Sir Keith Jacka Holyoake (11 February 1904 – 8 December 1983) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 26th prime minister of New Zealand, serving for a brief period in 1957 and then from 1960 to 1972, and also as the 13th governor-general of New Zealand, serving from 1977 to 1980. He is the only New Zealand politician to have held both positions.
Holyoake was born near Pahiatua in the Wairarapa. He left formal education at the age of 12 to help on the family farm. Before entering politics, he was active in various local farming associations. He was first elected to Parliament in 1932 for the Motueka electorate, representing the conservative Reform Party. Having played an instrumental role in the formation of the National Party in 1936, he lost his seat two years later. However, he was then earmarked for the safe seat of Pahiatua, which he held from 1943.
Following National's first election victory, Holyoake entered Cabinet in 1949. In 1954, he was appointed the first deputy prime minister of New Zealand, under Sidney Holland. Holyoake became leader of the National Party and prime minister two months before the , after Holland's resignation due to ill health. Following an election defeat, he served as the leader of the Opposition for three years before National returned to power in 1960.
Holyoake's government rewrote the criminal legal code, passing the Crimes Act 1961. One of the main features of that act was the abolition of capital punishment, though only ten National MPs voted for its abolition. Among many conservative reforms, his government introduced a form of "voluntary unionism". In foreign policy, Holyoake supported the United States and sent troops to Vietnam. He led his party to four consecutive election victories (not since surpassed). In 1972, he resigned as prime minister to ease the succession for his deputy and friend, Jack Marshall.
In 1977, the National government of Robert Muldoon created controversy by appointing Holyoake as governor-general. Opponents argued that a former politician should not hold the non-partisan position. Holyoake's term was limited to three years, not the normal five. In 1980, he became a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter, a rare honour.
Holyoake is the third-longest-serving New Zealand prime minister (just under 12 years), surpassed only by Richard Seddon's 13 years and William Massey's close to 13 years. Holyoake was also the first to be born in the 20th century. Known for his diplomatic style and "plummy" voice, he was also fondly (or mockingly) known as "Kiwi Keith", a name given to him in childhood to distinguish him from an Australian cousin with the same name.
Early life Holyoake was born at Mangamutu, a short distance from Pahiatua, a town in New Zealand's Wairarapa region, the son of Henry Victor Holyoake and Esther Eves. Keith Holyoake's great-grandparents, Richard and Eliza Holyoake, settled at Riwaka near Motueka in 1843, and his maternal great-grandparents, William and Sarah Eves, arrived in Nelson in 1842. Relatives of the 19th-century secularist George Holyoake, the Holyoakes ran a small general store at Mangamutu, and then lived for a time in both Hastings and Tauranga, before settling on the family farm at Riwaka, following the death of Keith's grandfather in 1913.
Holyoake was raised in the Plymouth Brethren church, and his social life as a child was very restricted. From the age of 12, having left school after his father's death, Holyoake worked on the family hop and tobacco farm in Riwaka. His mother had trained as a school teacher, and continued his education at home. After taking over the management of the farm, he became involved in various local farming associations, something that increased his interest in politics.
Early political career
The Reform Party, which had strong rural support, selected Holyoake as its candidate for the Motueka seat in the . The incumbent MP, George Black, held the seat, but died the following year. Holyoake was the Reform Party's candidate in the resulting by-election in 1932, and was successful. He became the youngest Member of Parliament at the time, at the age of 28. In 1935, he was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal.
In the , Holyoake retained his seat under the motto "Follow England and Vote Holyoake" despite a massive swing against the United–Reform Coalition. In the aftermath of this election, he played a key role in transforming the coalition into the modern National Party. He very quickly gained considerable respect from his colleagues, and was regarded as a rising star in the new party. The 1937 electoral redistribution was unfavourable for him and, when the boundary changes applied at the , Holyoake lost his seat to a rising star of the governing Labour Party, Jerry Skinner. Holyoake had been discussed as a possible successor to the party's conscientious but lack-lustre leader, Adam Hamilton but, because Holyoake was no longer an MP, that ceased to be an option.
In 1943, Holyoake returned to Parliament as MP for Pahiatua, having been lined up by National for that nomination. In 1946, he became the party's deputy Leader.
First National Government: 1949–1957 When National won the and formed the First National Government, new Prime Minister Sidney Holland appointed Holyoake as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture. Holyoake was also for a year (1949–50) Minister for Scientific and Industrial Research, and was Minister of Marketing until the department was abolished in 1953. In 1953, Holyoake was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal.
As Minister of Agriculture for eight years Holyoake enhanced his reputation as a level-headed good administrator. Farm mechanisation was encouraged, the "extermination policy" achieved nearly eliminated the rabbit pest. Dismantling of marketing producer controls was completed.
