04:27.410 level of mechanized slaughter and come back the 00:04:27.410 --> 00:04:29.810 same person. No. And I think that's the lens 00:04:29.810 --> 00:04:31.889 through which we have to view everything he did 00:04:31.889 --> 00:04:35.329 later. He saw the glory of war up close and he 00:04:35.329 --> 00:04:38.689 saw the cost. He saw the mess. So the war ends. 00:04:38.889 --> 00:04:41.639 He survives. He comes home. And the transition 00:04:41.639 --> 00:04:43.959 must have been so jarring. One day you're an 00:04:43.959 --> 00:04:46.600 ace pilot. The next you're a credit manager for 00:04:46.600 --> 00:04:49.060 a furniture company. It's the classic post -war 00:04:49.060 --> 00:04:52.680 adjustment. But clearly that political itch from 00:04:52.680 --> 00:04:55.740 his teenage years, it hadn't gone away. He wanted 00:04:55.740 --> 00:04:57.779 into parliament. It wasn't exactly a red carpet 00:04:57.779 --> 00:04:59.740 entry, though. He had to hustle. Not at all. 00:04:59.800 --> 00:05:02.240 He had to do the hard yards. He ran for the Franklin 00:05:02.240 --> 00:05:05.019 seat in 1951 and lost. He ran for North Shore 00:05:05.019 --> 00:05:08.160 in 54 and lost. That's six years of campaigning 00:05:08.160 --> 00:05:10.829 for nothing. Most people would quit. Well, not 00:05:10.829 --> 00:05:13.850 for nothing. In the party system, that's called 00:05:13.850 --> 00:05:17.230 paying your dues. You run in unwittable seats 00:05:17.230 --> 00:05:19.750 to prove you're loyal and can handle the grind. 00:05:20.029 --> 00:05:21.790 And if you survive that, they give you a shot 00:05:21.790 --> 00:05:24.449 at a real seat. Which finally happens in 1957. 00:05:25.129 --> 00:05:28.870 He wins the electorate of Roscoe. And he locks 00:05:28.870 --> 00:05:33.149 it down, holds that seat for 24 years. A lifetime 00:05:33.149 --> 00:05:35.829 in politics. But for the first massive chunk 00:05:35.829 --> 00:05:39.240 of that, he is just a backbencher. Labor wins 00:05:39.240 --> 00:05:42.480 in 57 under Walter Nash. But then they lose in 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:45.060 60 and spend 12 years in the wilderness of opposition. 00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:47.480 12 years is a long time to sit on the opposition 00:05:47.480 --> 00:05:49.980 benches. But this is where his background starts 00:05:49.980 --> 00:05:53.220 to become an asset. In 1965, the labor leader, 00:05:53.360 --> 00:05:56.060 Norman Kirk, needs a defense spokesman. And who 00:05:56.060 --> 00:05:58.220 better than the Anzio veteran? It gave the party 00:05:58.220 --> 00:06:00.779 credibility. Usually, left -wing parties struggle 00:06:00.779 --> 00:06:03.519 with being seen as soft on defense. Right. Putting 00:06:03.519 --> 00:06:06.160 a Spitfire pilot in the role neutralizes that 00:06:06.160 --> 00:06:08.509 attack immediately. But here is where the Faulkner 00:06:08.509 --> 00:06:10.769 paradox kicks in hard. He gets the platform, 00:06:10.990 --> 00:06:13.790 but he doesn't use it to call for more war. The 00:06:13.790 --> 00:06:16.550 Vietnam War is ramping up. The domino theory 00:06:16.550 --> 00:06:19.550 is the prevailing wisdom. The idea that if Vietnam 00:06:19.550 --> 00:06:22.910 falls, all of Southeast Asia falls. The pressure 00:06:22.910 --> 00:06:25.930 on New Zealand to send troops is immense. And 00:06:25.930 --> 00:06:28.449 Faulkner becomes one of the loudest voices against 00:06:28.449 --> 00:06:31.329 it. He wasn't just skeptical. He was deeply, 00:06:31.490 --> 00:06:34.389 vocally critical of New Zealand's involvement. 