Rogernomics

"Between 1984 and 1988 New Zealand's fourth Labour Government undertook the most comprehensive revision of economic policy which the country had ever seen. Subsidies were abolished, the tax system reformed and state-owned enterprises moved steadily down the path to privatisation. The process became known as "Rogernomics" after the Minister of Finance, Roger Douglas. Douglas became Euromoney's "Finance Minister of the Year" and an internationally admired economic reformer. At home his policies proved more controversial. Although Labour was convincingly re-elected in 1987, a year later the consensus benind Rogernomics collapsed. Roger Douglas and two other ministers left an increasingly divided administration. A major struggle over economic direction lay ahead. Nonetheless, the face of the New Zealand economy had changed irrevocably. In this book, Influential analysts, journalists and participants in the process of reform examine the events and impact of Rogernomics. "Rogernomics : reshapig New Zealand's economy 1984-1988" is an account of an individual's determination to effect change in the teeth of political opposition and institutional inertia."--Back cover.

""Rogernomics" -- we hear the word almost daily on radio and television and read it constantly in our newspapers, but how many of us really understand Roger Douglas's policies and what they mean? This readable book, written specifically for laypeople, examines and explains the social and economic revolution which has hit this country since the fourth Labour Government came to power in 1984 ... Simon Collins examines what Douglas has done, and shows how a few simple principles of market economies have pervaded a whole nation. He considers some alternative policies and brings together evidence and arguments for the many New Zealanders who are asking "Is there a better way?"." -- Back cover.

The origin of this collection of political essays was a widely admired sociology thesis by Hugh Oliver on the pre-1984 debates with the New Zealand Labour Party, out of which the economic strategy of Roger Douglas finally emerged.

Whatiwhatihoe investigates a complex bundle of issues often referred to simply as a tribal "resource claim" but that really concern factors spanning the total social, political, and economic spectrum. Whatiwhatihoe tracks the origins and history of the Waikato raupatu claim, focusing particularly on the ways the claim has been handled.

Explores why the political similarities between New Zealand and the United States--including democratic politics, mixed-enterprise economies, a deep concern for human rights and the rule of law and more--have taken on different forms.

‘Your words of “discomfort, loss, and disconnection” don’t resonate with me at all.’ Ruth Richardson to Andrew Dean, 16 December 2014. A time of major upheaval now stands between young and old in New Zealand. In Ruth, Roger and Me, Andrew Dean explores the lives of the generation of young people brought up in the shadow of the economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, those whom he calls ‘the children of the Mother of All Budgets’. Drawing together memoir, history and interviews, he explores the experiences of ‘discomfort’ and ‘disconnection’ in modern Aotearoa New Zealand.

It would be easy to make assumptions about someone like Philip Burdon. The product of a long line of landed gentry going back to the fourteenth century, and of well-heeled pilgrims on Canterbury's First Four Ships, brought up and educated as one of South Canterbury's privileged landowners, a distinguished old boy of Christ's College - and a self-made multimillionaire to boot. Burdon might appear to be the archetypal New Zealand Anglocentric conservative. The truth is very different. This man is also a passionate republican, a businessman with an acute social conscience, a liberal politician who fought relentlessly against the right-wing ideologues of his own National Party, and not only slowed their extremist free-market reforms but convinced his caucus that this philosophy must wear a human face. As Minister of Trade Negotiations, he steered New Zealand through the labyrinth of GATT reforms that made up the Uruguay Round, oversaw a tremendous expansion of New Zealand's trading links into the Middle East, Asia and south and Central America, and championed the cause of regional economic development in the Pacific-Asia area. And, especially through the Asia 2000 Foundation, he has striven for multi-racial harmony and to encourage New Zealand's Asian community to take a full part in this country's public affairs. But this is much more than the biography of a complex and interesting man. Critically acclaimed historian Edmund Bohan has also created a fascinating, lively and important portrait of an extraordinary period in New Zealand's history.

In The Quiet Revolution, leading political commentator Colin James analyses New Zealand's market-based reforms of the 1980s as they are happening. Writing a first draft of history, he examines how the 'quiet revolution' is seen alternately as a betrayal, a dangerous experiment and a liberation. Combining economic and political analysis, he describes the behind-the-scenes manoeuvring that formed the backdrop to the reforms and the effects of the reform programme itself. He also sees a groundswell of optimism that, he argues, could forge a new and very different society in New Zealand.