1984, A Time For Sorrow, Not Celebration

Rt Hon Winston Peters says few New Zealanders have joined the 20th birthday celebrations of the Lange, Douglas, Clark government that came into office in 1984.

Mr Peters said ordinary kiwis remember the ideologically driven maelstrom of state asset sales, restructuring, and redundancy that laid waste to many New Zealand communities, organisations and enterprises.

“New Zealand has still not fully recovered from the mad social and economic experiment of 1984-90 when the Lange government enriched a handful at the expense of many.

“David Lange and his former colleagues, including Helen Clark and many of her ministers, can indulge in their own myth of how their heroic government delivered New Zealand from its basket case status.

“The reality is they were an unmitigated disaster and their reunion is reminiscent of Napoleon’s generals having a reunion 20 years after their retreat from Moscow.”

Mr Peters said Australia was spared the reckless dismantling of public sector infrastructure and the fire sale of public assets fed by a voracious horde of so-called consultants that New Zealand experienced.

“As a result, Australia’s economic performance has exceeded New Zealand’s over the past two decades in real terms by a third.

“The biggest cheerleader of the 1984 Labour government was a Reserve Bank governor called Don Brash who now wants to plunge New Zealand back into the economic dark ages.

“It is the duty of every New Zealander of voting age to ensure that the mindless experiments of 20 years ago are never visited on this country again,” said Mr Peters.

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