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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.
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The history of the 1990s, and Ruth Richardson's hijacking of the Bolger government is just as important to understanding the corporatist (or "neoliberal") reforms. In which government of both legacy parties architected the impoverished, decaying country we live in today.
Especially because some opponents of "neoliberalism" are rewriting history to blame Labour alone. Even as the NatACT First coalition speedrun the ideology-driven economic incompetence of the 1990s.
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FYI having trouble downloading the third episode of Juggernaut 2, which dropped yesterday. Maybe the hosting provider The Spinoff is using for their podcast episodes is behind CloudScare?
"And then out came the tale of woe, about how the Bank of NZ was about to collapse, and we were going to have to introduce this draconian - only word to describe it - set of welfare measures that were going to screw everyone who was down in NZ."
#MichaelLaws, Juggernaut 2, ep 1, 2025
https://www.thespinoff.co.nz/podcasts/juggernaut
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Let's be clear on what happened in 1990. A publicly-owned bank needed bailing out. But instead of raising taxes on the wealthy, National took the money from kiwis who had the least; those on social welfare benefits. Sound familiar?
But keep in mind that many of the unemployed were those whose public service jobs had been "restructured" out of existence by the 1980s Labour government. Unemployment was high and rising as a direct consequence of Rogernomics, not lack of effort by workers.
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