His predecessor Piggy Muldoon may have gone on to act as the narrator for a season of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but former New Zealand prime minister David Lange,
who died yesterday, even outdid that. His finance minister, Roger
Douglas, gave the greatest demonstration of why social democrats should
be economic rationalists while Lange offered epithets ranging from the
ridiculous to the coruscating.

None of the obits seem to have offered a good range, so here are some highlights for Crikey readers:

When
Prime Minister Robert Muldoon was granted a knighthood in November 1983
in the depths of the recession, Lange paralysed the Parliament by
quipping “a very long year has been followed by a very short knight.”

After
deciding to resign as Prime Minister, Lange appeared at a joint press
conference with his successor Geoffrey Palmer and new Deputy Helen
Clark. Palmer had launched a long, effusive and over the top speech on
what a wonderful Prime Minister Lange had been, when Lange reduced the
entire room to fits of giggles by chiming up “Oh Geoffrey, I’ve changed
my mind.”

Observing one of his successors, short term Prime
Minister Mike Moore, Lange said he was “increasingly mesmerised by the
ability of the Leader [Moore] to speak in a way that meant that when he
was on television I knew there were two people who had no idea what he
was talking about – him and me.”

Talking again on Moore, Lange described his style as being like “a pinball machine wired by a colour-blind electrician.”

Given
his enormous reputation for entertaining speeches, Lange’s farewell
speech to Parliament in 1996 took place before a full chamber. Most
senior political figures were present, with the notable exception of
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, who Lange mused “had probably
been detained by a full length mirror.”

Breaking news: The New Zealand Herald has come to the rescue with some beauties of its own. Here are some highlights:

On being made a Companion of Honour: “It’s not a high-class escort agency.”

On
the Muldoon Government: “We ended up being run very similarly to a
Polish shipyard” adding: “We couldn’t keep living on borrowed money –
we’re not the Cook Islands.”

On Jim Bolger: When Bolger was
Opposition leader, Lange once suggested his opponent had “all the
intellectual rigour of an amoeba.” He also accused him of “going round
the country stirring up apathy.”