Juggernaut 2: The Story of the Fourth National Government

On the evening of June 14 1984, Sir Robert Muldoon called a snap election. Then he got drunk. But when the prime minister went to drive his own car home to Vogel House in Lower Hutt, he was stymied: his beloved Triumph 1500 had a flat tyre.

Who was it that took the air out of the tyre?

Follow At Large with Toby Manhire now on ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts,⁠⁠ ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠, or wherever you get your pods.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Zealand’s first MMP government gets off to a rocky start, beset by boxer-short scandals and lousy poll numbers. Jim Bolger declares “springtime for New Zealand”, but the economic weather won’t play ball. He leaves for Europe oblivious to the plans being cooked up by a small, secretive group of MPs called “The Te Puke Bypass Committee”.

When Bolger returns from overseas, Doug Graham is there to deliver the news – Jenny Shipley has the numbers; the game is up. Many are relieved, many distraught. Winston Peters is furious. The frost between Peters and Shipley never thaws, and before long an almighty, unprecedented cabinet conflagration ensues. 

The final episode of Juggernaut 2: The Story of the Fourth National Government goes beyond the end of that term, to explore questions of legacy – how did this period in our history change New Zealand, for better or worse, and how will Jim Bolger, who died in October 2025 at the age of 90, be remembered?

Includes new and exclusive interviews with Jim Bolger, Jenny Shipley, Ruth Richardson, Rob Eaddy, Doug Graham, Tau Henare, Helen Clark, Sandra Lee-Vercoe and more. 

Click here for full details of archive material used in this series

Juggernaut 2 was made with the support of NZ On Air.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 1990s in New Zealand have dawned with images of harmony projected to the world, but longstanding divisions still acute at home. The Bolger government comes to power promising to uphold the Treaty and provide redress for injustice. 

Negotiations over the Sealords fishery quota and with two of Aotearoa’s largest iwi, Waikato Tainui and Ngāi Tahu face pushback from all directions: in cabinet and the National Party base, from the public, and within te ao Māori, where the concept of the “fiscal envelope” is widely considered anathema. 

Plus: how Jim Bolger outmanoeuvered Ruth Richardson on Te Papa.

The fifth episode of Juggernaut 2: The Story of the Fourth National Government includes new and exclusive interviews with Jim Bolger, Anake Goodall, Doug Graham, Tau Henare, Jenny Shipley and more. 

Click here for full details of archive material used in this series

Juggernaut 2 was made with the support of NZ On Air.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It took an extraordinary cocktail of events to bring proportional representation to New Zealand – everything from political cock-ups to public screams of resentment. This is the story of a country that decides to tear up its electoral plumbing – and what it does next.

As the country chooses MMP, it also puts Jim Bolger back in power, but by the very narrowest of margins. Winston Peters and Jim Anderton thrive, small, splinter parties proliferate, and the old guard scrambles to prepare for the new world. For the first time, voters get those two ticks, and you’ll never guess who wins the balance of power and keeps the country hanging on which way he’ll go.

The fourth episode of Juggernaut 2: The Story of the Fourth National Government includes new and exclusive interviews with Jim Bolger, Tau Henare, Helen Clark, Sandra Lee-Vercoe, Rob Eaddy, Jenny Shipley and more. 

Click here for full details of archive material used in this series

Juggernaut 2 was made with the support of NZ On Air.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After some of the most hectic months in the history of New Zealand politics, Jim Bolger faces a white-knuckle byelection in Tamaki. In the seat vacated by the pugnacious Rob Muldoon, even the National candidate seems to be standing against the government. 

With the impacts of radical and painful reforms still raw, a general election rapidly approaches. It will go right down to the wire, and serve up an unforgettable pair of election night speeches from Bolger and Mike Moore. 

On the left, a new force challenges Labour for supremacy: Jim Anderton’s Alliance. Helen Clark mounts a coup. And Bolger confronts a critical question: what to do with Ruth Richardson?

Plus: a very strange visit to Moscow prompts a nuclear-submarines-for-butter proposition. 

Includes new and exclusive interviews with Jim Bolger, Ruth Richardson, Jenny Shipley, Helen Clark, Sandra Lee-Vercoe, Rob Eaddy, Bill Birch and more. 

Click here for full details of archive material used in this series

Juggernaut 2 was made with the support of NZ On Air.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices