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  • In a Land of Plenty

In a Land of Plenty

  • $40.95
Also available as a three-part set with Someone Else's Country and A Civilised Society
 
Duration: 105 minutes 

Year: 2002 
Aspect Ratio:
 4:3 
Rating: Exempt 
Director:
 Alistair Barry 

From the Great Depression of the 1930s to 1984, the first objective of economic policy was full employment.
But with the election of the Labour government in 1984 unemployment was made an instrument of economic management, to be manipulated in pursuit of other objectives.

This feature documentary tells the story of how the policies and institutions which had sustained full employment were abandoned and reconstructed to maximise the effectiveness of the new policy. The film shows the political battles fought inside and outside government and the increasing effects on the cultural, social and economic life of New Zealand as a new poverty-stricken underclass developed.
Using extensively researched archive footage and interviews with those close to the action, In a Land of Plenty traces the origins, the politics and the effects of New Zealand’s policy of unemployment through to the present day. This compelling documentary cuts through the smokescreens and spin doctoring to reveal the heart of Rogernomics and the modern free market economy.

View excerpt from this title at NZ On Screen