The New Zealand Labour Party

Abstract

In this chapter, I analyse the New Zealand Labour Party’s (NZLP) embrace of neoliberal policies during its 1984–1990 government. I argue that this government provides the prime example of a working-class party which so repudiated its historic base and constituency that it effectively changed its class character. The failure of the New Zealand labour movement to remain engaged with the party’s internal politics made possible a change in the leadership of the party, which sought to implement policies of ‘a distinctly Hayekian flavour’.1 While other factors may be relevant in explaining how the government was able to implement such radical measures once it had obtained power, only a focus upon the change in the internal life of the NZLP can explain why the government was so open to New Right economic ideas and came to have such a firm ideological commitment to them. All other accounts ultimately centre on how the party in power could be so successful in its project and therefore miss what is truly important—that the project itself was initiated by an ostensible labour party.