Neo-liberalism was still only starting to get a foothold in the UK/USA with Thatcher and Reagan. It just wasn't really a thing when he was in power.
He had some massive ideas - but also worked the government to give himself as much control as possible; being both Prime Minister and Minister of Finance (usually two rather separate positions) - This was bad when he started putting in price freezes, and massive policies that basically bankrupted the country... But also largely hid it from the public. Lange the incoming prime minister later stated that it was kept from the public how close we came from just defaulting on all loans - the selling of assets came from a necessity to get investment into the country.
The other thing that cost him was infighting in his party - particularly the younger MPs with more liberal ideas (such as Nuclear free NZ) and his decision to not have a position on it. - Whereas the incoming stamped themselves as 'Nuclear Free' which was a fairly popular movement. He just didn't seem to believe in those more social policies where the public did, He had a similar reaction to the Springbok tour in 1981.
Things103 t1_j1yai37 wrote
Reply to comment by raytaylor in TIL the New Zealand Prime Minister, Rob Muldoon, once called a snap election while extremely drunk. His party lost 10 seats. by EucalyptusBrain
I don't quite think that was it.
Neo-liberalism was still only starting to get a foothold in the UK/USA with Thatcher and Reagan. It just wasn't really a thing when he was in power.
He had some massive ideas - but also worked the government to give himself as much control as possible; being both Prime Minister and Minister of Finance (usually two rather separate positions) - This was bad when he started putting in price freezes, and massive policies that basically bankrupted the country... But also largely hid it from the public. Lange the incoming prime minister later stated that it was kept from the public how close we came from just defaulting on all loans - the selling of assets came from a necessity to get investment into the country.
The other thing that cost him was infighting in his party - particularly the younger MPs with more liberal ideas (such as Nuclear free NZ) and his decision to not have a position on it. - Whereas the incoming stamped themselves as 'Nuclear Free' which was a fairly popular movement. He just didn't seem to believe in those more social policies where the public did, He had a similar reaction to the Springbok tour in 1981.
There is an fantastic series on the Neo-liberalism change in New Zealand called revolution - the first episode deals a lot with Muldoon and what New Zealand looked like under him "Fortress New Zealand" (and why there was a change afterwards)