Reform & settlement
The fastest economic liberalisation in the developed world, a nuclear-free stand that ends an alliance, and the Tribunal’s jurisdiction backdated to 1840 — which finally makes real Treaty settlements possible. MMP ends single-party rule.
17 events under way between 1984 and 2000
Rogernomics — the economy is deregulated
A Labour government floated the dollar, removed farm subsidies and tariffs, and sold state assets in a radical programme of market liberalisation.
The bombing of the Rainbow Warrior
French secret service agents sank the Greenpeace ship in Auckland Harbour, killing photographer Fernando Pereira. Prime Minister David Lange called it ‘a sordid act of international state-backed terrorism’.
Marsden Wharf, AucklandWaitangi Tribunal jurisdiction backdated to 1840
The Tribunal could now investigate Crown breaches all the way back to 1840, and the number of claims rose hugely.
Homosexual Law Reform Act
Sex between men aged 16 and over was decriminalised, after a bitter public debate and sixteen months in Parliament.
Parliament, WellingtonNew Zealand becomes nuclear free
Legislation barred nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered ships from New Zealand’s internal waters. The US had already withdrawn its ANZUS security guarantee.
WellingtonTe reo Māori becomes an official language
Te Ture mō Te Reo Māori
Te reo Māori gained official status and the right to be spoken in court, fifteen years after the language petition and following a Waitangi Tribunal finding that it was a taonga.
The 1987 sharemarket crash
The New Zealand market fell further than almost any other and took years longer to recover, badly burning many small ‘mum and dad’ investors.
AucklandCyclone Bola
Over 900 millimetres of rain fell on the East Coast in three days, stripping hillsides and cutting the region off. At least three people died.
GisborneThe Sealord fisheries settlement
The Crown funded a Māori half-share in Sealord and allocated quota, settling commercial fisheries claims nationally in one deal.
New Zealand votes for MMP
By 54 to 46 percent, voters replaced first-past-the-post with mixed-member proportional representation, after decades of falling trust in politicians.
The Pākaitore occupation
Pākaitore
Whanganui iwi occupied Moutoa Gardens for 79 days, claiming the site had been set aside from the original land purchase. The town divided sharply, and it ended peacefully.
Pākaitore, WhanganuiThe Waikato-Tainui raupatu settlement
The Crown apologised for the invasion of the Waikato and the confiscations that followed, and returned $170 million in land and cash.
Tūrangawaewae Marae, NgāruawāhiaThe first MMP election
The first proportional Parliament took two months of negotiation to produce a government, and looked more like the country than any before it.
The Sky Tower opens
At 328 metres it was the tallest free-standing structure in the southern hemisphere when it opened, built as part of a casino complex and quickly adopted as the symbol of the city.
Victoria Street, AucklandThe Ngāi Tahu settlement
A grievance first formally stated in 1849 was finally settled: $170 million, an apology, and Aoraki/Mount Cook, vested in the iwi and gifted back to the nation, over land covering most of the South Island.
Ōnuku Marae, AkaroaJenny Shipley becomes the first woman Prime Minister
Shipley replaced Jim Bolger in a party-room coup. Two years later Helen Clark’s Labour Party won the election, and a woman held the office continuously until 2008.
WellingtonHelen Clark elected Prime Minister
Labour returned in coalition, and Helen Clark became the first woman to take the office by winning an election, closing the century.
Wellington