Haurongo: Lange, David Russell

This 1989 cartoon by Tom Scott, showing Finance Minister Roger Douglas attempting to demolish David Lange’s ‘feet of clay’, illustrates the tussle between the two after Douglas pushed for more radical economic reforms in the wake of the 1987 stock-market crash. When Lange overruled a flat tax and announced a review of the asset sales process, conflict between them escalated. Douglas departed from cabinet in 1988, but was re-elected by his colleagues in 1989, sparking Lange’s resignation.