Juggernaut: The Story of the Fourth Labour Government

Ross Vintiner was right by David Lange's side in opposition and in government as his head of press. If you enjoyed the Juggernaut series on the fourth Labour government, you'll enjoy his insights into the singular figure of Lange and the whirl of the ninth floor across those wild years.

Juggernaut was made with the support of NZ On Air.

The Lange-Douglas relationship frays further as the prime minister unilaterally pulls the pin on a flat tax package signed off by cabinet. A furious Douglas flies back from Europe, but the split only deepens, as Lange declares it’s time for radical reforms to pause and calls for a “cup of tea” and the two Beehive offices go to war, with Douglas loyalists putting the blame on Lange’s lover, Margaret Pope. Something has to give, and soon it does.

New and exclusive interviews with Roger Douglas, Stephen Mills, Richard Prebble, Geoffrey Palmer, Hekia Parata, Gary McCormick and Margaret Wilson.

Click here for full details of archive material used in this series

Juggernaut was made with the support of NZ On Air.

At the urging of the gay community, Fran Wilde takes the homosexual law reform bill to parliament in 1985. The campaign encounters fierce resistance from MPs on both the National and Labour sides of the house. Is it fair for Labour today to claim it as a party triumph? At the same time, strides are being taken in introducing the Treaty of Waitangi into political and legal structures, as part of a blizzard of reforms. In one crucial example, change will come after David Lange misreads his notes.

New and exclusive interviews with Fran Wilde, Bill Logan, Hekia Parata, Roger Douglas, Richard Prebble and Margaret Wilson.

Click here for full details of archive material used in this series

Juggernaut was made with the support of NZ On Air.

Roger Douglas’s radical overhaul of the NZ economy kicks through the gears. A new investor class gets high on champagne and shares. What could go wrong? A bonfire of subsidies leaves farmers on their knees. Corporatisation sends thousands of state workers to the dole queue. Labour is returned to power in 1987 despite a campaign with starkly contrasting messages. For Lange, victory is bittersweet. When the global crash smashes New Zealand, Douglas seizes the opportunity to go harder, and go faster.

New and exclusive interviews with Richard Prebble, Rudi Robinson-Cole, Kevin Geddes, Kim Workman, Bob Harvey, Geoffrey Palmer, Richard Prebble and Margaret Wilson.

Click here for full details of archive material used in this series

Juggernaut was made with the support of NZ On Air.

In a tense and divided cold war world, David Lange emerges as an anti-nuclear champion, despite being out of contact, deep in the Pacific when the crisis strikes. The Americans are furious: didn’t the NZ PM pledge to smooth the waters in Labour to allow a US ship visit? They become even angrier when he takes the stage at the Oxford Union, to global acclaim. When an act of state terrorism sees a Greenpeace ship sunk and a photographer killed in Auckland harbour, the public mood on nukes only solidifies.

New and exclusive interviews with Geoffrey Palmer, former US assistant secretary of state Richard Armitage, Fran Wilde, Richard Prebble and Margaret Wilson.

Click here for full details of archive material used in this series

Juggernaut was made with the support of NZ On Air.

Victory for Lange in 1984 comes with a cluster of crises – economic and constitutional. In a pair of spellbinding TV interviews, the bellicose outgoing PM Rob Muldoon refuses to devalue and Lange responds, enraged. The deputy PM, Jim McLay, summons senior ministers, who plot a high-wire response. Out of the maelstrom, Roger Douglas launches a revolution, to transform New Zealand’s creaking economy from the developed world’s most regulated to its most market embracing.

Including new and exclusive interviews with Jim McLay, Richard Harman, Roger Douglas, Richard Prebble, Stephen Mills, Hekia Parata and Margaret Wilson.

Click here for full details of archive material used in this series

Juggernaut was made with the support of NZ On Air.

Fuelled by brandy and fury, Sir Rob Muldoon calls a snap election, sparking a 1984 campaign of contrasts – the menacing, protectionist National PM against the fresh, upbeat Labour leader, David Lange. The pretext for the election is the decision by Marilyn Waring, a young, gay MP, to back an anti-nuclear bill and quit the National caucus, prompting an earful from Muldoon. Lange, meanwhile, is joined at the hip by a hungry would-be finance minister, Roger Douglas. They are about to confront a profound crisis, and launch a revolution.

Includes previously unheard interviews with David Lange from the 84 campaign trail, and new and exclusive interviews with Marilyn Waring, Roger Douglas, Geoffrey Palmer, Richard Prebble, Peter Harris, Margaret Wilson, Bob Harvey and Gary McCormick.

Click here for full details of archive material used in this series

Juggernaut was made with the support of NZ On Air.

The Spinoff presents Juggernaut, hosted by Toby Manhire.

When a brandy-fuelled Rob Muldoon called a snap election in 1984, the dam burst on a period of unparalleled change in New Zealand. Under David Lange and Roger Douglas, the country witnessed an economy upended, a bold new stance on the world stage, sweeping social and cultural transformations, and bitter personal recriminations. The reverberations of that revolution continue to be felt, 40 years on. 

Juggernaut was made with the support of NZ On Air.