“I did not leave the Labour Party; the Labour Party left me”

Jim Anderton unveiling the NewLabour logo, 1989 Photo: Phil Reid, Dominion Post Collection PAColl-7327 Alexander Turnbull Library Ref: EP/1989/1997/23a-F

Jim Anderton, a Labour Member of Parliament in government, left the New Zealand Labour Party in 1989 after becoming disillusioned with the direction his government was taking the party. He started the NewLabour Party.

Anderton joined the Labour Party in 1963, became the Labour Party President in 1979, and entered parliament in 1984 as a Labour MP as part of the Fourth Labour Government under Prime Minister David Lange after winning the Syndenham electorate in Christchurch. Before entering parliament, he had worked for the Catholic Church, bought a small supermarket and started an engineering firm with his brother.

As time went on within government, Anderton became an outspoken critic of the economic reforms being pushed by Finance Minister Roger Douglas and his allies of controlling inflation, removing subsidies and privatising public assets.

In 1987 the government offered 15% of the publicly owned Bank of New Zealand on the stock market. Anderton considered the reforms a betrayal of Labour’s core values. And in 1989, Anderton was suspended from caucus after disobeying party instructions to vote in favour of a further sale of the Bank of New Zealand. The government reduced its share of the bank to 51% by selling 30% of its share to Capital Market Ltd and 4% to the general public.

Feeling isolated in his opposition to ‘Rogernomics’ and the sale of the Bank of New Zealand shares, and believing the party was now beyond saving, Anderton resigned from Labour in April 1989. He later said about the direction the party had gone in, “I did not leave the Labour Party; the Labour Party left me.”

Within weeks, Anderton announced the creation of the NewLabour Party when 5,000 Auckland workers led by union leader Matt Macarten joined him in establishing the new party. The intention was to represent the values they believed Labour had originally stood for: government intervention in the economy, retaining public assets, and full employment.

All but one of Anderton’s electorate staff in Sydenham had left with him, and he was joined by other Labour Party members such as Matt Robson, Laila Harré and Phil Amos.

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