One wonders which Labour party that was? The only Labour government she would have known was the one led by David Lange which stood out as a beacon for free markets and smaller government the world over.
Perhaps she confused Sir Robert Muldoon’s National party for Labour? He was prime minister when Ms Ardern was born and was a big government demagogue. His ‘New Zealand – The Way You Want It’ hubris, along with his statist ‘Think Big’ heavy industry programmes and compulsory superannuation scheme, left the country crippled with debt, a balance of payments crisis, high interest rates and rampant inflation.
Muldoon’s passion for control no doubt appealed to the young Ms Ardern. But the Labour party of her youth was the antithesis of the government she leads today. Indeed, she has been described as ‘Rob Muldoon with slogans and kindness’.
The Labour party she says she was drawn to was about deregulation. Prime minister David Lange and his finance minister Roger Douglas, corporatised several government departments and sold privatised state assets. They used monetarist measures to control inflation, floated the dollar and allowed markets to set interest rates. They slashed subsidies and trade tariffs and turned a moribund economy into one that was internationally competitive. New Zealand shifted from being one of the world’s most regulated economies to one of the freest.
Did she once support that?
