Birth Place
Norman Kirk was a key figure in the lead up to the announcement of the Springbok Tour in 1980. He was the Prime Minister of New Zealand during 1973 and helped to prevent the proposed tour in that year postponing it to a further date despite saying that he would not intervene. This decision decisively hurt labours reputation and contributed to their defeat in the general elections of 1975. Although they lost popularity, Kirk knew that if a tour went ahead violence would escalate to new levels as he was informed by police that "a tour would engender the greatest eruption of violence this country has ever known". His decision therefore impacted Robert Muldoon, as he understood that if he intervened in the tour, National would surely lose the elections and therefore he used the tour to his advantage in order to keep in power.