‘Next
Tuesday we’re going to elect a new deputy leader and it’s not going to
be you,’ said Prime Minister Robert Muldoon to his Associate Minister of
Finance, Derek Quigley, late one evening in February 1981, shortly
after Quigley had co-led the abortive Colonels’ Coup that sought to
topple the PM.


A
farmer and lawyer, Derek Quigley had entered Parliament just five years
earlier as National MP for Rangiora. After his falling out with Muldoon
he was an advisor to the Lange/Douglas Labour government, then a
cofounder of the ACT Party. Re-elected to Parliament in 1996, he became
chairman of the Foreign Affairs, Trade and Defence Select Committee,
whose report Defence Beyond 2000 became the ‘blueprint’ for the Clark Labour government’s defence policy.


Challenging the Status Quo
is a principled conservative’s insider history of New Zealand’s
evolving maturity from its golden years when it was beholden to Britain
to its status as an independent nation in today’s uncertain world. It
highlights some of the successes and failures of the country’s key
politicians during that progression and illustrates what needs to be
done to avoid the mistakes of the past.


‘Derek
Quigley earned a reputation as an issues-driven politician. His memoir
is a valuable account of politics in New Zealand from Muldoon to MMP,
offering many insights into the often intense controversies of those
times.’ -Jim McAloon

ISBN: 9781776922208
Author: QUIGLEY, DEREK
Available stock: 1
Price: $50.00
Title: Challenging The Status Quo