NewLabour Party

NewLabour Party
LeaderJim Anderton
Founded1 May 1989
Dissolved13 October 2000; 24 years ago (13 October 2000)
Split fromLabour Party
Merged intoAlliance
IdeologySocial democracy
Political positionCentre-left
National affiliationAlliance

The NewLabour Party was a centre-left[1][better source needed] political party in New Zealand that existed from 1989 to 2000. It was founded by Jim Anderton, a member of parliament (MP) and former president of the New Zealand Labour Party,[2] on 1 May 1989.[1]

NewLabour was established by a number of Labour Party members who left the party in reaction to Rogernomics, the economic policies implemented by the Labour Party's Minister of Finance, Roger Douglas, which saw the traditionally left-leaning Labour Party swing heavily to the new right on issues of state intervention, regulation, and taxation. Anderton, who had been among the most vocal critics of Douglas, was joined by a number of other members of the Labour Party, such as Matt Robson, Laila Harré and Phil Amos, and a number of left-wing activists, such as Bruce Jesson. Anderton was the party's only MP before it joined the Alliance.

  1. ^ a b Locke, Cybèle (2012). Workers in the Margins: Union Radicals in Post-war New Zealand. Wellington, N.Z.: Bridget Williams Books. p. 172. ISBN 978-1927131398. Jim Anderton led a centre-left breakaway from the Labour Party, announcing the formation of the New Labour Party on 1 May 1989. Progressives who had remained outside mainstream political parties joined the NLP, as did [Sue] Bradford
  2. ^ Anderton, Jim (13 October 2000). "Address to NewLabour Party Conference". The Beehive. Retrieved 21 July 2009.