Communication campaigns and the neo-liberal policy agenda

Abstract

This article summarizes my recent investigation of the political debate, conducted through the media, over a crucial and defining policy in New Zealand's neo-liberal project (begun in 1984). The Employment Contracts Act (1991), representing an overhaul of New Zealand's industrial relations system, was introduced at a particular historical conjuncture. Conditions peculiar to the 1990/1991 period contributed to the passage of legislation which reinforced the construction of neo-liberal hegemony. These conditions were constituted by the `restructured' economy (financial deregulation, floating the currency, privatization of state assets), the prevailing ideological climate (anti-interventionism), the balance of political forces and the character of mediated information. Under the fourth Labour government (1984-90), opposition to the neo-liberal project was weakened or marginalized. The opposition National Party exploited anti-government disillusionment to gain power in October 1990. But the new administration set out to further the neo-liberal project through `restructuring' social welfare and industrial relations. The communications offensive launched by National to accompany its employment contracts proposal was largely successful. To clarify the factors contributing to this outcome, the article compares the passage of the Employment Contracts Act with a communications offensive which failed; namely, the British poll tax (as discussed by Deacon and Golding, 1994).