Mr Collinge was elected President of the National Party from 1989 to 1994 until his appointment as High Commissioner. He had previously been Chairman of the Mt Albert Electorate and a member of the Rules Committee under Sir George Chapman but had resigned his membership of the Party during his term as Chairman of the Commerce Commission, the Commission having to be independent of the Government business interests which it oversaw [page 67]. At the end of his term at the Commission he rejoined the Party and was elected President shortly afterwards. His then unprecedented defeat of a sitting President [page 132] was the forerunner of a period of success and financial security.
(a)Stability: This was a difficult assignment, particularly so after a period of debilitating in-fighting in the Party [eg page 132] which had led to the approach to him. The tension was ongoing, but Mr Collinge had the advantage of not being associated with either the Ruth Richardson faction or the Winston Peters faction [eg page 133] –as he said, endeavouring ‘to preserve the peace with all’ [page 133]. In office, he made a special point of a ’call for unity’ [see eg page 136]. In spite of the tension and ongoing debate between the two schools, the Party enjoyed a period of relative stability, prior to MMP, as a ‘broad church’. Later, of course, these factions split into the Act and New Zealand First parties.
(b)Campaigning: He was President in two successful election campaigns –the change of Government in the electoral landslide of 1990 [page 142] and the continuation of Government in 1993. He significantly upgraded its polling and market research capability and introduced effective computer technology for the first time [eg page 141]. He concentrated upon a marginal seats strategy under the FFP system and, in a professional way, provided the essential building blocks and management skills upon which the elections were won [illustrated at pages 135-136, 137-141, 144-146, 147-148]. He took the Party out of debt and left it at the end of the term with a substantial surplus. His experience and expertise in electoral matters was largely derived from having been centrally involved for Auckland Citizens & Ratepayers in local elections in 1980, 1983, 1986 and 1989 all of which C & R had won well [see page 254].
(c)Candidate Selection: Mr Collinge took a close interest in selections and attended most personally. While not able to participate directly, he advocated and endeavoured to upgrade the quality and standard of candidates; to obtain balance in a caucus then dominated by farmers, teachers and lawyers; to identify the skills which could with advantage be added to caucus; and importantly to encourage women MP’s (there being three only National women MP’s of 40 Members at the time) [see page 134].
(d)Peters v Collinge: This was and continues to be an important case, successfully defended, which establishes the principle that a political party is a club consisting of private members and as such, upon public policy grounds, its Rules and candidate selections and de-selections for general elections are unlikely to be reviewable by the Courts –the selection of candidates at general elections being ‘essentially a political question in which one would expect a robust level of discussion, lobbying and pre-conception’. The decision has been applied and approved subsequently and is important in that it inhibits unnecessary and potentially damaging challenges by unsuccessful and de-selected candidates [[1993] 2 NZLR 554].
(e)Policy Formulation: Mr Collinge was directly involved in all policy issues leading up to the two elections. Some issues of significance in relation to policy formulation during this period, in which theParty organisation had special involvement, included the non nuclear stance (which resulted in a significant gain for the Party in the polls); the adoption of non binding citizens initiated referenda (in the context of public confusion associated with theMuldoon and Lange Governments wearing each others clothes); and the introduction of random breath testing (due to the heavy road toll). A central issue throughout was the continuation of the Douglas reforms by the National Government which adversely affected the Party’s popularity, and Mr Collinge advocated a more pragmatic stance between Muldoonist interventionism and extreme rightwing economics –the centre right stance which it now has. While a strong supporter of competitive free enterprise and de-regulation [eg page 73], his experience at the Commerce Commission had led him to the view that, while competitive markets promoted efficiency, markets were sometimes imperfect so that a market solution was not in every circumstance a panacea.
Mr Collinge has been described as ‘a stalwart of the National Party backrooms and active in Citizens & Ratepayers’ and, as President, as having ‘a mission to modernise the Party’ [page 28]. Perhaps too little credit is given to those who oil the wheels of democracy (outside of Parliament) and who promote and assist the election of our representatives –but it is an essential part of our democracy and important that it be conducted, as Mr Collinge did, so as to produce all of the requirements -stability, sufficient funding, professional campaigning, high calibre candidates, and current and pertinent policies.