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Speaker 1: Barry Sober, Senior Political Correspondence with US Barry, Hello, good afternoon, Heather. Okay,

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Speaker 1: Jim Bolger so sad day, Yeah it is.

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Speaker 2: He's been ill for quite some time and in fact

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Speaker 2: was very close to death several months ago but pulled through.

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Speaker 2: And I heard just the other day when I talked

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Speaker 2: to you on air about it, that has repalliative care

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Speaker 2: at Wellington Hospital. So he died yesterday amazingly surrounded by

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Speaker 2: his nine kids, his wife Joan, and his eighteen grandchildren,

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Speaker 2: so you know there was rather a large crowd exactly.

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Speaker 2: And look, I met Jim Bolger in the seventies when

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Speaker 2: I was the industrial roundsman for TV and Z and

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Speaker 2: he was the Labor Minister for Rob Muldoon, and I

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Speaker 2: remember being quite astounded that he, when I was a

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Speaker 2: young man, of course, invited up for a drink in

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Speaker 2: the Labor Minister's office and we did that on a

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Speaker 2: number of occasions, as you mentioned earlier. But it just

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Speaker 2: goes to show the power of television in the politician's

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Speaker 2: mind that they immediately adopt a television journalist, as he

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Speaker 2: did me to a fairly large extent. He used to

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Speaker 2: mimic Jim Knox, who was the president of the fol

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Speaker 2: in those days, and then expect to sit down the

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Speaker 2: next day and have a meaningful discussion with him, and

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Speaker 2: Jim was none too happy. This is Jim Knox was

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Speaker 2: none too happy about that. One of the more interesting

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Speaker 2: stories here there is him meeting Nelson Mandala in Hurrara

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Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety one. There was a Commonwealth heads of

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Speaker 2: government meeting there and I was with Bolger and he

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Speaker 2: was We were mixing with the leaders as a cocktail

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Speaker 2: function and making an exit almost Bulger was a bit

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Speaker 2: tired of the small talk, and a man, an African man,

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Speaker 2: came through the exit door and said to me, are

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Speaker 2: you with a prime minister? And I said, well, that's

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Speaker 2: our prime minister there, and he said can you introduce

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Speaker 2: this man who's coming through the dow now? To him

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Speaker 2: was now Mandela and Bolge was very quick. The very

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Speaker 2: next morning he booked almost immediately for breakfast the next morning.

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Speaker 2: And my abiding memory of that was that I was

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Speaker 2: shoved out of the way at this cocktail function Philly,

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Speaker 2: forcibly by none other than Bob Hawk, who can't of

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Speaker 2: swathe through the crowd because he wanted to be in

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Speaker 2: on the Mandela thing. But Bolgier got a bit of

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Speaker 2: a coup there. And then several years later went to

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Speaker 2: Mandala's inauguration in nineteen ninety four, and I was with

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Speaker 2: him again. There he got a souvenir bottle of wine

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Speaker 2: of Nineberg Cabinet Savignon, and it was a large one.

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Speaker 2: And later and a half and os happened to be

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Speaker 2: at the lunch and said to Bolgia, where'd you get

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Speaker 2: that from? He said, oh, that waiter over there gave

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Speaker 2: me it as a souvenir. So I thought, bucket this.

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Speaker 2: I'm going to go over and talk to the waiter

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Speaker 2: as well. Went over. He gave me one. Well, Bolger

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Speaker 2: drank his. I think Philly soon after getting back to

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Speaker 2: the country, I've still got mine head.

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Speaker 1: You realize, you realize it's going to be sour.

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Speaker 2: But it's got the presidential seal on the bottle. He

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Speaker 2: would have the bottle wide, isn't it. No, No, I

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Speaker 2: think it's a it's now a family helom appreciated by

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Speaker 2: no one else. Carry on, carry that's true. But look,

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Speaker 2: parliament's adjourned for the week now because they sat this

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Speaker 2: afternoon in honor of Jim Bolger. A number paid tribute

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Speaker 2: to him. Here's Labour's Chris Hopkins, followed by Winston Peters.

