[shaggy eel]

,,, just looking at your post [#35]. The 1984 Labour government were predominantly socialists, but the economic policies were hijacked by Roger Douglas and his followers, one of which is ACT's present leader, Richard Prebble. I'm an ACT voter and Party member.

You may like to take a look at where those policies that sent New Zealand on the path of major economic reform back then are held as good as gold now.

[kiwiexpat]

Shaggy:

I lived in NZ until 1989, so I'm aware of what the Labor Government's policies where in the 1980s. Was the Labor Government "hijacked"? Maybe, maybe not. But the fourth Labor government's economic policy certainly wasn't socialist. New Zealand's free market policies are held in high regard by monetarist economists. And NZ's economy is the fastest growing in the world at present. I suspect that its welfare policies are not held in high regard, and with good reason. I think that NZ needs to place time limits on the dole and reduce the number of welfare benefits.