#Tag
NZ got proportional representation elections, in the end, kind of by accident. With 1980s Labour PM David Lange misreading his notes and committing to it, and when Labour reneged, National leader Jim Bolger promised a referendum on it. Thinking kiwis would never vote for it.
Juggernaut talks about all this in s02e04;
https://www.thespinoff.co.nz/podcasts/juggernaut
What Juggernaut doesn't cover in any detail is the years of grassroots campaigning that preceded all this.
"Now what happens to Winston Peters doesn't matter. But what happens to the people does."
#WinstonPeters, Juggernaut 2, ep 2, 2025
https://thespinoff.co.nz/podcasts/juggernaut
It's hard to believe now given the smiling crocodile he's become. Political principles up for auction, doing whatever is best for Winston Peters and bugger anyone else. I think at the time he really meant this.
His corruption is perhaps the saddest political story of NZ corporatism.
"There's no god given right for a major party to stay a major party. You have to earn that."
#HelenClark, 2025
https://thespinoff.co.nz/podcasts/juggernaut
You listening to your former leader Labour? If you don't step up next year - much more ambitiously than in 2020-23 - you've earned exactly what will follow.
"Now what happens to Winston Peters doesn't matter. But what happens to the people does."
#WinstonPeters, Juggernaut 2, ep 2, 2025
https://thespinoff.co.nz/podcasts/juggernaut
It's hard to believe now given the smiling crocodile he's become. Political principles up for auction, doing whatever is best for Winston Peters and bugger anyone else. I think at the time he really meant this.
His corruption is perhaps the saddest political story of NZ corporatism.
"More than a million people are affected by the cuts. The worst hit are 20-24 year olds on the dole. Their benefit drops by 25%, to $108 a week. Adjusted for inflation, that would be about $235 in 2025.
Sickness beneficiaries under 25 lose 20% of their income, down to $130 a week. $282 in today's money."
#TobyManhire, 2025
https://thespinoff.co.nz/podcasts/juggernaut
Sound familiar? So far NatACT First have come for 100% of 18-19 year olds' dole. But ...
(1/?)
I presume anyone who wants to understand NZ politics has listened to The Spinoff's Juggernaut podcast, about the 1984-90 Labour government. But did you catch up with the fact that the second season of Juggernaut is out, telling the story of the 1990s National government?
https://thespinoff.co.nz/podcasts/juggernaut
The first 3 episodes are out now.
(1/2)
Great news! Toby Manhire managed to find funding for a second series of the excellent NZ political history podcast, #Juggernaut;
https://thespinoff.co.nz/podcasts/juggernaut
This series covers the 4th National government, led by Jim Bolger. But famous more for Ruth Richardson's ruthless 1991 budget. Known to old lefties like me as Ruthenasia.
Without this part of the story, it's easy to blame our slide into extreme inequality and mass impoverishment on Labour and Rogernomics alone. But it was a bipartisan affair.
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