The New Zealand Business Roundtable (NZBR)

series of economic problems brought on by changes in the global economy, many of which directly
affected the country, such as Britain’s entry in to the European Economic Community in 1973. New
Zealand was rating badly for living standards and economic performance compared to OECD averages:
in 1980 it had slipped from being in the top five OECD countries to 19th Roger Douglas, who would
later become finance minister, went so far as to say that the country stood “on the brink of economic
ruin”.
Prior to 1985 the New Zealand Dollar was controlled centrally by the Reserve Bank of New
Zealand at a fixed exchange rate to the United States Dollar. In early 1984 the Deputy Governor of the
Reserve Bank, Roderick Deane, became concerned that the dollar had become significantly overvalued
and was vulnerable to currency speculation on the financial markets in the event of a "significant
political event"
Media speculation followed a leak that an incoming Labour government would be likely to
significantly devalue the dollar upon election. The Reserve Bank advised the Prime Minister, Sir
Robert Muldoon, that the dollar should be devalued. Muldoon ignored the advice, owing to his belief
that it would hurt poorer New Zealanders in the medium term. In June 1984 Muldoon announced a
snap election to be held in July. This caused an immediate run on the dollar, as currency speculators
believed a Labour win would mean devaluation. Despite a deepening foreign exchange crisis, Muldoon
continued to refuse to devalue, forcing the Reserve Bank to take some extraordinary steps, such as the
temporary closing the forex markets for a short period of time to slow down devaluation.
On 14 July, Muldoon and National lost the general election, and the Fourth Labour government was
sworn in on 26 July.
By constitutional convention, between election day and the return of the writs for the election, an
outgoing caretaker government defers to the wishes of an incoming government. On Sunday 17 July,
following a meeting between Reserve Bank officials (Reserve Bank Governor Spencer Russell, deputy
Roderick Deane, and Treasury Secretary Bernie Galvin) and the incoming government at Auckland
International Airport, the incoming government requested that the dollar be devalued.
The outgoing Prime Minister Sir Robert Muldoon refused. The foreign exchange market was closed the
following day. In an impromptu television interview with Richard Harman that evening, Muldoon
stated he had been asked to devalue the currency by the incoming government but was not going to.
Prime Minister elect David Lange responded with an interview of his own. He stated: "This nation is at
risk. That is how basic it is. This Prime Minister outgoing, beaten, has, in the course of one television
interview tried to do more damage to the New Zealand economy than any statement ever made. He has
actually alerted the world to a crisis. And like King Canute he stands there and says everyone is wrong
but me".
This provoked a further crisis in the foreign exchange markets - when the exchange was finally opened
on 19 July, millions of foreign exchange dollars left the country as currency speculators expected a
devaluation of the New Zealand dollar. Lange later remarked "We actually were reduced to asking our
diplomatic posts abroad how much money they could draw down on their credit cards! That is the
extent of the calamity that had been ground into us by the briefings that we'd got".
This crisis allowed The business round table with name such as Roger Douglas Roger Kerr , Alan
Gibbs, David Richwhite, Doug Myers, Peter Shirtcliffe as amongst the secret donors. These people
are , according to their website ;
The New Zealand Business Roundtable (NZBR), a market-oriented thinktank, operates from
Wellington, New Zealand. Businessman Robert McLeod chairs the organisation, with Bill Gallagher
MBE, Nick Calavrias and Bill Day as Vice-Chairs. The Executive Director is Roger Kerr. Members,