new zealand

[Bill Cochrane]

Michael, 
For what its worth I wandered down the corridor and asked one of the  guys
who does the manifesto analysis stuff here and according to him the Labour
party has moved considerably to the left from about 1990 onward. Helen
Clark, the current PM, is on record in the 1996 campaign as having
apologised for the 1984-1990 Labour governments economic program, basically
saying that "Rogernomics" was a mistake.
This accords with my personal experience of the Labour party in recent
years. I must say though that I think this government is more about doing
some stuff that the traditional left likes and repaying some favours to
their mates than having any kind of serious social democratic strategy
I didn't perceive the 1987 labour Relations Act past by the Labour govt as
being particularly anti- Union either, particularly when compared to the
Employment Contracts Act past by National

The Employment Relations Bill currently before parliament is a major move in
favour of unions and despite some back sliding on the part of Labour, due to
a very adverse reaction by business, will almost certainly pass into law
soon basically unchanged. If you are particularly interested in the specific
content of the bill I am more than happy to forward you a copy of the bill
and several commentaries on it. You might also like to check out the
department of Labour website, http://www.dol.govt.nz/ or the cabinet web
site, http://www.executive.govt.nz/ or for the "business view" the national
parties site at http://www.national.org.nz/ .

Bill Cochrane
Archivist
Department of Political Science and Public Policy
University of Waikato
Private Bag
Hamilton
New Zealand

Phone/Fax (07) 8384798
E-Mail billc at waikato.ac.nz


> From: Michael Yates <mikey+ at pitt.edu>
> Organization: Pitt-Johnstown
> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 18:04:54 -0400
> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Subject: new zealand
> 
> Not long ago, on one of these lists, there was a post about the
> rejuvenation of the NZ Labor Party and the reversal of some of the
> anti-labor policies of previous Labor and National governments.  Can
> anyone in the know on these matters comment?  Has the NZ Labor Party
> really moved left? Have the unions gone along?
> 
> Michael Yates
> 
> --------
>