September 07, 2017
Rogernomics lessons learned in Murupara
Labour leader Jacinda Ardern is treating an attack from former Labour government minister Richard Prebble as high praise.
Mr Prebble, who was closely associated with then finance minister Roger Douglas during Labour's embrace of neoliberal economics in the 1980s, penned an opinion piece in today's New Zealand Herald titled here are the reasons not to vote for Jacinda.
Ms Arden says she saw the affects of Rogernomics up close during the period in the 1980s when she lived in the predominantly Maori forestry town of Murupara.
"When you're a kid you don't think about Rogernomics, you just see kids around you that don't have what you have or a town that is struggling. I learned about unemployment. I learned about suicide. I learned it all during the 1980s in Murupara so if Richard Prebble was writing a piece saying all the reasons you should be voting for me, I would be more worried," she says.
Jacinda Ardern also drew on her Murupara stay while releasing Labour's policy to establish a New Zealand Forest Service based in Rotorua, which would be responsible for implementing a national forestry strategy, grow its own commercial forests as appropriate for the strategy, and help other land owners who want to convert to forestry.
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