Gallery - Norman Kirk P.M. - The First 250 Days

Every person knew that if their income increased they would be paying more taxation, regardless of who was the government. You knew that, I knew it and the man on the street knew it. But why don’t we talk about some of the other things that happened on taxation; like the concessions for overtime, like the lifting of the tax burden on the man on the smaller income. That was also promised and it was done. What about the relief for the man who works shifts. Why do these escape observation?

– Norman Kirk provides examples of how his government has benefitted workers, in part three

I think Mr Kirk came out smelling like roses. He went in wanting a nuclear test declaration. He achieved this. He kept a low profile for three days, but even then managed to get the conference to go along with him on the question of beefing up the Secretariat Economic section. And then his final intervention in the Rhodesian debate was a key feature in what the conference has now decided.

– NZ Press Association journalist Bruce Kohn on Norman Kirk’s wins at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Canada, early in this report

[Norman Kirk] gave the public appearance of a man in a hurry. Pensioners were given a Christmas bonus; home-building was stepped up; diplomatic relations were established between New Zealand and the People’s Republic of China; a grant was made to the United Nations Trust Fund for South Africa; and warm personal relationships were established with the leaders of Commonwealth countries such as India, Tanzania and Bangladesh . . . On 10 April 1973 the government refused to grant visas to a South African rugby team because the sport was not racially integrated. He applied pressure to the French to stop testing nuclear weapons in the Pacific, and when this failed, a frigate was sent to the test area ‘to provide a focus for international opinion against the tests’. Kirk was heading an activist government the like of which had not been seen in New Zealand for 40 years.

– Michael Bassett summarises the actions of the Norman Kirk-led Labour Government in 1972-3, Te Ara website, originally published in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, 2000

You see this is the point that gets me about news media: they don’t listen to what we say. They make their own assumptions about what we have said, and then when their recollections don’t fit with what happens, they say we’ve broken our promise…

– Norman Kirk hits back at David Exel's assertion that Labour has "broken election promises", in part three

It hasn't broken promises And I think that there’s one thing we ought to clear up first of all: the manifesto that we put to the people was to run for a three year term. Many of the things that are being claimed today as broken promises are in fact elements of the manifesto that have not been put into effect.

– Norman Kirk reacts to to David Exel's question about broken election promises

Mr Kirk you've been back in power for eight months. Can you think of any other recent New Zealand government that has broken its promises as readily as your government?

– David Exel goes in strong with a question to Norman Kirk, in clip three