The National Development Act 1979 was an Act of Parliament in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. It was a controversial Act and was repealed by the

National Development Act Repeal Act 1986 {{infobox legislation , short_title = National Development Act Repeal Act , legislature = New Zealand Parliament , image = Coat of arms of New Zealand.svg , imagesize = 180px , long_title = An Act to repeal the Nat ...

Background

To help speed up the

Think Big In their most common sense, the terms thought and thinking refer to conscious cognitive processes that can happen independently of sensory stimulation. Their most paradigmatic forms are judging, reasoning, concept formation, problem solving, an ...

initiative, the

Third National Government of New Zealand The Third National Government of New Zealand (also known as the Muldoon Government) was the government of New Zealand from 1975 to 1984. It was an economically conservative government that aimed to preserve the Keynesian economic system establi ...

passed the National Development Act in December 1979. The act, according to supporters, allowed the government to plan and act decisively and 'cut through red tape' to enable development. However, there was significance resistance to the act with concerns around the speed, secrecy and lack of public consultation. More particularly there was opposition to the lack of environmental safeguards for the utilisation of natural resources. The opposition to the act was led by the Coalition for Open Government which had been formed by Sir

Guy Powles Sir Guy Richardson Powles (5 April 1905 – 24 October 1994) was a New Zealand diplomat, the last Governor of Western Samoa and architect of Samoan independence, and New Zealand's first Ombudsman. Early life Powles was born in Otaki, north of W ...

, the former Chief Ombudsman of New Zealand. There were 341 public submissions on the act and only 5 endorsed the act with all others being opposed. The Minister for National Development,

Bill Birch Sir William Francis Birch (born 9 April 1934), usually known as Bill Birch, is a New Zealand retired politician. He served as Minister of Finance from 1993 to 1999 in the fourth National Government. Early life Birch was born in Hastings on ...

, largely ignored the counterarguments but Prime Minister

Robert Muldoon Sir Robert David Muldoon (; 25 September 19215 August 1992) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 31st Prime Minister of New Zealand, from 1975 to 1984, while leader of the National Party. Serving as a corporal and sergeant in th ...

did make some minor amendments based on the submissions, notably a clause that allowed the

Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...

to consider government decisions made under the act. Critics were still unimpressed and three National MPS (

Mike Minogue Michael John Minogue (20 October 1923 – 27 November 2008) was a New Zealand National Party politician, lawyer and mayor. Biography Minogue was born on 20 October 1923. He attended Timaru Boys' High School, St. Patrick's College ...

, Ian Shearer and

Marilyn Waring Dame Marilyn Joy Waring (born 7 October 1952) is a New Zealand public policy scholar, international development consultant, former politician, environmentalist, feminist and a principal founder of feminist economics. In 1975, aged 23, she beca ...

) voted with the opposition against the bill, though it passed anyway. The act, and its part in enabling the controversial Think Big policy, reduced Muldoon and his governments popularity with its 'dogmatic arrogance of executive power'.

Notes

References

*{{cite book, last=Gustafson , first=Barry , authorlink=Barry Gustafson , title=His Way: A Biography of Robert Muldoon , year=2002 , publisher=Auckland University Press , location=Auckland , isbn=978-1-86940-236-5 https://www.rmla.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/sir_gp_speech_2013_conf.pdf Statutes of New Zealand 1979 in New Zealand law Repealed New Zealand legislation

Background

See also

Notes

References