Roger Douglas
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Sir Roger Douglas is a former New Zealand politician best known for his role in the radical economic restructuring undertaken in the 1980s. He later went on to found the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers (the forerunner of ACT New Zealand) with Derek Quigley in 1994.
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Early life
Douglas was born on 5 December 1937. His family had strong ties with the trade union movement, and was active in politics. Douglas was educated in Auckland, and gained a degree in accountancy from Auckland University.
Early political career
Although he had some early experience with politics after serving on the Manukau City Council, his career in national politics began when he was elected to parliament as Labour Party MP for Manukau. He began to become involved in the party's policies on industry and economics.
Labour under Norman Kirk won the 1972 election, and Douglas was elevated to Cabinet. During Labour's term in office, he was Minister of Broadcasting, Minister of Housing, and Minister of Customs. However, Kirk's unexpected death in 1974 (and his replacement by the ineffectual Bill Rowling) led to Labour's defeat by the National Party under Robert Muldoon in 1975. Douglas was Labour's spokesperson on Housing until 1980, when he acquired responsibility for the Trade and Industry portfolio. In 1983, when David Lange became leader of the Labour Party, Douglas was made spokesperson for Finance.
Minister of Finance
In the election of 1984 Labour was victorious. As Prime Minister, Lange gave the Minister of Finance role to Douglas. The policies that Douglas began to implement were revolutionary . Known as "Rogernomics" (a coinage based on the term "Reaganomics", used to describe the economic policies of US President Ronald Reagan), the measures involved monetarist measures to control inflation, the slashing of subsidies and trade tariffs, and the privatisation of public assets. All of these policies were regarded as a betrayal of Labour's left-wing policy platform, and were deeply unpopular with those who supported the political left in New Zealand. Douglas's supporters defended the reforms as being necessary to revive the economy, which had been tightly regulated under National's Muldoon.
Even after substantial reforms that were unpopular amongst many sections of the community and were causing high levels of unemployment, the Labour government was reelected in 1987, with a substantial majority in the legislature (58.8% of the seats). Some argue that Labour's reelection was primarily due to the weakness of the opposition National Party and to public support for Labour's other policies (such as its stand against nuclear weapons). Douglas, along with his allies Richard Prebble and David Caygill, maintained majority backing from the Cabinet to continue with their reforms, up until the conflict between Lange and Douglas. Shortly after the election and a major stock market crash, Prime Minister Lange moved to stop the changes. A protracted conflict between Lange and Douglas broke out in Cabinet. Eventually, after Richard Prebble (a Douglas supporter) was dismissed, Douglas resigned, leaving his ministerial positions at the end of 1988.
The Labour Party caucus, however, voted to return Douglas to Cabinet in July the following year. While Lange was obliged to accept the decision of caucus, he was not required to give Douglas the exact same job. Douglas became Minister of Police and Minister of Immigration, much less senior positions than his old role as Minister of Finance. The rejection by caucus of Douglas's original dismissal, however, had weakened Lange's position, and the Prime Minister himself resigned the month after Douglas returned. Lange's successors (Geoffrey Palmer and Mike Moore) did not, however, restore Douglas to his former position, and Douglas was not able to pursue his economic programme. Douglas did not stand for for parliament at the 1990 election, which Labour lost. His policies, however, were taken up by Ruth Richardson, the Minister of Finance under the new National government.
ACT New Zealand
In 1993 Douglas co-founded the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers with Derek Quigley, intended to serve as a pressure group promoting the same economic policies that Douglas did. Shortly afterwards, the country switched to the MMP electoral system. (This change is sometimes attributed to public perceptions about betrayal by the established parties, with Labour's pursuit of non-leftist policies being the most major of those perceived betrayals). This meant that smaller groups had a much better chance of entering parliament, and encouraged the new association to establish the ACT New Zealand party. Douglas was the new group's first leader, but soon stood aside for Richard Prebble (his old ally from his days in the Labour caucus).
Douglas has remained a strong supporter of the ACT party, although he has become somewhat unhappy with the party's alleged lack of focus on pure economic policy. In particular, Douglas had been critical of what he sees as populism within the party, claiming that some of its MPs are more committed to grabbing headlines than to developing policy frameworks. When Richard Prebble announced his decision to retire, Douglas spoke out in favour of Stephen Franks and Ken Shirley as possible successors - the other main contender in the leadership race, Rodney Hide, was widely seen as advocating the style that Douglas condemns. Rodney Hide won the leadership and is currently ACT party leader.
On 2 December 2004, both Roger Douglas and Derek Quigley announced that they were stepping down as patrons of ACT. Their stated reason was that they wished to have more freedom to disagree with the party publicly.
Later life
Since leaving politics when he surrendered leadership of ACT, Douglas has held senior positions at a number of prominent companies. He is now the managing director of his own group, Roger Douglas Associates.
External link
References
- Douglas, Roger. "Completing the Circle" Seascape Press ISBN 0-473-03987-7