Cullen says reforms should not be called 'Rogernomics'

By HELEN TUNNAH

Radical economic reforms sprung on New Zealand by the fourth Labour Government were misleadingly dubbed Rogernomics because the former Finance Minister did not author them, Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen said yesterday.

Sir Roger Douglas was not the strongest advocate of the reforms and their ideology, either within Labour or publicly, he said.

But Dr Cullen, a former Cabinet colleague of Sir Roger and now Finance Minister himself, did not say who drove the economic overhaul, and a spokeswoman said later he did not wish to elaborate on his remarks.

In opening a two-day conference in Wellington on the 1984-1990 Government, Dr Cullen said Labour had been seduced by fair-weather friends the Business Roundtable.

The turmoil of the reforms had delivered a society more divided now than it was two decades ago.

Dr Cullen, senior whip and then a minister in that Government, said the reforms were so mishandled that they delivered smaller benefits and higher costs than had been expected.

And they were misleadingly labelled Rogernomics.

"I say misleadingly because for all his drive, energy, clarity and purpose, Roger Douglas was in no way the author of it and not even its clearest articulator within the caucus or public at large."

Faced with an economic crisis when elected, Labour under Prime Minister David Lange embarked on a series of reforms, stripping subsidies from farmers, overhauling the state sector and introducing anti-nuclear legislation.

The upheaval, and the public's unhappiness with it, led to tremendous splits within the party, and between Sir Roger and Mr Lange, who stepped down as Prime Minister in 1989.

Tensions and ill-feeling reportedly became so great that Sir Roger's right-hand ally, Richard Prebble, once reduced Dr Cullen to tears.

Sir Roger is due to speak at the conference today. Mr Lange was not invited.

Dr Cullen said yesterday that the six-year Government experienced the best of times, and the worst of times and was "the age of wisdom and the age of foolishness".

He said the Government put forward a facade of disciplined unity at the expense of an honest internal debate about basic principles and direction.

Those who did not believe in the "crash through" approach to reform were considered wimpish and wet.

"And above it all sat the Prime Minister, fearsomely intelligent and quick-witted, but economically illiterate, politically clumsy in some respects, without an independent base in the party and caucus, but increasingly concerned at the general drift of events."

Dr Cullen said the divisions between 1987 and 1990 sewed the seeds for MMP and forced Labour's long period in the wilderness of opposition.

He said that New Zealand was more varied, dynamic and colourful now than 20 years ago might be attributed to that Labour Government, "but so can the fact that it is more socially divided, with greater extremes of wealth and poverty".

"The remarkable thing in retrospect is that while much of the change was necessary, it was, after an initial promising start, mishandled so that the reforms produced smaller benefits and higher costs."