NZIFF: Last Man Standing

Tribute is paid to Jim Anderton as a politician who held out for Labour’s old values as New Zealand shifted to a nastier style of politics, and a new era of capital run amok.

Jim Anderton has said he did not leave the Labour Party, rather, all of his colleagues did. The left-wing politician was a successful candidate for Sydenham in Christchurch, before his lone opposition to the Fourth Labour Government’s free-market reforms led him to resign in 1989, and lead Alliance, a merger of four smaller parties.

Through a wide lens on the era, we see how a more viciously competitive political environment began to emerge in New Zealand in the ‘90s along with the electoral system transition to MMP, as smaller parties including New Zealand First and ACT jostled for influence — a more pressurised climate that, in the wake of a family tragedy, prompted Anderton to temporarily step back from politics and hand the party reins to Sandra Lee, also featured prominently.

This is an essential span of Anderton’s time in politics, from the weaponised scandal of 1976’s Moyle Affair, to 9/11, when he was Acting Prime Minister, and the Christchurch earthquake, which upended his 2011 mayoral run.

Phone: 06 835 7781

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