Someone Else's Country

The story of how the new right elite took power and exercised it relentlessly to turn New Zealand into their version of the model free-market state

Someone Else’s Country, New Zealand, 1996

Vanguard Films/Community Media Trust
Writer/director: Alister Barry
Editor: Shane Loader
Narrator: Ian Johnstone

100 minutes, Exempt

During the early 1980s, a group of rightwing economists quietly came to dominate policy development in the New Zealand Treasury. With the election of the Labour Party in 1984 and the appointment of Roger Douglas as Minister of Finance, their plans were realised with the introduction of some of the most drastic economic reforms ever seen in a western democracy.

This feature documentary tells the story of how the new right elite took power and exercised it relentlessly to turn New Zealand into their version of the model free-market state.

Screenings: Someone Else's Country screened on 10 September 2009 as part of the Vanguard Films 30 Years Retrospective held at the Film Archive from 2-12 Septemer 2009.