00:06:34.779 --> 00:06:37.319 There's a story from 1970 that I think perfectly 00:06:37.319 --> 00:06:40.100 captures his style of dissent. It involves the 00:06:40.100 --> 00:06:43.180 U .S. vice president, Spiro Agnew. Right. Agnew 00:06:43.180 --> 00:06:45.930 was visiting Wellington. This was a state visit, 00:06:46.050 --> 00:06:49.769 a massive diplomatic protocol event. The Nixon 00:06:49.769 --> 00:06:51.629 administration is trying to shore up support 00:06:51.629 --> 00:06:54.269 for the war. And a huge state dinner was planned. 00:06:54.490 --> 00:06:56.829 Of course. And in the world of diplomacy, you 00:06:56.829 --> 00:06:59.050 show up to the dinner. You might hate the policy, 00:06:59.310 --> 00:07:01.649 but you eat the chicken, shake the hand, and 00:07:01.649 --> 00:07:04.670 you smile. Exactly. But Faulkner, along with 00:07:04.670 --> 00:07:07.310 three other MPs, Bob Tisser, Jonathan Hunt, and 00:07:07.310 --> 00:07:10.600 Martin Finley, they boycotted it. They refused 00:07:10.600 --> 00:07:12.579 to break bread with the representative of the 00:07:12.579 --> 00:07:14.980 Nixon administration while the war was raging. 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:18.339 It's a snub, a calculated public snub. And it's 00:07:18.339 --> 00:07:20.500 even more significant because his boss, Norman 00:07:20.500 --> 00:07:23.019 Kirk, the leader of the opposition, did attend. 00:07:23.259 --> 00:07:25.060 Oh, that's interesting. Kirk played the statesman. 00:07:25.240 --> 00:07:28.060 Faulkner played the conscience. It shows he wasn't 00:07:28.060 --> 00:07:30.439 afraid to break ranks or embarrass the leadership 00:07:30.439 --> 00:07:33.500 if he felt a moral line had been crossed. Fast 00:07:33.500 --> 00:07:37.800 forward to 1972. The tide turns. Labor finally 00:07:37.800 --> 00:07:41.139 wins. The third labor government is formed. Norman 00:07:41.139 --> 00:07:43.399 Kirk becomes prime minister. He hands Faulkner 00:07:43.399 --> 00:07:45.959 the defense portfolio. The critic is now the 00:07:45.959 --> 00:07:48.240 commander. And he doesn't waste time. The sources 00:07:48.240 --> 00:07:51.300 say he moved within days. Literally days after 00:07:51.300 --> 00:07:53.579 being sworn in. He ended compulsory military 00:07:53.579 --> 00:07:55.939 training in New Zealand. Just scrapped the draft. 00:07:56.240 --> 00:07:59.060 Boom. It had been a campaign pledge, yes. But 00:07:59.060 --> 00:08:01.180 the speed of the execution matters. He didn't 00:08:01.180 --> 00:08:03.060 set up a committee or a review board to think 00:08:03.060 --> 00:08:05.319 about it for six months. He just ended it. What 00:08:05.319 --> 00:08:07.720 was his thinking there? He wanted a professional 00:08:07.720 --> 00:08:10.199 military, not a conscripted one. He believed 00:08:10.199 --> 00:08:11.459 that if you're going to ask people to fight, 00:08:11.560 --> 00:08:13.720 they should be professionals who chose that life 00:08:13.720 --> 00:08:16.959 like he did not. Kids forced into it. But Vietnam 00:08:16.959 --> 00:08:20.079 and conscription were, in a way, policy debates. 00:08:20.639 --> 00:08:23.860 The real test, the visceral emotional test, came 00:08:23.860 --> 00:08:28.629 in 1973. The Springbok tour. This was the defining 00:08:28.629 --> 00:08:31.810 crisis of that government. For listeners who 00:08:31.810 --> 00:08:34.330 might not know the context, the Springboks are 00:08:34.330 --> 00:08:36.490 the South African national rugby team. And in 00:08:36.490 --> 00:08:39.450 1973, South Africa was deep in the apartheid 00:08:39.450 --> 00:08:43.029 era. Their team was selected by race. And in 00:08:43.029 --> 00:08:45.929 New Zealand, rugby isn't just a sport. It is 00:08:45.929 --> 00:08:49.909 a religion. Hosting them was seen by many as 00:08:49.909 --> 00:08:52.629 endorsing apartheid. The country was split right 00:08:52.629 --> 00:08:55.509 down the middle. Protests were mobilizing everywhere. 