Looking into Mirrors

In the midst of New Zealand's election campaign, Laborite Prime Minister Wallace ("Bill") Rowling observed that if Opposition Leader Robert Muldoon wanted to know "why he is so unacceptable to many people, a quick glance in any mirror would give him the answer." Perhaps Rowling should have looked at the mirror himself. Last week, as he prepared to hand over power to Muldoon's triumphant New Zealand National Party, the outgoing Prime Minister allowed that he felt as though he had "been run over by a bus." In an upset, the conservative Nationalists won a 19-seat majority in the 87-member Parliament, almost matching Labor's sweep in 1972, when it ousted the National Party after twelve years in office.

Contrasting Styles. The election in the tiny (pop. 3 million) southwest Pacific nation was a contest in contrasting political styles. Rowling, a reserved, diminutive former schoolteacher and university lecturer, is most convincing with small groups, and tended at the outset of the campaign to avoid speaking before big crowds. Stocky, abrasive Muldoon is a cost accountant with a pugnacious political style that proved to be a powerful attraction on the campaign trail. Muldoon criticized Rowling as "too timid and too tentative" to be Prime Minister. Although New Zealand is not exactly beset by a crime wave, Muldoon promised law-and-order government. He also attacked Labor's economic record--inflation has risen from 5.5% in 1972 to 14.8% this year--and accused the government of mortgaging New Zealand's future by borrowing heavily overseas (more than $1 billion since 1972). The debts have been incurred to protect the economy from recession at a time of sagging world demand for the nation's exports (principally lamb, beef, dairy products, wool, and pulp and paper products).

In power, Muldoon's National Party will probably try to dampen inflation and reduce the $970 million balance of payments deficit by imposing import restrictions and reducing or eliminating subsidies aimed at protecting consumers from rising transport, postal and electricity costs. Promising "a year of belt tightening," Muldoon could be in for rough times with organized labor.

The toppling of New Zealand's Laborites was a matter of lively interest in Australia. Three years ago, Labor governments were elected in both countries within a week of each other. This week Australian voters go to the polls to resolve the constitutional crisis created when Malcolm Fraser, head of the Liberal-National Country Party coalition, was named by Governor General Sir John Kerr to form a caretaker government, replacing Labor Party Leader Gough Whitlam as Prime Minister (TIME, Nov. 24). Australia's Labor Party, like New Zealand's, was accused of economic mismanagement in office. Though voting patterns in the two countries often diverge, the fate of Rowling's party was still not a hopeful omen for Whitlam.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.