‘We’ll slaughter the bastards’ – how Bob Jones and the New Zealand Party changed politics in 1984
A new book examines the outsized influence of one man on the pivotal 1984 election which ushered in a new New Zealand.
In the 1984 New Zealand election, the MMP proportional system created a first-past-the-post obstacle for opposition parties. Bob Jones, a maverick property investor, founded the New Zealand Party, which saw rapid success and impact despite not securing any parliamentary seats. The party's ideology centered around constitutional reform, homosexual and prostitution law reform, defence force abolition, and free-market policies.
Jones' relentless campaigning and emotional resilience came to the forefront as he vowed to "slaughter the bastards." Despite securing 12% of the national vote, the New Zealand Party failed to gain any parliamentary representation. The party's emergence as a challenge to National's dominance was considerable, contributing to Muldoon's defeat and the implementation of radical reforms by the Labour government.
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