Following police warnings of civil strife, Prime Minister Norman Kirk informed the New Zealand Rugby Football Union that the government saw ‘no alternative’ to a postponement of the planned tour by the South African Springboks.
Cartoon showing Labour Prime Minister Norman Kirk as a barman kicking out the defeated Jack Marshall and his deputy, Robert Muldoon after the 1972 election
Prime Minister: 8 Dec 1972–31 Aug 1974 Age on becoming PM: 49 Electorate: Sydenham Political party: Labour
In 1972 Norman Kirk broke National’s 12-year-long grip on the Treasury benches and became Labour’s first New Zealand-born PM.
Kirk was from the working class. He built his own house. He had little formal education but like earlier Labour leaders, he read widely and became a skilled debater. He won Lyttelton in 1957 and eight years later became leader of the opposition.
Leader of the Labour Party since 1965 and Prime Minister from late 1972, 'Big Norm' died suddenly at the age of 51. He was the fifth New Zealand PM to die in office.
In this Nevile Lodge cartoon, which appeared in the Evening Post in 1973, the new prime minister, Norman Kirk, and his deputy, Hugh Watt, are discussing the problems the new Labour government faces.
Keeping sport and politics separate was becoming increasingly difficult. In July 1969 HART (Halt All Racist Tours) was founded by University of Auckland students with the specific aim of opposing sporting contact with South Africa.
