Labour Party Election Advertising: Nationhood, Charles Haines, 1978
Starring roles for Labour's spokesperson for Justice, a larger version David Lange, and Leader Bill Rowling with his vision of New Zealand’s future. Rowling nearly gets there this time in terms of presenting an effective speech. Many of his addresses lacked impact.
"A little over a hundred years ago, New Zealand was a raw, new land - a land of opportunity, of freedom."
[Song] "Now think of the future we want for out nation, and fight for the hope that the pioneers gave. New Zealand can't lose it, we must never lose it. We'll fight for tomorrow today."
"The pioneers cleared the bush, ploughed the land, and built a nation. They made New Zealand one of the best places in the world to live in."
"Today, the dream that brought our ancestors to New Zealand has ended. Thousands of young men and women with energy and initiative are leaving to find better jobs, more satisfaction, more personal freedom. Over the last three years since National came to power, we've lost over a thousand doctors, 5000 nurses, 3000 farmers and farm workers, nearly 6000 teachers, 3000 carpenters and joiners, and nearly 20,000 clerical workers."
[David Lange: Justice Spokesman speaks:]
"It's no coincidence that more than a hundred thousand New Zealanders have taken one-way tickets out of this country since the National Government took office. We all know that New Zealand is not the happy place to live in that it was a few years ago. There's lots of reasons. Practical ones like crippling tax, high interest rates and massive unemployment. And there's at least tangible but just as important a reason - a government that prefers to bash rather than to build. But we can all do something about it. No single policy will change it. But if we work at the problem together; we'll make it. And there's a whole range of policy on tax, housing and regional development which will help. But what it all comes down to it this: that this country is desperately in need of better leadership. Leadership which will inspire us to make New Zealand the best country in the world to live in."
[Bill Rowling, Labour Party leader:]
"... and I want to see a country in which the people do away with the greed and self-interest that we have at the present time, and fight for a common interest. I want to see a country which provides opportunities, and offers responsibilities to our people; a country in which the right to work, the right to a decent living wage, the right to human dignity is understood and upheld.... a country in which people prove that they're not only tough, but decent in the way they reach out for new horizons and refuse to quit.... and all it requires, is dedication, and hard work, and a will to reach out for something better than we have. We've only got two choices: we continue to claw our way to economic and social destruction, or we say we're all New Zealanders, we're in this together, we’ll fight for the kind of future we deserve. We've got to believe in ourselves, we've got to fearlessly express our love for our families, and our communities, and this great little country of ours.... and when we do that, we will never, we will never be stopped."
Discussion Points:
- The intro shows how the country was made, what qualities of early New Zealanders helped to build our country. But now …
- The setting for Lange’s speech is well chosen – the departure area of an airport. Helps support the intro about the numbers of NZers leaving the country.
- Pronouns – "We all know that …", "But if we work at the problem together, we’ll make it."
- Emotionally-toned adjectives – "crippling tax…massive unemployment."
- Use of statistics – the numbers of qualified workers to have left.
- Syntax – beginning sentences with conjunctions
- The idea of leadership – again, like Muldoon’s earlier extract, the point is made that they could do better.
- Superlative – "…the best country in the world…"
- Repetition – "I want…"
- Imagery – "We’ll fight…"
- Rowling targets the quintessential Kiwi qualities – "tough…decent…reach out for new horizons…refuse to quit."
- "We will never be stopped …"
