New Zealand Labour Party leadership election, 1983
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On 3 February 1983, a New Zealand Labour Party leadership election was held to determine the leadership of the New Zealand Labour Party. The leadership was won by Mangere MP David Lange, who had been Deputy Leader the party since 1979.
The leadership election was instigated when Bill Rowling announced his retirement from the leadership to the Labour caucus in late 1982. Labour's caucus had been divided between the supporters and critics of Rowling. Backers of Rowling (notably Jim Anderton, Helen Clark and Fran Wilde) supported him out of their shared faith in Labour's traditional Keynesian policies which others opposed. Lange's main support were from MPs who saw Rowling as merely an impediment to their own ambitions to implement newer economic policy along globalized free market lines.
After entering parliament in a 1977 by-election, Lange became Labour's rising star. He used the unusually high media attention from this to propel him to the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party in 1979. Lange narrowly missed ousting Rowling in 1980, with him and his group of free market economic supporters (Roger Douglas, Michael Bassett, Richard Prebble and Mike Moore) becoming known as the "Fish and Chip Brigade" due to a picture published at the time with the group eating Fish and chips in Douglas' office after the vote. Lange became recognised by many to be more than a match for the tiring Prime Minister, Robert Muldoon, with his superb wit and debating skill.
Marshall entered Parliament in 1972 as the MP for Wanganui. He had served as Labour's Senior Whip in 1977-78. He was one of several people courted by Rowling's supporters to attempt to head off Lange. He declared his intention to run on 18 January after other potentials had pulled out. According to Michael Bassett, Marshall was the only one who remained bold enough to challenge Lange on the day of the vote.
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