March 27 1986

As I have been clearing out the junk in my house, I discovered an old box of newspapers. Here are a few of the more interesting snippits...

On March 27 1986:
- Bolger selected as new National Party Leader, Geoffrey Palmer says "We are going to have a National Party which stands for a weak, protective, subservient New Zealand looking to the Government to solve every problem and not allowing people to stand on their own feet"... voting for ACT are you now Geoffrey?

- National and the New Zealand Party to merge. Bob Jones (who left the party the previous year) said it was a "cop out", the party was finished in July 1985 and Bolger is a "reactionary King Country farming Roman Catholic - everything that is out-of-date with the modern ethos, the things that are encouraging about this country" can't argue with that!

- Wholesale taxes on cars, stereos, radio, watches and TVs to be cut to 20% as a step towards moving to GST. remember tax cuts?

- The previous night the Homosexual Law Reform Bill passed its second reading. Fran Wilde's greatest moment

- Roger Douglas introduced 12 major principles to cut government spending including:

1. "quangos would be reduced or abolished where their functions were no longer sufficiently relevant";
2. "Departments would have to recover the cost of supplying goods and services from users, including government departments, instead of providing them free, or below cost, at the taxpayer's expense";
3. 'Funding of departments will be reduced where the departments' functions are removed or reduced".

What retard would oppose such basic first-world developed country principles like that?

Well the Greens, Jim Anderton, Winston Peters I bet...

As a final aside, I noticed the National Bank on 27 March 1986 offering term deposits at 21% per annum. The use of inflation as a form of state theft of the public's savings is distant history, and Don Brash has been a part of consigning it to the dustbin of the lunatic left.