00:08:55.690 --> 00:08:58.490 It was a powder keg. It was. The police were 00:08:58.490 --> 00:09:00.129 looking at the intelligence and telling the government, 00:09:00.230 --> 00:09:02.970 we might not be able to contain this. The implication 00:09:02.970 --> 00:09:05.110 was that the military might need to be called 00:09:05.110 --> 00:09:07.730 in to support the police. Civil order, troops 00:09:07.730 --> 00:09:09.769 on the streets of Auckland or Wellington. And 00:09:09.769 --> 00:09:11.570 this is where Faulkner drew the absolute line. 00:09:11.870 --> 00:09:14.450 He went to the cabinet and issued an ultimatum. 00:09:14.809 --> 00:09:17.389 He told them flat out that he would resign as 00:09:17.389 --> 00:09:19.330 minister of defense before he would instruct 00:09:19.330 --> 00:09:21.690 a single soldier to combat protesting civilians. 00:09:21.970 --> 00:09:24.190 That's a heavy moment. He's basically saying, 00:09:24.250 --> 00:09:27.090 I waited 15 years to get this job and I will 00:09:27.090 --> 00:09:29.149 walk away from it today rather than do this. 00:09:29.389 --> 00:09:32.230 It goes back to Anzio. He knew what soldiers 00:09:32.230 --> 00:09:34.529 are for, therefore fighting wars against external 00:09:34.529 --> 00:09:37.629 enemies. He refused to turn that machinery on 00:09:37.629 --> 00:09:39.710 his own people. He argued that the military is 00:09:39.710 --> 00:09:42.110 not a police force, and crossing that line destroys 00:09:42.110 --> 00:09:43.990 the very democracy you're trying to protect. 00:09:44.250 --> 00:09:46.629 And the tour was eventually canceled. It was, 00:09:46.850 --> 00:09:48.990 and Faulkner's refusal to provide a military 00:09:48.990 --> 00:09:51.350 backstop was a huge factor in that decision. 00:09:51.769 --> 00:09:54.350 Without the Army as a plan B, the government 00:09:54.350 --> 00:09:57.370 simply couldn't guarantee safety. So we've established 00:09:57.370 --> 00:09:59.929 she had principles, but I want to pivot to the 00:09:59.929 --> 00:10:03.129 internal politics because sometimes having high 00:10:03.129 --> 00:10:05.570 ideals makes you terrible at the Game of Thrones 00:10:05.570 --> 00:10:08.570 aspect of parliament. It often does. And Faulkner's 00:10:08.570 --> 00:10:11.690 career hit a massive roadblock in 1974. Norman 00:10:11.690 --> 00:10:14.610 Kirk, the prime minister, dies suddenly, a tragedy 00:10:14.610 --> 00:10:17.539 for the party. Bill Rawling takes over as PM, 00:10:17.700 --> 00:10:20.480 which leaves the deputy leader spot open. Faulkner 00:10:20.480 --> 00:10:22.840 decides to run. On paper, he should have walked 00:10:22.840 --> 00:10:24.600 it in. He was the minister of defense. He was 00:10:24.600 --> 00:10:26.519 popular in the caucus. He was seen as a nice 00:10:26.519 --> 00:10:29.600 guy. Everyone liked Arthur. But nice doesn't 00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:32.519 always win. No. There was a faction of the old 00:10:32.519 --> 00:10:36.539 guard, specifically the chief whip, Ron Barclay, 00:10:36.539 --> 00:10:40.379 and a senior minister, Warren Freer, who decided 00:10:40.379 --> 00:10:43.580 Faulkner wasn't the guy. They viewed his amiability 00:10:43.580 --> 