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Juggernaut 2: The Story of the Fourth National Government podcast artwork
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Juggernaut 2: The Story of the Fourth National Government

by The Spinoff
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Latest episodes

  • Episode 6: The Prime Minister Is Not a Person

    December 8, 2025 · 1 hr 2 min

    New Zealand’s first MMP government gets off to a rocky start, beset by boxer-short scandals and lousy poll numbers. Jim Bolger declares “springtime for New Zealand”, but the economic weather won’t play ball. He leaves for Europe oblivious…

  • Episode 5: The Seven Generations Fight

    December 1, 2025 · 1 hr 2 min

    The 1990s in New Zealand have dawned with images of harmony projected to the world, but longstanding divisions still acute at home. The Bolger government comes to power promising to uphold the Treaty and provide redress for…

  • Episode 4: One for a Party, One for a Person

    November 24, 2025 · 1 hr 7 min

    It took an extraordinary cocktail of events to bring proportional representation to New Zealand – everything from political c**k-ups to public screams of resentment. This is the story of a country that decides to tear up its electoral…

  • Episode 3: Bugger the Pollsters

    November 17, 2025 · 53 min

    After some of the most hectic months in the history of New Zealand politics, Jim Bolger faces a white-knuckle byelection in Tamaki. In the seat vacated by the pugnacious Rob Muldoon, even the National candidate seems to be standing against…

  • Episode 2: The Mother of All Budgets

    November 10, 2025 · 51 min

    A mood of protest sweeps New Zealand in 1991, sometimes spilling over into violence, as the reform machine powers on. Benefits are slashed, the Employment Contracts Act fundamentally reshapes the labour market, the health system is…

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  • Episode 1: A Decent Society

    November 10, 2025 · 49 min

    After the breakneck reforms of the 80s, Jim Bolger’s promise of a calmer, more inclusive New Zealand hits the spot. Emerging from the shadow of Muldoon and shaking off the nuclear baggage, Bolger leads the National Party to a landslide…

  • Juggernaut 2: Out now

    October 19, 2025 · 1 min

    The award-winning podcast returns to tell the story of a Juggernaut reborn for the 90s in National blue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • Nine Day Wonder

    July 10, 2024 · 51 min

    At the urging of the gay community, Fran Wilde takes the homosexual law reform bill to parliament in 1985. The campaign encounters fierce resistance from MPs on both the National and Labour sides of the house. Is it fair for Labour today…

  • Quantum Leap

    July 3, 2024 · 44 min

    Roger Douglas’s radical overhaul of the NZ economy kicks through the gears. A new investor class gets high on champagne and shares. What could go wrong? A bonfire of subsidies leaves farmers on their knees. Corporatisation sends thousands…

  • Uranium on Your Breath

    June 26, 2024 · 52 min

    In a tense and divided cold war world, David Lange emerges as an anti-nuclear champion, despite being out of contact, deep in the Pacific when the crisis strikes. The Americans are furious: didn’t the NZ PM pledge to smooth the waters in…

  • The Nation Is at Risk

    June 19, 2024 · 43 min

    Victory for Lange in 1984 comes with a cluster of crises – economic and constitutional. In a pair of spellbinding TV interviews, the bellicose outgoing PM Rob Muldoon refuses to devalue and Lange responds, enraged. The deputy PM, Jim…

  • I Love You, Mr Lange

    June 12, 2024 · 55 min

    Fuelled by brandy and fury, Sir Rob Muldoon calls a snap election, sparking a 1984 campaign of contrasts – the menacing, protectionist National PM against the fresh, upbeat Labour leader, David Lange. The pretext for the election is the…

Full episode archive on Apple Podcasts →

About the show

After the tempestuous 80s, New Zealand wanted that cup of tea and a lie down. Instead, the Juggernaut was reborn for the 1990s with fresh crisis, brutal cuts and a blizzard of reforms, including a historic new chapter in Crown-Māori relations, a Beehive coup and the gravity-defying advent of an entirely new electoral system. Includes new and exclusive interviews with Jim Bolger, Ruth Richardson, Jenny Shipley, Helen Clark, Doug Graham, Don McKinnon, Bill Birch, Sandra Lee-Vercoe, Tau Henare and many more.  Made with the support of NZ On Air.