$40.00 NZD
Category: Contemporary Non-Fiction
| Reading Level: near fine
Norman Kirk was Prime Minister for only 90 weeks but in the early 1970s he inspired us by leading a visionary government with a clear moral purpose. His work also defined New Zealand as a progressive small state with a deep internationalism which became central to our national identity. When he died, we
Norman Kirk was Prime Minister for only 90 weeks but in the early 1970s he inspired us by leading a visionary government with a clear moral purpose. His work also defined New Zealand as a progressive small state with a deep internationalism which became central to our national identity. When he died, we lost the man and many believe we lost our way… This book examines the promise of Kirk’s leadership and suggests it might be time to further explore the social contract that is central to a liberal democratic society.
Because although Norman Kirk was prime minister for barely 21 months some 50 years ago, he still speaks to us. His belief in the state as a force for good and his style of leadership could and should be powerful guides for politics in the 21st century.
Kirk was not a supporter of the neoliberalist ideology that has given us widening inequality, rising poverty and the virtual obliteration from public debate and policy-making of the workers who create this country’s wealth.
His idea of a healthy country was, famously, one whose citizens could realistically expect to find “someone to love, somewhere to live, somewhere to work and something to hope for”.
But the social contract central to politics in his day has been broken, and state and society are now run almost exclusively on business lines.
This book, by veteran journalist and political commentator Denis Welch, is aimed at recovering what Norman Kirk stood for – a sense of government with a clear moral purpose, in which there is daylight between public service and the commercial world.
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