raytaylor t1_j1tx5p4 wrote on December 27, 2022 at 10:37 AM

Good old piggy

Partly_Dave t1_j1wgyko wrote on December 27, 2022 at 10:31 PM

He spoke at our school, while he was a Minister. I was probably 11 or 12 and knew nothing about politics but afterwards thought why would anyone vote for this guy. They did though.

raytaylor t1_j1xcm7y wrote on December 28, 2022 at 2:24 AM

Honestly, he had some good ideas and wasnt trying to make bad decisions. He just couldnt modernize like labour did with the rogernomics.

Things103 t1_j1yai37 wrote on December 28, 2022 at 7:52 AM

I don't quite think that was it.

Neo-liberalism was still only starting to get a foothold in the UK/USA with Thatcher and Reagan. It just wasn't really a thing when he was in power.

He had some massive ideas - but also worked the government to give himself as much control as possible; being both Prime Minister and Minister of Finance (usually two rather separate positions) - This was bad when he started putting in price freezes, and massive policies that basically bankrupted the country... But also largely hid it from the public. Lange the incoming prime minister later stated that it was kept from the public how close we came from just defaulting on all loans - the selling of assets came from a necessity to get investment into the country.

The other thing that cost him was infighting in his party - particularly the younger MPs with more liberal ideas (such as Nuclear free NZ) and his decision to not have a position on it. - Whereas the incoming stamped themselves as 'Nuclear Free' which was a fairly popular movement. He just didn't seem to believe in those more social policies where the public did, He had a similar reaction to the Springbok tour in 1981.

There is an fantastic series on the Neo-liberalism change in New Zealand called revolution - the first episode deals a lot with Muldoon and what New Zealand looked like under him "Fortress New Zealand" (and why there was a change afterwards)

raytaylor t1_j1ygz78 wrote on December 28, 2022 at 9:22 AM

I have watched that documentary a couple of times and I absolutely love it.

The think big projects are what I mean by good ideas. Especially the dams, steel and aluminuim facilities (that provided employment and cheaper goods for many years).

But the tinkering with the economy and fucking over the balance of payments wasnt helpful. Though I think he genuinely was trying to help the working people in the short term but couldnt handle the decisions that needed to be made for the long term solution.

Now New Zealand is seen as a champion of economic shift where we went from one of the richest in the 1950's
to almost bankrupt in the 80's because muldoon and co. were still thinking with ideas from the 50's
and now to one of the best performing economies in the world again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INyMYy-QjxM
This video is also a good watch