00:10:46.919 as weakness. Indecisive. Exactly. They thought 00:10:46.919 --> 00:10:48.940 he was indecisive, that he tried too hard to 00:10:48.940 --> 00:10:51.200 please everyone. So they hatched a plot. And 00:10:51.200 --> 00:10:53.240 looking at the mechanics of this, it is absolutely 00:10:53.240 --> 00:10:56.440 ruthless. It's pure numbers. Barclay did the 00:10:56.440 --> 00:10:59.519 math. He realized Faulkner had a lot of support, 00:10:59.720 --> 00:11:02.120 possibly enough to win more than 50 % on the 00:11:02.120 --> 00:11:04.379 first ballot. If he wins the first ballot, it's 00:11:04.379 --> 00:11:07.259 over. So how do you stop that? You dilute the 00:11:07.259 --> 00:11:10.570 pool. Barclay convinced Warren Freer to stand 00:11:10.570 --> 00:11:12.450 for the position as well. Freer didn't really 00:11:12.450 --> 00:11:14.049 want the job and he knew he probably wouldn't 00:11:14.049 --> 00:11:16.230 win. He was a stalking horse. A stalking horse. 00:11:16.309 --> 00:11:19.029 His only job was to steal enough votes from Faulkner 00:11:19.029 --> 00:11:20.990 to stop him getting a majority on that first 00:11:20.990 --> 00:11:23.590 go. So it forced the voting into multiple rounds. 00:11:23.830 --> 00:11:26.870 Exactly. And as the rounds went on, the momentum 00:11:26.870 --> 00:11:29.509 shifted. On the fourth ballot, it came down to 00:11:29.509 --> 00:11:31.909 Faulkner versus Bob Tizard. And the result? Tizard 00:11:31.909 --> 00:11:35.789 won. 28 votes to 26. Two votes. He missed out 00:11:35.789 --> 00:11:38.190 on being deputy prime minister and potentially 00:11:38.190 --> 00:11:41.029 future leader by two votes because of a vote 00:11:41.029 --> 00:11:44.210 splitting trick. That loss changed his trajectory 00:11:44.210 --> 00:11:48.570 completely. Rowling, the new PM, reshuffled the 00:11:48.570 --> 00:11:51.519 cabinet. He took Faulkner out of defense. Which 00:11:51.519 --> 00:11:53.980 must have stung. It likely did. He was moved 00:11:53.980 --> 00:11:56.019 to minister of labor and minister of state services. 00:11:56.259 --> 00:11:58.600 Now, to a modern ear, minister of labor sounds 00:11:58.600 --> 00:12:00.679 like a demotion compared to the guy in charge 00:12:00.679 --> 00:12:03.200 of the armies. Actually, in the 1970s, it was 00:12:03.200 --> 00:12:05.840 probably the hardest job in the building. You 00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:07.720 have to remember, this was the era of massive 00:12:07.720 --> 00:12:10.559 unions, constant strikes, industrial disputes 00:12:10.559 --> 00:12:13.000 that could shut down the entire economy. So why 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:14.980 put Faulkner there? Because of that nice guy 00:12:14.980 --> 00:12:17.620 reputation. Rowling saw him as a conciliator. 00:12:17.919 --> 00:12:20.000 He needed someone who could sit in a room with 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:23.139 angry union bosses and angry employers and not 00:12:23.139 --> 00:12:25.659 start a fistfight. But the sources say this label, 00:12:25.779 --> 00:12:28.279 the conciliator, became a bit of a weapon against 00:12:28.279 --> 00:12:30.720 him. It did. His critics, the people who blocked 00:12:30.720 --> 00:12:33.340 him from the deputy job, said he was wishy -washy. 00:12:33.519 --> 00:12:35.740 They claimed he would listen to everyone, nod 00:12:35.740 --> 00:12:38.179 his head, and then try to find a middle ground 00:12:38.179 --> 00:12:40.419 that made nobody happy. They wanted a strong 00:12:40.419 --> 00:12:43.120 man who would crush the strikes. But Faulkner's 00:12:43.120 --> 00:12:45.399 defense, and that of his supporters, was that 00:12:45.399 --> 00:12:47.759 his ability to keep people talking was the strength. 