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New Zealand National Party
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===Fourth Government (1990–1999)=== [[File:Jim Bolger, 1990s.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Jim Bolger]], Prime Minister, 1990–1997]] {{Main|Fourth National Government of New Zealand}} Shortly after this loss, the National Party removed Muldoon from the leadership. [[Jim McLay]], who had replaced [[Duncan MacIntyre (New Zealand politician)|Duncan MacIntyre]] as deputy leader shortly before the election, became the new leader.{{sfn|Gustafson|1986|p=158}} McLay, an urban liberal with right-wing views on economics, however, failed to restore the party's fortunes. In 1986 [[Jim Bolger]] took over the leadership with the support of centrists within the party.{{sfn|Gustafson|1986|p=164}} In the [[1990 New Zealand general election|1990 election]], National defeated Labour in an electoral landslide and formed a new government under [[Jim Bolger]]. However, the party lost some support from Muldoon era policy based conservatives when it continued the economic reforms which had ultimately led to the defeat of the previous Labour government—these policies, started by Labour Party Finance Minister [[Roger Douglas]] and popularly known as [[Rogernomics]], centred on the [[privatisation]] of state assets and on the removal of [[tariff]]s and [[subsidy|subsidies]]. These policies alienated traditional Labour supporters, who saw them as a betrayal of the party's social service based character, but did not appear to appease the membership base of the non-parliamentary party either, which still had a significant supporter base for the [[Statism|statist]] intervention style policies of the Muldoon Government.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}} Many more conservative and centrist National supporters preferred Muldoon's more authoritarian and interventionist policies over the free-market liberalism promoted by Douglas. However, the new National Party Finance Minister, [[Ruth Richardson]], strongly supported Rogernomics, believing that Douglas had not gone far enough. Her policies—dubbed "[[Ruthanasia]]"— encouraged two MPs to leave the National Party and form the [[New Zealand Liberal Party (1991)|Liberal Party]]. Richardson's views also met with considerable opposition within the National Party Parliamentary Caucus and for a time caused damage to the party's membership base.<ref name="auto">{{cite news|title=Bill English staying on through 2020|url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/98192081/bill-english-staying-on-through-2020|access-date=26 October 2017|work=[[Stuff (website)|Stuff]] |date=24 October 2017}}</ref> At the [[1993 New Zealand general election|1993 election]], National was narrowly able to retain government owing partly to a slight economic recovery and the opposition being split between three competing parties. National's unprecedented eighteen-seat majority had virtually disappeared and the country faced an election night [[hung parliament]] for the first time since [[1931 New Zealand general election|1931]], with National one seat short of the required 50 seats to govern. Final [[special vote]]s counted over the following days revealed National had won {{NZ electorate link|Waitaki}}, allowing it to form a government with the majority of one seat but required the election of a Speaker from the opposition benches ([[Peter Tapsell (New Zealand politician)|Peter Tapsell]] of the Labour Party) to hold a working majority in the House. At the same time as the election, however, a referendum took place which established the [[mixed-member proportional representation|MMP]] electoral system for future use in New Zealand general elections as widespread dissatisfaction with the existing political system led to reform. This would have a significant impact on New Zealand politics. Some National Party MPs defected to a new grouping, [[United New Zealand]] in mid-1995 whilst other splinter parties emerged. And, as a result of the new electoral mechanics, the [[New Zealand First]] party, led by former National MP and former Cabinet minister [[Winston Peters]], held the balance of power after the [[1996 New Zealand general election|1996 election]]. After a prolonged period of negotiation lasting nearly two months, in which New Zealand First played National and Labour off against each other (both parties negotiated complete coalition agreements), New Zealand First entered into a coalition with National despite the fact many expected Peters to form such a coalition with Labour. Under the coalition agreement, Peters became [[Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand|Deputy Prime Minister]] and had the post of [[Treasurer]] especially created by the Crown for him. New Zealand First extracted a number of other concessions from National in exchange for its support. The influence of New Zealand First angered many National MPs, particularly [[Jenny Shipley]].<ref name="auto"/> [[File:Jenny Shipley 2013 (crop).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Jenny Shipley|Dame Jenny Shipley]], Prime Minister, 1997–1999]] When, in 1997, Shipley toppled [[Jim Bolger|Bolger]] to become National's new leader, relations between National and its coalition partner quickly deteriorated. After Shipley sacked Peters from [[Cabinet of New Zealand|Cabinet]] in 1998, New Zealand First split into two groups and half the MPs followed Peters out of the coalition but the remainder broke away, establishing themselves as independents or as members of new parties of which none survived the 1999 election. From the latter group National gained enough support to continue in government with additional confidence support of [[Alamein Kopu]] a defect Alliance List MP.<ref name="auto"/> The visibly damaged National Government managed to survive the parliamentary term, but lost the [[1999 New Zealand general election|election]] to Labour's [[Helen Clark]] and the [[Alliance (New Zealand political party)|Alliance]]'s [[Jim Anderton]], who formed a coalition government leaving National in opposition for nine years.
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