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Speaker 1: Jim Bolger's life is full of contradictions. Has government sold

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Speaker 1: the Bank of New Zealand and then he was the

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Speaker 1: inaugural chair of the new government owned Kiwibank. Has government

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Speaker 1: ushered in the Employment Contracts Act, and then subsequently he

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Speaker 1: chaired a working group that led to the establishment of

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Speaker 1: fair pay agreements. His government did more to weekend unions

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Speaker 1: than just about any other. But then in his later

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Speaker 1: years he lamented how small unions had become and the

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Speaker 1: effect that that it had for woking people. He sacked

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Speaker 1: Winston Peters from his cabinet and then formed New Zealand's

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Speaker 1: first MMP coalition with Winston Peters as his deputy Prime Minister,

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Speaker 1: a government that transpired to be remarkably stable, much to

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Speaker 1: the frustration of the then Labor Party opposition. I do

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Speaker 1: want to acknowledge Winston Peters today, the only remaining member

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Speaker 1: of the House who served in government with Jim Bolger

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Speaker 1: during the time that he was Prime Minister.

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Speaker 3: We formed the first MMP government. He put difference aside,

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Speaker 3: shook hands on that agreement, and more importantly, he kept

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Speaker 3: his word. Today we can and must acknowledge that Jim

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Speaker 3: Boulder contributed to a time of enormous difficulty economically and

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Speaker 3: changed to New Zealand. But a far god importance than this,

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Speaker 3: we acknowledge the passing of a husband, father, and grandfather, Jim,

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Speaker 3: May God bless you.

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Speaker 2: So Winston was quite emotional, I think about it all.

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Speaker 2: But Chris Hopkins wasn't quite right. It wasn't. He was

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Speaker 2: the only person in the House today that had served

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Speaker 2: in a government with Jim Bolger's leader was Jerry Browne.

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Speaker 2: Was also came into Parliament in the first MMP election

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Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety six, and he remembers a party in

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Speaker 2: the Speaker's Lounge after winning that election when Doug Kidd

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Speaker 2: was in the chair which he occupies today, which JU.

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Speaker 4: Loved gatherings of people. He enjoyed, as any true Irishman would,

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Speaker 4: the opportunity to be with other people, and I recall it.

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Speaker 4: Shortly after the formation of the nineteen ninety six government,

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Speaker 4: Doug Kidd invited a number of senior ministers and members

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Speaker 4: to the Speaker's lounge for ongoing discussions which you can

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Speaker 4: imagine involved a lot of you know, well, basically they

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Speaker 4: loved their whiskey, and Doug pointed at me and said,

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Speaker 4: you come too, So I did, but I found out

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Speaker 4: I was any there to be the waiter, and I

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Speaker 4: was quickly dispatched by Jim Bolgia to go and find

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Speaker 4: he in Revel, who played a guitar, and he said,

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Speaker 4: get Revel, get his guitar, get him back here. We're

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Speaker 4: going to sing some songs. He loves singing. But then

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Speaker 4: he dragged everybody out onto the balcony just outside the

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Speaker 4: speaker's lounge, drinks in hand, some smoke is scending above

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Speaker 4: their heads, and then led the group in a resounding

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Speaker 4: rendition of Danny Boyd. And you just think this off

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Speaker 4: could have prime in us to do that today. The

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Speaker 4: reality is that he was able to be himself with

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Speaker 4: those who he worked with, and too often I think

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Speaker 4: we have to hide that away because of the malicious

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Speaker 4: nature of social media these days.

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Speaker 1: Barry, Thank you very much, Barry So for seening your

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Speaker 1: political correspondent.

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Speaker 4: For more from Heather Duplessy, Allen Drive, listen live to

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Speaker 4: news Talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow

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Speaker 4: the podcast on iHeartRadio,