00:12:48.179 --> 00:12:50.779 He managed to keep the industrial machinery moving 00:12:50.779 --> 00:12:54.539 by not backing people into corners. It's a subtle 00:12:54.539 --> 00:12:57.259 form of power, but it doesn't look like leadership 00:12:57.259 --> 00:13:00.080 on a poster. Before we get to the end of his 00:13:00.080 --> 00:13:02.080 career, we have to touch on one weird little 00:13:02.080 --> 00:13:05.580 detour. The Oh -Who scheme. Yes. This was when 00:13:05.580 --> 00:13:08.960 he was briefly acting Minister of Lands. It is 00:13:08.960 --> 00:13:12.340 incredibly 1970s. It sounds like a commune. That's 00:13:12.340 --> 00:13:14.799 effectively what it was. The government leased 00:13:14.799 --> 00:13:17.259 rural land to groups who wanted to set up alternative 00:13:17.259 --> 00:13:20.100 communities. It was a response to urban drift 00:13:20.100 --> 00:13:23.080 and youth unemployment. So Faulkner, the Spitfire 00:13:23.080 --> 00:13:25.919 pilot, was basically signing off on state sponsored... 00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:28.539 hippie communes. It's a great image, isn't it? 00:13:28.600 --> 00:13:30.899 But it shows he wasn't rigid. He was willing 00:13:30.899 --> 00:13:33.059 to try social experiments. It shows an openness 00:13:33.059 --> 00:13:35.779 to new ideas, certainly. Okay, so the labor government 00:13:35.779 --> 00:13:38.960 crashes out in 1975. They lose in a landslide. 00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:41.440 They're back in opposition. Faulkner reinvents 00:13:41.440 --> 00:13:43.620 himself again. He becomes the party president 00:13:43.620 --> 00:13:47.460 in 1976. This is a different beast. The party 00:13:47.460 --> 00:13:49.240 president isn't in charge of policy. They're 00:13:49.240 --> 00:13:51.919 in charge of the machine. Fundraising, membership, 00:13:52.200 --> 00:13:55.409 candidate selection. It's the engine room. And 00:13:55.409 --> 00:13:57.809 the engine was sputtering. It was. Morale was 00:13:57.809 --> 00:14:00.690 low. But Faulkner actually did a very good job 00:14:00.690 --> 00:14:03.009 of holding the membership numbers up during those 00:14:03.009 --> 00:14:06.070 dark years. He kept the faithful engaged. But 00:14:06.070 --> 00:14:08.269 it wasn't without drama. The sources mention 00:14:08.269 --> 00:14:11.750 messy selections. Yes, in Papatoho and Island 00:14:11.750 --> 00:14:14.110 Bay. When you have a shrinking pie, the fight 00:14:14.110 --> 00:14:16.690 for the slices gets vicious. There were accusations 00:14:16.690 --> 00:14:18.669 that the selection process for candidates was 00:14:18.669 --> 00:14:21.330 being manipulated. As president, the buck stopped 00:14:21.330 --> 00:14:23.389 with him. And this leads to his great rivalry. 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:26.600 Enter Jim Anderton. Anderton was the rising star 00:14:26.600 --> 00:14:29.139 of the organization wing. Very organized, very 00:14:29.139 --> 00:14:33.059 ambitious, and quite abrasive. He challenged 00:14:33.059 --> 00:14:35.240 Faulkner for the presidency in 1978. The old 00:14:35.240 --> 00:14:37.360 guard versus the new blood. And Faulkner crushed 00:14:37.360 --> 00:14:41.379 him. 693 votes to 422. It was a decisive victory. 