Haurongo: Lange, David Russell

After his election as prime minister, David Lange appointed Roger Douglas as minister of finance. Following on from the exercise of publicly ‘opening the books’, the new Labour government embarked on a programme of radical economic reform. This included introducing a goods and services tax, creating state-owned enterprises and later privatising some state assets, restructuring the public service, discarding import and currency controls and removing subsidies and tax incentives for farmers and manufacturers.