Bill Birch

Sir William Francis Birch (born 9 April 1934), usually known as Bill Birch, is a New Zealand retired politician. He served as Minister of Finance from 1993 to 1999 in the fourth National Government.

Early life

Birch was born in Hastings on 9 April 1934, the son of Charles and Elizabeth Birch. Birch quickly became involved in various Pukekohe community organisations. He served on Pukehohe's borough council from 1965 to 1974, and was deputy mayor from 1968 to 1974.

In 1953, Birch married Rosa Mitchell, and the couple went on to have four children. The seat had once been held by Prime Minister William Massey. Its name and shape changed regularly as required by post-New Zealand census boundary adjustments. Over Birch's career, the extreme borders of his electorate sometimes extended as far as north as Beachlands, as far south-west as Pirongia Mountain and as far east as Thames (though never all at once). However, no matter the name, Birch's electorate always included the town of Pukekohe. As Minister of Energy during the 1979 oil crisis, Birch oversaw the introduction of temporary petrol demand reduction measures including carless days and the ban on petrol sales during weekends.

After the 1981 election, he swapped the Science and Technology role for the Regional Development portfolio. As Minister for National Development, Birch was closely involved in the Think Big project, a series of high-cost programmes designed to reduce New Zealand's dependence on imported fuel. When National lost the , Birch's ministerial career was interrupted, but he remained in parliament.

Opposition, 1984–1990

Muldoon kept Birch on in the Energy and National Development portfolios when he announced his shadow cabinet in July 1984. He then was one of four ex-ministers who challenged Muldoon for the leadership of the party which resulted in Jim McLay becoming leader. McLay promoted Birch to replace Muldoon in the finance portfolio and third rank in the party caucus. McLay later dumped Birch as finance spokesman in an attempt to "rejuvenate" the party and instead allocated him the job of spokesperson for Labour and Employment and the twelfth rank. This motivated Birch to support a successful challenge to McLay a month later. Under new leader Jim Bolger, Birch returned to his position as third-ranked in caucus and retained the Labour and Employment portfolios. In the second opposition term, from 1987 to 1990, he was additionally the spokesperson for immigration and state services.

Fourth National Government, 1990–1996

After National regained power in the , Birch re-entered cabinet as part of the fourth National government. Over the next three years, he was to hold a number of ministerial roles, including Minister of Labour, Minister of Immigration, Minister of Pacific Island Affairs, Minister of Employment, Minister of Health, Minister of State Services, and Minister responsible for the ACC.

The first term of the National government was often fraught, and Birch clashed a number of times with the controversial Minister of Finance, Ruth Richardson. The Prime Minister, Jim Bolger, had never been a supporter of Richardson's strong laissez-faire policies, and preferred the more conservative Birch for the Finance portfolio.

Minister of Labour

National had forshadowed labour market reform in the 1990 manifesto, though it was vague on details. Birch drew on advice from the Business Roundtable and Employers Federation to help draft a new industrial relations statute that would diminish the power of the New Zealand union movement. Richardson interfered in his Labour portfolio by submitting her own draft before Birch, as she did not believe the draft went far enough. Birch eventually prevailed.

The Employment Contracts Act became law despite nationwide protests to "kill the bill". It radically reshaped New Zealand’s industrial relations system, going far beyond anything attempted in any Western country at the time. Industrial awards were abolished and replaced by individual and collective employment contracts. Unions were reduced to the status of "bargaining agents", making organising extremely difficult. Award minimums, such as overtime and penalty rates of pay, had no statutory basis. Unions were also forced to re-register as incorporated societies, as the Act did not afford them any legal recognition. Birch later described the legislation as "balanced", a view not shared by labour market experts at the time or by the International Labour Organization.

While he had rolled back user charges, Birch ensured the passage of the Health and Disability Services Act 1993. Area Health Boards, which had been established in 1983, were abolished. In their place, 23 Crown Health Enterprises (CHE's) were created. The funder and provider systems of the health system were split with the formation of Regional Health Authorities (RHAs). This closely reflected the 1988 Gibbs report, which urged the creation of an internal market to impose competitive disciplines within the health system. Due to political constrains however, all CHEs quickly reported chronic deficits, as they were not able to recover costs as competitive enterprises from patients. His successor in the portfolio, Jenny Shipley, continued the reforms until the 1996 election. By 1997, the health reforms had effectively been abandoned.

Minister of Finance

The price of reform cost National dearly at the , and the government came close perilously to losing. Polls projecting National would win a comfortable majority were proven spectacularly wrong on election night and only special votes allowed National to claim a working majority. Bolger believed that the public had sent a clear verdict on Richardson as Finance Minister, demoting her. Bolger appointed his original preference, Bill Birch, as Finance Minister. His first task was passing the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which he worked closely with his predecessor on drafting.

Birch's appointment to the Finance portfolio raised eyebrows, given Birch's association with the Think Big projects. However, he soon developed a reputation for a frugal finance minister, delivering a succession of balanced budgets. In 1995, Birch completed the privatisation of the New Zealand Forestry Corporation and sold Radio New Zealand's commercial arm. In early 1996, the Ministry of Works was split, sold, and dissolved. Despite this, Birch largely reflected his pragmatic conservative background, with little expansion of the economic reform agenda which had nearly cost National the treasury benches in 1993.

Economic prospects for New Zealand improved in the mid-1990s as unemployment fell from 10.7% in 1991/1992 to 6.5% by 1996. The recovery, however, was uneven. While Birch significantly increased Family Support payments in the 1994 budget, this only applied to low and middle-income New Zealanders in paid employment and hardship remained high. Spending on core services, such as health and education, also increased. The health spend rose by an average of 6% over the 1995 to 1999 period.

National-New Zealand First Coalition Government, 1996–1999

Treasurer

After the , National needed to form a coalition with the New Zealand First party in order to govern. New Zealand First's leader, Winston Peters, insisted on control of the Finance role as part of the coalition agreement, and National eventually agreed. The Minister of Finance role was split into two separate offices. The senior position was given the title "Treasurer" and was assigned to Peters; Birch retained the title of Minister of Finance and its remaining responsibilities. Some, however, have voiced the opinion that whatever the official arrangement may have been, Birch still performed most of the job's key functions. Mike Moore of the Labour Party commented that "we are always impressed when Winston Peters answers questions, because Bill Birch's lips do not move."

During the compilation of the coalition agreement between National and New Zealand First, Birch added the proviso to almost every page that "All funding proposals subject to being considered within the agreed spending policy parameters" which essentially rendered every policy agreement provisional, much to Peters' annoyance. When the coalition with New Zealand First broke down, Birch took over the role of Treasurer. For a short period he held both financial offices until Bill English was promoted to be Minister of Finance, leaving Birch with the senior role. In the middle of 1999, as part of the preparations for Birch's planned retirement, Birch and English were swapped. English became the Treasurer and Birch served once again as Minister of Finance.

Retirement

Birch retired from Parliament at the 1999 general election. His wife, Rosa, Lady Birch, died in Pukekohe on 22 June 2015.

In 2020 his biography, Bill Birch: Minister of Everything, written by Brad Tattersfield was published.

Honours and awards

Birch was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977, and the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal in 1990. In the 1999 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Knight Grand Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for public services as a Member of Parliament and Minister of the Crown.