Holyoake twice went to London to re-negotiate price levels on meat and wool products, and in 1955 attended the Food and Agriculture Organization conference in Rome. On his return to New Zealand he visited India and the Soviet Union to seek alternative markets for New Zealand, although his trip bore little fruit. In 1957, he led a delegation seeking to protect New Zealand's access to the British market, without notable success.
As Deputy leader of the National Party, Holyoake was acting prime minister whenever Holland was overseas. In recognition of that, he was made a member of the Privy Council in 1954. After the , Holland made him the first person to be formally appointed Deputy Prime Minister.
In 1953, in partnership with his friend Theodore Nisbet Gibbs and Gibbs' son Ian, Holyoake purchased a block of land on the northern shore of Lake Taupō from Ian's employer. The land, which had previously been purchased from Ngāti Tūwharetoa iwi in 1884, was a block of 5,385 acres largely covered in scrub and fern. Holyoake and Gibbs subsequently developed the land into a town called Kinloch, which became a holiday destination. On his deathbed, Holyoake said that Kinloch was his proudest achievement.
First premiership
Holyoake became Prime Minister two months before the , when incumbent Prime Minister Sidney Holland retired due to ill-health. Holland had been in declining health since 1954, and had never recovered from a mild heart attack or stroke in 1956. Holyoake also became Minister of Māori Affairs on the retirement of Ernest Corbett.
Holyoake had little time to establish himself, and lost to the Walter Nash-led Labour Party by a margin of two seats. Holyoake became Leader of the Opposition for the next three years.
Second National Government: 1960–1972
In the , the National Party returned to power and formed the Second National Government. Historians attribute the victory to Holyoake's skilful campaigning, particularly his attacks on Minister of Finance Arnold Nordmeyer's so-called "Black Budget" of 1958, which had increased taxes on petrol, cigarettes and liquor. He also served as his own Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Second premiership The Holyoake government implemented numerous reforms of the public services and government institutions: for example, it created the Office of the Ombudsman and numerous quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations, and strengthened parliamentary scrutiny of the executive. Public broadcasting was removed from direct government oversight and placed under corporation control. Holyoake's government rewrote the criminal legal code, passing the Crimes Act 1961; the Act abolished capital punishment, though only ten National MPs voted for its abolition. In 1969, the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) was formally acknowledged to exist, and its minister, the prime minister, publicly acknowledged. That same year the New Zealand Parliament passed an Act covering the agency's functions and responsibilities: the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service Act.
In 1960, the Holyoake government published the "Hunn Report", a wide-ranging summary of Māori assets, and the state of Māori in New Zealand at the time. The report was a damning indictment of past governments' neglect of Māori within society, and Holyoake endeavoured to act on its findings. By embracing the No Maoris – No Tour cause, Holyoake ended the practice of an apartheid sporting body dictating the racial composition of New Zealand rugby teams touring in South Africa. In a 1966 speech directed at the South African authorities, Holyoake delicately defended the principle of racial equality, stating "in this country we are one people; as such we cannot as a nation be truly represented in any sphere by a group chosen on racial lines".
Holyoake accepted the post-war political consensus; he believed in the necessity of a mixed economy, championing a Keynesian strategy of public investment to maintain demand. However, as an anti-socialist, Holyoake sought to reduce the role of trade unions in industrial relations. The National government introduced a form of voluntary unionism, though the majority of industrial workplaces remained unionised; the policy was hotly debated within caucus, with Holyoake's deputy, Jack Marshall, and Tom Shand, favouring the retention of compulsory unionism. His government's industrial policy brought Holyoake into conflict with union leaders, such as Fintan Patrick Walsh.
Holyoake's government was comfortably re-elected for a second consecutive term in 1963. Holyoake's second term featured by a long period of prosperity and economic expansion. However, moves by the United Kingdom to join the European Economic Community challenged his government. Holyoake deliberately played down the issue, and chose not to vocally oppose British membership of the EEC. A significant step towards diversification was a limited free trade agreement with Australia, negotiated in 1965 by Holyoake's minister of overseas trade, Jack Marshall, who later also negotiated the terms of the arrangements for New Zealand under which Britain joined the EEC.
More controversial were the Holyoake government's relations with the United States at the start of the Vietnam War. The National government's initial response was carefully considered and characterised by Holyoake's cautiousness towards the entire Vietnam question. The fundamental issues, Holyoake said, were simple: "Whose will is to prevail in South Vietnam the imposed will of the North Vietnamese communists and their agents, or the freely expressed will of the people of South Vietnam?" His government preferred minimal involvement, with other South East Asian deployments already having a strain on the New Zealand Defence Force. New Zealand's alliance with the United States was an issue in the , which the National Party won on the back of.