00:14:41.620 --> 00:14:43.580 It proved that despite the critics, the rank 00:14:43.580 --> 00:14:46.279 -and -file members still loved Arthur. But eventually 00:14:46.279 --> 00:14:49.360 he steps down, Anderton takes over, and we get 00:14:49.360 --> 00:14:53.350 to 1981. Faulkner is 60. He's been the MP for 00:14:53.350 --> 00:14:56.850 Roskill for 24 years. He decides it's time to 00:14:56.850 --> 00:15:00.049 go. But he goes out with a maneuver that proves 00:15:00.049 --> 00:15:02.649 he wasn't just a nice guy. He was a tactician. 00:15:02.769 --> 00:15:05.090 He pulls a fast one. He had already been selected 00:15:05.090 --> 00:15:07.929 as the candidate for the 1981 election. His name 00:15:07.929 --> 00:15:10.669 was on the billboard, so to speak. He tells the 00:15:10.669 --> 00:15:13.070 party leader, privately, that he's quitting. 00:15:13.830 --> 00:15:16.929 But he waits. Why wait? He waited until the very 00:15:16.929 --> 00:15:19.950 last minute to announce it publicly. He explicitly 00:15:19.950 --> 00:15:21.769 said he didn't want to give the National Party 00:15:21.769 --> 00:15:25.070 time to gear up. Explain that strategy for us. 00:15:25.210 --> 00:15:27.570 Well, if an MP announces retirement six months 00:15:27.570 --> 00:15:30.450 out, the opposition sees an open seat. They can 00:15:30.450 --> 00:15:33.110 recruit a star candidate, raise money, blitz 00:15:33.110 --> 00:15:34.809 the electorate. But by dropping the bomb late. 00:15:34.950 --> 00:15:36.769 He caught them flat -footed. They had to scramble 00:15:36.769 --> 00:15:38.870 to find someone to run against labor. It's brilliant, 00:15:39.009 --> 00:15:41.769 but it also caused a firestorm inside his own 00:15:41.769 --> 00:15:44.450 party. It did, because that sudden vacancy created 00:15:44.450 --> 00:15:47.210 a power vacuum. There was immediate speculation 00:15:47.210 --> 00:15:50.090 that his old rival, Jim Anderton, would try to 00:15:50.090 --> 00:15:52.509 parachute into the Roskill seat. And the caucus, 00:15:52.750 --> 00:15:55.710 the other MPs, were not having it. The sources 00:15:55.710 --> 00:15:59.230 describe a hostile reaction. The caucus really 00:15:59.230 --> 00:16:01.730 didn't want Anderton in Parliament at that stage. 00:16:02.029 --> 00:16:04.840 Eventually, Anderton backed off. And the nomination 00:16:04.840 --> 00:16:07.019 went to a young guy named Phil Goff. Who, of 00:16:07.019 --> 00:16:09.200 course, went on to be a massive figure in NC 00:16:09.200 --> 00:16:12.379 politics. So Faulkner essentially handpicked 00:16:12.379 --> 00:16:16.000 his successor by timing his exit perfectly. He 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:17.940 secured the legacy of the seat, yes. There was 00:16:17.940 --> 00:16:20.120 one final legislative act we need to mention. 00:16:20.399 --> 00:16:22.360 Before he walks out the door, he moves a bill. 00:16:22.840 --> 00:16:25.480 The Glen Eagles Agreement Bill. It's the perfect 00:16:25.480 --> 00:16:27.919 bookend to his career. Remind us what the Glen 00:16:27.919 --> 00:16:30.679 Eagles Agreement was. It was a pact by Commonwealth 00:16:30.679 --> 00:16:33.440 leaders to discourage sporting contact with South 00:16:33.440 --> 00:16:36.179 Africa. It was the diplomatic weapon against 00:16:36.179 --> 00:16:38.700 apartheid sport. So the man who almost resigned 00:16:38.700 --> 00:16:42.059 over the Springbok tour in 73 spends his final 00:16:42.059 --> 00:16:45.320 days in 1981 trying to enshrine that ban into 00:16:45.320 --> 00:16:47.960 law. It just shows the consistency. He started 00:16:47.960 --> 00:16:50.919 by fighting apartheid sport and he ended by cementing 00:16:50.919 --> 00:16:53.129 that opposition. She never wavered on that issue. 