Jack Marshall

In the 1949 election, Marshall kept his seat. The National Party gained enough seats to form a government, and Sidney Holland became Prime Minister. Marshall was elevated to Cabinet, taking the role of Minister of Statistics and also having ministerial responsibility for the State Advances Corporation. He also became a direct assistant to Holland.[2]

Marshall as a Cabinet minister in 1951

After the 1951 election, Marshall became Minister of Health (although he also retained responsibility for State Advances until 1953). In the 1954 election, his Mt Victoria seat was abolished, and he successfully stood for another Wellington electorate, Karori. After the election, he lost the Health portfolio, instead becoming Minister of Justice and Attorney-General. In these roles, he supported the retention of the capital punishment for murder. In 1957, he proposed a referendum on capital punishment.[3] (New Zealand's last execution was carried out in 1957, during Marshall's time in office.[3]) He also supported the creation of a separate Court of Appeal.[2]

When Holland became ill, Marshall was part of the group that persuaded him to step down. Keith Holyoake became Prime Minister. Marshall sought the deputy leadership, managing to defeat Jack Watts for this post.[2] The result was kept secret from the caucus and several cabinet ministers privately speculated that Watts had actually won, but Holyoake overturned the result, concerned with Watts' health.[4]

Shortly after the leadership change, National lost the 1957 election to Labour's Walter Nash. Marshall, therefore, became deputy leader of the Opposition. The Nash government did not last long, however – its drastic measures to counter an economic crisis proved unpopular. Marshall was later to admit that the crisis had been prompted by a failure to act by the National government.[2] Labour lost the 1960 election, and National returned to power.[5]

Marshall in 1957

Marshall once more became Deputy Prime Minister, but rather than Attorney-General and Minister of Justice again he was allocated several new positions, including ministerial responsibility for Industries and Commerce, Overseas Trade, Immigration, and Customs.[2] One of his major achievements was the signing of trade arrangements with Australia and the United Kingdom. Marshall also supported the abolition of compulsory union membership, which had been a National Party election policy – when the government eventually decided not to push forward with the change, Marshall's relations with some of his colleagues were strained.[2]

Marshall promoted the retention of capital punishment for murder.[3] However, Labour under Arnold Nordmeyer was opposed, and in 1961 ten National MPs, including Robert Muldoon, crossed the floor and voted with Labour to abolish it.[6]

Increasingly, as time went on, Marshall became overworked, with Holyoake giving him more and more cabinet responsibilities. In the 1960s he led negotiations over trade consequences if Britain joined the European Economic Community.[2][7] Marshall was also put under considerable pressure by ongoing labour disputes, which he took a significant role in resolving. Relations between Marshall and Robert Muldoon, the Minister of Finance, grew very tense, with Marshall resenting Muldoon's open interference in the labour negotiations. Marshall was also responsible for establishing the Accident Compensation Corporation.[7]

On 7 February 1972, Holyoake stepped down as Prime Minister. Marshall contested the leadership against Muldoon, and won. Muldoon became Deputy Prime Minister. Marshall was keen to organise the government, believing that it had become stagnated and inflexible. The public, however, were tired of the long-serving National government, and considered the reforms insufficient.[2]

In the 1972 general election, Norman Kirk's Labour Party was triumphant. On 8 December, after less than a year in office, Kirk was sworn in as Prime Minister and Marshall became the Leader of the Opposition.[2]

Marshall became Leader of the Opposition in 1972.[8] He made the choice to not separate the shadow cabinet from the rest of the caucus to encourage party unity. He made minimal changes to his portfolio allocations from February 1972 to highlight National's experience and stability, contrasting from the comparative inexperience of the new Labour Government.[9]

On 4 July 1974, Marshall was informed that a leadership challenge was imminent. Aware that much of his support had drained away, Marshall resigned, and Muldoon became party leader. Marshall's decline was primarily the result of his inability to damage the highly popular Kirk; Marshall's quiet, understated style did not fit well with the aggressive tactics required of an opposition party seeking to return to government. Ironically, Kirk died later that same year and his replacement, Bill Rowling, was perceived as a quiet and non-confrontational leader, just as Marshall had been.