Michael Joseph Savage

Michael Joseph Savage was born on 23 March 1872 at Tatong in Victoria, Australia. He attended school in Rothesay for only five years and at the age of 14 was working in a wine and spirits shop. He later worked as a labourer in New South Wales from 1983 to 1900 and then moved to Victoria where he was a goldminer, train driver, and bakery manager.

In Victoria Savage became active within the Victoria Labor Party before emigrating to New Zealand in 1907. Savage arrived in Wellington on Labour Day in 1907 and spent six months cutting flax in Manawatu before moving to Auckland in 1908 and gained employment with the Captain Cook Brewery. He became President of the Auckland Brewers’ Employees’’ Union and in 1910 was elected President of the Auckland Trades Council.

In 1911 Savage stood for the Socialist Party in Auckland Central and came second. In 1914 he stood for the Social Democratic Party in the same seat and was again unsuccessful. Savage supported the formation of the Labour Party in 1916 and became its Vice-President in 1918 and national secretary in 1919.

Also in 1919 he finally got elected to Parliament winning Auckland West to become one of eight Labour MPs. He became Deputy Leader of Labour in 1922. Savage was a major advocate for increased pension and a free health service during this time and in October 1933 became Labour Party Leader after the death of Harry Holland.

In 1935 Labour won the general election with 55 out of 80 seats and Savage became Prime Minister. He immediately gave a bonus to the unemployed and in 1936 started a programme of state house construction, nationalised commercial broadcasting, introduced guaranteed minimum prices for dairy products and made union membership compulsory. He also made an alliance between Labour and the Ratana movement.

In 1937 traveled to Britain for the coronation of King George VI and made headlines for repeatedly criticising Britain over its appeasement of Japan, Italy and Germany. This attracted much criticism for such a public display of Empire disunity.

In 1938 Savage introduced his social security bill which brought in free health care and universal superannuation. Shortly after the bill was introduced Savage was diagnosed with cancer. Nevertheless he won the ensuring election increasing Labour’s vote from 46% to 56%. On 3 September 1939 New Zealand declared war on Germany.

Savage was getting progressively worse during this time as due to work pressures he had delayed his operation for a year until it was too late. During this time he was also involved in a bitter battle with John A Lee which concluded on 26 March 1940 with Lee’s expulsion from the Labour Party by its annual conference. Michael Joseph Savage died the following day in Wellington.