Bolger National — Mother of All Budgets, Employment Contracts Act, MMP referendum

Doctrine — stated goals and content

Economic school: Ruth Richardson hard-liberal consolidation extending Rogernomics into the welfare state and labour market, tightening money under the 1989 Reserve Bank Act's single-objective price-stability mandate. Left-right axis: right-wing — the "Mother of All Budgets" 30 July 1991 cut benefits ~10-25% (unemployment, sickness, DPB, family benefit), abolished universal family benefit, and introduced market rents in state housing; Employment Contracts Act 15 May 1991 dismantled award-based wage-fixing and compulsory-unionism, moving to individual/enterprise contracts; full implementation of 1989 RBA Act 0-2% inflation target; 1994 Fiscal Responsibility Act institutionalised principles of responsible fiscal management. Dated policies: Employment Contracts Act 15 May 1991; Mother of All Budgets 30 July 1991; MMP electoral-system binding referendum 6 November 1993 (54% Yes, replacing FPP); Fiscal Responsibility Act 1994; National-NZ First coalition agreement December 1996 after first MMP election October 1996 (National 33.8%, NZ First 13.4%); Treaty of Waitangi fiscal-envelope settlements from 1992 (Sealord 1992, Waikato-Tainui 1995). Popularity: October 1990 general election National 47.8% (landslide over Labour's exhausted Rogernomics); November 1993 FPP National 35.1% (down sharply, one-seat majority); October 1996 first MMP National 33.8% requiring NZ First. Coherence: high on its own market-liberal terms through 1993; the MMP transition then forced pragmatic coalition compromises with NZ First from 1996 that diluted the programme.