Perhaps the worst thing about Australian/NZ politics - and, probably, politics throughout the Western world - in the late eighties and early nineties was that every major party signed up to the whole neoliberal privatisation bandwagon. Yes, the parties of the right took it further, but like you say the soft version came in anyway. And, well, NZ pretty much got the hard version thanks to Roger Douglas. Keating had enough of a social conscience to not go as mad as his Kiwi counterparts.
The strangest part about all of this down here is that it wasn't really a vote winner. In the same way as both major parties right now have spent seven years failing to go for marriage equality despite huge majority support, one of my first political awakenings was how fucking pissed off everybody was about all this privatised shit.
The strangest part about all of this down here is that it wasn't really a vote winner. In the same way as both major parties right now have spent seven years failing to go for marriage equality despite huge majority support, one of my first political awakenings was how fucking pissed off everybody was about all this privatised shit.