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Revolution

Revolution

1996•Documentary
Similars

Four-part series Revolution mapped sweeping social and economic change in New Zealand society in the 1980s and early 1990s. Judged Best Factual Series at the 1997 NZ Television Awards, it collected together archive footage, and interviews with the major players. Said producer Marcia Russell: “We wanted to make Revolution because we believed that unless we re-run and re-examine our recent history we are in constant danger of forgetting, and forgetting can render us passive about the present and slaves of the future.

John Carlaw · Writer

Marcia Russell · Writer

John Carlaw · Director

StatusEnded
LanguageEN
First Air DateJun 19, 1996

Episodes

E1

Fortress New Zealand

This first episode focuses on NZ's radical transformation from a heavily regulated welfare state to a petri dish for free market ideology. It includes interviews with key political and business figures of the day, who reveal how the dire economic situation by the end of Robert Muldoon's reign made it relatively easy for Roger Douglas to implement extreme reform

Jun 19, 1996

E255m

The Grand Illusion

This second episode argues that in its first term in office, the Labour Government promoted neoliberal reform via illusory ideas of consensus and fairness, while PM David Lange mined goodwill from its indie anti-nuclear policy (famously in an Oxford Union debate, see third clip). The interviews include key figures in politics, the public service and business: an age of easy lending and yuppie excess is recalled, while those in rural areas recount the downside of job losses.

Jun 26, 1996

E355m

The Great Divide

This third episode looks at the lurch of the Kiwi stock market from boom to bust in 1987, and the growing philosophical divide between “head boys” PM David Lange and finance minister Roger 'Rogernomics' Douglas. Within two months of the October 1987 stock market crash, $21 billion was lost from the value of NZ shares. Lange and Douglas give accounts of how their differing views on steering the NZ economy eventually resulted in both their resignations.

Jul 3, 1996

E455m

The New Country

This final episode sums up, after examining "the second wave" of neoliberal reform when National took power in 1990 shortly after Telecom was sold to American interests. Incoming finance minister Ruth "mother of all budgets" Richardson oversaw a reduction of welfare payments, a shake-up of the health system, and a curbing of union powers. Richardson: "in a human sense I understood that [community outrage], but that wasn't going to deflect me".

Jul 10, 1996

Actors

Ian Fraser

Himself

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