After the tempestuous 80s, New Zealand wanted that cup of tea and a lie down. Instead, the Juggernaut was reborn for the 90s 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.
Click here for season one: the story of the fourth Labour government.
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 victory under the “decent society” banner.
But even before the celebrations are done, the hangover hits: the state-owned BNZ is on the brink, and the government books are in a parlous state. Ruth Richardson wastes no time as finance minister in making the most of crisis mode, and within weeks is driving through some of the most dramatic social, economic and labour reforms New Zealand has ever seen.
Picking up where the award-winning first season left off, this first episode of Juggernaut 2: The Story of the Fourth National Government includes new and exclusive interviews with Jim Bolger, Ruth Richardson, Jenny Shipley, Don McKinnon, Bill Birch, Michael Wall, Rob Eaddy, Michael Laws and more.
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 restructured, and Jim Bolger U-turns on a “no ifs, no buts, no maybes” promise around superannuation. Here Ruth Richardson tells the story of the Mother of All Budgets – what she was hoping to achieve, and how it got that indelible name.
In a whirlwind first year of government, Richardson takes some drastic steps. And National’s challenges come not just from outside, but from within – Muldoon continues to lurk the halls, and there’s a charismatic, increasingly popular young MP making trouble, too: Winston Peters.
The second episode of Juggernaut 2: The Story of the Fourth National Government includes new and exclusive interviews with Jim Bolger, Ruth Richardson, Jenny Shipley, Susan St John, Helen Clark, Bill Birch, Rob Eaddy, Michael Laws and more.
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 the government.
With the impacts of radical and painful reforms still raw, a general election rapidly approaches. It will go right down to the wire, and serve up an unforgettable pair of election night speeches from Bolger and Mike Moore.
On the left, a new force challenges Labour for supremacy: Jim Anderton’s Alliance. Helen Clark mounts a coup. And Bolger confronts a critical question: what to do with Ruth Richardson?
Plus: a shift in relations with the US, and a very strange visit to Moscow prompts a nuclear-submarines-for-butter proposition.
The third episode of Juggernaut 2: The Story of the Fourth National Government includes new and exclusive interviews with Jim Bolger, Ruth Richardson, Jenny Shipley, Helen Clark, Sandra Lee-Vercoe, Rob Eaddy, Bill Birch and more.
It took an extraordinary confluence of events to bring proportional representation to New Zealand – everything from political cock-ups to public screams of resentment. This is the story of a country that decides to tear up its electoral plumbing – and what it does next.
As the country chooses MMP, it also puts Jim Bolger back in power, but by the very narrowest of margins. Winston Peters and Jim Anderton thrive, small, splinter parties proliferate, and the old guard scrambles to prepare for the new world. For the first time, voters get those two ticks, and you’ll never guess who wins the balance of power and keeps the country hanging on which way he’ll go.
The fourth episode of Juggernaut 2: The Story of the Fourth National Government includes new and exclusive interviews with Jim Bolger, Tau Henare, Helen Clark, Sandra Lee-Vercoe, Rob Eaddy, Jenny Shipley and more.
The 1990s in New Zealand 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 injustice.
Negotiations over the Sealords fishery quota and with two of Aotearoa’s largest iwi, Waikato Tainui and Ngāi Tahu face pushback from all directions: in cabinet and the National Party base, from the public, and within te ao Māori, where the concept of the “fiscal envelope” is widely considered anathema.
Plus: how Jim Bolger outmanoeuvred Ruth Richardson on Te Papa.
The fifth episode of Juggernaut 2: The Story of the Fourth National Government includes new and exclusive interviews with Jim Bolger, Anake Goodall, Doug Graham, Tau Henare, Jenny Shipley and more.
New Zealand’s first MMP government, sworn in at the end of 1996, 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 to the plans being cooked up by a small, secretive group of MPs called “The Te Puke Bypass Committee”.
When Bolger returns from overseas, Doug Graham is there to deliver the news – Jenny Shipley has the numbers; the game is up. Many are relieved, many distraught. Winston Peters is furious. The frost between Peters and Shipley never thaws, and before long an almighty, unprecedented cabinet conflagration ensues.
The final episode of Juggernaut 2: The Story of the Fourth National Government goes beyond the end of that term, to explore questions of legacy – how did this period in our history change New Zealand, for better or worse, and how will Jim Bolger, who died in October 2025 at the age of 90, be remembered?
Includes new and exclusive interviews with Jim Bolger, Jenny Shipley, Ruth Richardson, Rob Eaddy, Doug Graham, Tau Henare, Helen Clark, Sandra Lee-Vercoe and more.
Click here for full details of archive material used in this series.
Juggernaut 2 was made with the support of NZ On Air. Follow now and catch up on season one on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all other podcast apps.
