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In the early 1980's the New Zealand economy was on the rocks. Many Government organisations were simply very inefficient, and cost the taxpayer a lot.The Government had lots of regulations, high tariffs and import licences along with controls to try and promote local manufacturing. We had car assembly factories in many parts of the country for example.In 1984 the National Government (normally right wing) lost a snap election. The out going PM nearly caused the country to go broke because he would not devalue the NZ dollar. His colleges nearly sacked him. The Minister asked afterwards (Prebble?) what foreign exchange cover each government agency had obtained. Two had obtained cover for the exchange rate drop and thus had not lost money - but railways said they had lots of covers for covering things, but had no idea what forward cover was. When told what it was, they replied surely the government will pay for it (They had a big electrification project)The incoming government (Labour - no that is not a spelling mistake) realized that things were very serious. Hard core reform was needed. So the floated the currency - no more exchange controls. They deregulated many parts of the economy.They also started on changing the way Crown companies worked. Before they were very bureaucratic. They had lots of objectives and had to get lots of approval to do this and that etc. It was said the only way to get fired in the Post office was to kill someone.Government companies became SOEs. Their objectives were to make a profit be a good employer and be a good member of the community. If the government wanted to interfere in their operations it could - but the company had to get compensation. This change made companies far more profitable. The post Office went from being very unprofitable to profitable in one year. Suddenly phones got connected without needing to contact your MP.However many government companies created lots of jobs. Jobs which really did not need to be done. In order to be profitable people lost their jobs.Then the government decided they really did not need to own a telephone company. Nor many other companies around the nation. So they sold of many companies. This was not popular with many people who felt the family silver was being sold off.In one budget the Government cut most farm subsidies. This forced farmers to be more efficient. It also made some kill themselves. The Rural bank needed to serve papers on farmers to seize their land. One farmer was told by a disbarred lawyer they needed the documents to be handed in to them in person, so go into hiding. Another farm's legal access was through a cliff, but the normal access was through a neighbor who refused access to serve documents.As a side effect it made many farming women go into employment to pay the bills and thus empowered them.Tariffs and trade restrictions were dropped. Car manufacturing does not occur in New Zealand. Future governments have negotiated free trade deals with many nations such as China and Singapore to help New Zealand exports.All of Labour's changes were unpopular with many yet they won the 1987 election through a coalition of the rich and the poor. It also helped that they threw out US nuclear powered ships from NZ (they never came back).They introduced a VAT (Goods and Services Tax) which was flat and had few exceptions. This replaced a whole host of other taxes.They also introduced Tomorrow's Schools which gave schools more autonomy on how they worked, but did not bulk fund schools. National did allow schools to be bulk funded for a while, but Labour reversed this when they got back in power.In 1990 the Labour Government was thrown out, and replaced by National. National brought in the Employment Contracts Act which decimated unions with things like voluntary unionism. The Government sold of Railways during this time, and the monetary policy changed. The Reserve Bank now only targeted inflation which meant that to deal with inflation the bank raised interest rates.Students had to pay for their education, and take out a student loan to pay the bill. No more freebes (although they pay far less than their predecessors).National just survived the 1993 election by one seat (they had to go to the opposition to get somebody to be speaker). Ruth Richardson the Finance minister quit when she was not re-appointed to the finance position. Thus ended New Zealand's 9 years of hard core economic reform.Other changes which later occurred where electricity deregulation, removal of tarriffs in the late 1990;s for cars killing the car assembly industry.So was it a failure?New Zealand changed a lot. Before there was a job for life (if you were a man). New Zealand had a higher unemployment rate. Jobs were less secure, and if you wanted Union representation you had to do without or limited protection. Let's face it. Change is hard, and a job is a major feature in most people's lives.The era is also associated with change. New Zealand developed an identity more apart from the UK. This was helped by the nuclear ship issue. But also Homosexuality was legalised during this time.The Government owned less stuff, and the stuff it sold off generally did better without the government. That which it did own still performed better than prior to the reforms. Thus there were savings.Private enterprise had to be more competitive, consumers would not pay high prices for local made goods. A locally made TV would cost 4 times more than an imported one. Thus companies had to focus on their strengths. Strikes also dropped as workers moved to individual contracts from union ones.One way to assess failure is to look at what has been reversed.Student loans have been made interest free while you live in New Zealand, and helped Labour win an election in 2005.The Railways were bought back in two stages. It was found they needed major re-investment. The last budget added more money for Kiwirail.The Government sold off all it's banks. All the local trust banks were merged and sold to Westpac (except TSB, and ASB). Partly this was because they were broke and needed the money, this has left lots of money for community trusts around the country. But Jim Anderton the leader of Alliance (ex Labour President, and future Leader of Jim Anderton's progressive coalition) fought for and got Kiwibank. Kiwibank is now one of the major banks in New Zealand with 10% of the personal banking market.But the fact is much of the reforms that were introduced have been kept. There are few agricultural subsidies (Sorry Iran, no cheap sheep meat). Companies generally don't get subsidies (I'm looking at you Aluminum smelter). GST (The VAT tax) has generally been left unchanged apart from two raises in the rate. Only Tranzrail (Kiwirail) and Air NZ was purchased back. And National went on to sell some of 3 power companies and some of Air NZ.Labour reforms were also not radically paired back when Labour resumed power in 1999. People could have a job without being a union member. And unions have not gotten back the power they once had over the work force.So I would not say they were a failure, they were a success and kept the nation from un-competitiveness.