Bruce Craig Beetham (1936-1997), a trained political scientist, was the most successful leader of New Zealand's (late 20th century) Social Credit Party. Cutting his political teeth as Mayor of Hamilton, he went on to a meteoric rise to lead the minority party within a very short time after joining it.
Before he joined Social Credit
Apparently one of his ideas as Mayor of Hamilton was to finance municipal projects with interest-free "rates vouchers", but it is reported that he couldn't even get it on the agenda while the city council was too busy passing a 20% rate increase.
Member, leader, then MP (1978-1984)
He was elected leader of the party in 1972, when it was in a state of disarray and many questioned whether it could survive. A brilliant organizer and an electrifying speaker, he succeeded in rebuilding the party and leading it to a respectable showing in the elections of 1972 and 1975.
On February 18 1978, Beetham won election to Parliament in a byelection for the Rangitikei electorate, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of its long-time member, Sir Roy Jack . He retained the seat in the general election later that year, and the Social Credit Party polled 16 percent of the vote nationwide. In 1981, the party polled just over 20 percent - the best showing for a third party since the 1920s, but fell short of its goal of holding the balance of power; its support was too evenly spread to translate into more than a couple of seats under the First-past-the-post electoral system in use at that time.
As one action in line with party policies, he organized a large barter trade with Fiji, but Prime Minister Robert Muldoon vetoed the deal, preferring to borrow money and pay interest to international banks.
1984-1996
A number of factors resulted in a sharp drop in support for the Social Credit Party in the general election of 1984. Beetham lost his Rangitikei seat, mainly because of boundary changes; suspicions have lingered since that the redistribution may have been politically motivated.
In 1986, Beetham lost the leadership of the party to Neil Morrison . The new leader, on the night he was elected, implied in a TV interview that the Social Credit national dividend policy was out of date and would be dropped. This was in response to a question from the interviewer, which he might not have listened to carefully. The next day Mr Beetham said he was considering resigning because the new leadership was rejecting basic Social Credit philosophy. Then Mr. Morrison, contradicting his earlier statement, said of course the national dividend would be retained as an important part of Social Credit policy.
Beetham remained active in politics despite losing the leadership. He contested his old seat under the party's new name (New Zealand Democratic Party) in 1987; in 1990 he assumed leadership of a new party, under the old Social Credit banner; in 1992, he attempted to put together a coalition of centrist parties, the New Zealand Coalition , but was overtaken by the course of events as numerous new parties were formed around that time and crowded out the political spectrum.
His last electoral campaign was in 1996 as an independent candidate for his old Rangitikei electorate. Although not elected, he received almost four thousand votes - one of the best-ever showings for an independent candidate.
Personal factors
Bruce Beetham was known as a liberal on human rights, a conservative on moral and social issues, and a pragmatist on economic matters. He disliked confrontation, preferring to work for consensus in decision-making. He was married twice, and had four children. He died of heart failure in 1997 at the age of 61.
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