What Jim Bolger saw that John Key didn’t - and wasn’t afraid to call up and tell him

Thursday, 16 October 2025

Jim Bolger was never afraid to call up John Key and offer an insight on leading the country from the New Zealand heartland.

Bolger recognised that Key was urban, and could benefit from Bolger’s background in the rural core of the party, Key said.

Bolger, who was New Zealand’s Prime Minister between 1990-1997, has died at the age of 90. The Bolger family said he died peacefully on Wednesday surrounded by his wife Joan, nine children and 18 grandchildren.

Key, who was prime minister from 2008 to 2016, said his predecessor who was in power from 1990 to 1997, would often call him up on the phone to offer advice.

“It wasn't intrusive, but he wasn't afraid to ring and say, ‘Look, here's a perspective on something’, or to offer a viewpoint, or encourage me to be courageous on certain elements of things. Particularly around race relations, Key told Stuff on Thursday after Bolger’s death.

“I think he was really keen to see, Māori do well. And I think he saw the Treaty settlement process as a way of both bringing the nation together, as a sort of healing for what he saw as injustices, but also, giving them financial independence.

He was an old-fashioned conservative and he believed in that, Key said.

He was also a political animal who rose through the ranks under the First Past the Post voting system and quickly learned the ways of governing under MMP.

“He understood the National Party to the absolute core because he came out of the historical roots of the party with agriculture. And I think he realised I was urban”, Key said of their relationship.

“He wasn't afraid to ring up and say, hey, here's the perspective on what's happening in the heartland of New Zealand.”

Key recalled visiting the Bolger family farm in Te Kūiti when he was leader of the opposition. The younger politician wasn't familiar with all of the different gifts that get given and photos that get taken when one is the leader of a country.

“I remember being in awe of seeing all the things that were just the history of his time as prime minister.”

King Country farmer Bolger entered Parliament in 1972 and went on to become a minister under Robert Muldoon, and at 55-years-old he became prime minister. He was elected on the promise of delivering a “decent society”, following the Labour Government’s era of “Rogernomics”, and led National to a landslide victory in 1990.

The MMP electoral system was introduced in Bolger’s second term and he formed the first government in coalition, with Winston Peters’ New Zealand First.

Peters, now the Minister of Foreign Affairs, said on Thursday that anyone with knowledge of New Zealand political history from the late 1980s and early 1990s 'will know that the two of us sometimes had our policy differences!'.

Peters called Bolger “a man of his word”.

“He did what he said he would do - and we ran our coalition government with integrity, focus and a fidelity to New Zealanders who had delivered a majority to our two political parties.'

But according to NZHistory, it caused growing caucus resentment toward National’s coalition partner and with the government’s move towards the centre, it gave Jenny Shipley the numbers to stage a successful coup against the sitting PM.

Bolger’s time as prime minister came to an end in 1997. Former Prime Minister and National leader Dame Jenny Shipley led the country from 1997 to 1999.

Shipley seized the tiller from the ‘Great Helmsman’ while he was travelling overseas in 1997. She had become irritated by the amount of power shared with NZ First in the coalition deal.

Speaking to NZ Herald on Thursday, she would not be drawn on her analysis of that period in the country’s history.

“These were difficult moments but they don’t need to be aired today,” she told NZ Herald.

Bolger resigned rather than being voted out after a period of radical cuts to government spending, and retired from his seat in 1998.

In 1999 National were defeated by Helen Clark's Labour Party.

On Thursday Clark said she was deeply saddened by news of death of Bolger, who she described as a parliamentary colleague for many years.

“Jim was deeply committed to New Zealand and served our country selflessly. My heart goes out to Joan and all the Bolger family at this sad time. RIP.”

After leaving Parliament in 1998, Bolger was ambassador to the United States.

It was a period of his life he particularly liked, Key said.

“He really enjoyed his time in Washington. And he was sort of famous. He would go the world stage and he loved visits to various countries and different events and the leaders that he met.”

He wasn’t afraid to tell you who he’d met or what they thought, Key told Stuff. He said Bolger was always comfortable in his own skin and “my impression of Jim was that he was always happy.

“Obviously, there was tumultuous times when there was the coup and he was rolled and all of that sort of stuff, but a lot of ex-prime ministers end up angry because some injustice has been done to them.

“And Jim had enough reasons, like most former leaders, to carry a grudge but he didn't really seem to do that. I never ever heard him bagging people or being disrespectful or being particularly angry about it.”

Upon his return home Bolger chaired Kiwibank and the re-nationalised rail operator KiwiRail which he had privatised in the 1990s. His other public roles included included chairing NZ Post, he was the Chancellor of Waikato University and was the head of the sixth Labour government’s Fair Pay Agreements Working Group.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said Bolger became a minister when he entered Parliament in 1972. He became a minister in 1977. (Amended at 2.40pm on October 16, 2025)