00:16:53.269 --> 00:16:55.330 After politics, he didn't fade away entirely. 00:16:55.509 --> 00:16:57.889 He served on the board of Air New Zealand. Which 00:16:57.889 --> 00:17:00.090 feels right. The pilot returning to aviation. 00:17:00.970 --> 00:17:04.009 Sadly, he passed away not long after, in 1985. 00:17:04.349 --> 00:17:07.549 He was only 63. Far too young. The stress of 00:17:07.549 --> 00:17:10.230 those years, the war, the ministry, the industrial 00:17:10.230 --> 00:17:12.990 disputes, it all took a toll. But his name is 00:17:12.990 --> 00:17:15.349 still on the map, literally, in the suburb of 00:17:15.349 --> 00:17:18.569 Waikwai. They renamed Boat Bay to Faulkner Bay. 00:17:19.049 --> 00:17:21.730 A quiet tribute to a man who, despite the noise 00:17:21.730 --> 00:17:24.150 of politics, seemed to prefer the quiet work 00:17:24.150 --> 00:17:26.789 of peace. So when we step back and look at the 00:17:26.789 --> 00:17:28.970 whole picture, the 15 -year -old organizer, the 00:17:28.970 --> 00:17:31.250 pilot Anzio, the minister who wouldn't call in 00:17:31.250 --> 00:17:33.910 the troops, the conciliator, what's the big takeaway? 00:17:34.250 --> 00:17:36.309 I think it challenges our definition of strength. 00:17:36.890 --> 00:17:40.109 We usually associate strength with force. But 00:17:40.109 --> 00:17:42.390 Faulkner's strength was restraint. Restraint? 00:17:42.450 --> 00:17:45.390 Yes. He had the power to bomb, but he argued 00:17:45.390 --> 00:17:47.829 for peace. He had the power to deploy troops 00:17:47.829 --> 00:17:50.549 against protesters, but he chose to resign instead. 00:17:50.829 --> 00:17:53.049 He had the power to crush unions, but he chose 00:17:53.049 --> 00:17:55.549 to talk. It's the idea that because he knew the 00:17:55.549 --> 00:17:57.869 true cost of fighting, because he had seen the 00:17:57.869 --> 00:18:00.410 carnage of Anzio, he was the least willing to 00:18:00.410 --> 00:18:03.730 pay it unnecessarily. Precisely. The Faulkner 00:18:03.730 --> 00:18:06.569 paradox isn't really a paradox at all. It's a 00:18:06.569 --> 00:18:10.190 lesson. Sometimes the warrior is the absolute 00:18:10.190 --> 00:18:12.630 best person to argue against the war because 00:18:12.630 --> 00:18:14.650 they aren't arguing from theory. They're arguing 00:18:14.650 --> 00:18:16.990 from memory. And he also teaches us that you 00:18:16.990 --> 00:18:19.410 can be a nice guy and still outmaneuver your 00:18:19.410 --> 00:18:21.829 enemies when it counts. That late resignation 00:18:21.829 --> 00:18:24.890 was pure strategic genius. It certainly was. 00:18:24.990 --> 00:18:27.809 He was a complex figure of bridge between the 00:18:27.809 --> 00:18:30.890 old war generation and the modern socially conscious 00:18:30.890 --> 00:18:32.990 era. So here's something for you to think about. 00:18:33.369 --> 00:18:35.670 In today's political climate, we often punish 00:18:35.670 --> 00:18:38.089 politicians for changing their minds or for seeking 00:18:38.089 --> 00:18:40.710 compromise. We want them to be rigid warriors 00:18:40.710 --> 00:18:43.730 for their side. But Arthur Faulkner's story suggests 00:18:43.730 --> 00:18:45.730 that the strongest conviction might actually 00:18:45.730 --> 00:18:47.730 be the courage to say, I will not fight this 00:18:47.730 --> 00:18:49.930 battle even when everyone expects you to. That's 00:18:49.930 --> 00:18:52.130 a powerful thought. That is it for this deep 00:18:52.130 --> 00:18:54.210 dive into the life of Arthur Faulkner. Thanks 00:18:54.210 --> 00:18:54.589 for listening.