1958: The Black Budget
June 27, 2019
By AHNZ
Today in New Zealand History: 26 June, 1958: The Black Budget
Labour Government 2.0 was a crumbling shambles held together by party discipline. Just a one-term wonder, Labour had barely managed to lick National in the election at all and would be booted out in election 1960.
I think everyone agrees that Nordmeyer’s Black Budget was the singular political move that sunk Prime Minister Walter Nash’s ship of state. From here on, they were doomed. Apart from being unpopular, they were economic morons. They created great deadweight loss while companies and consumers busied themselves thinking and working around taxation hurdles rather than about production. The politicians had deliberately sought to cut the purchasing power of the people due to concerns over national credit squeeze. Probably very few understood what that meant but very many working class folk understood very well how hard the tax on their smokes, beer, and petrol now became.
As Minhinnick shows in this cartoon on the very next day, it was a two-man act. Walter gave to the poor, Arnold “financed” it.
A question I have not answered is how the heck Nordy wasn’t flung out on his bald Presbyterian dome? Instead he became the new Labour Leader up until Norman Kirk toppled him in 1965. Why? Wasn’t he poison long before then? Guess it just goes to show how on the ropes Labour was during these years, totally outclassed by their “status quo seeking” opposition of the National Party.
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Note: The Robin Hood setting for this cartoon comment relates to the popular TV show of the time that New Zealanders were not technologically equipped to view. See: 1962: Television Anarchy
image ref. Minhinnick, 27/6/58; New Zealand Herald
Ref. Also 1963: New Zealand Labour Party Leadership Election; AHNZ
2 thoughts on "1958: The Black Budget"
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As a lad in town I well remember the Auckland Star headlines in black large print ‘Black Budget’. The cigs and petrol were my concerns but we were so trusting and naive that it was accepted as needed. Years later we got Carless Days by then I was not so trusting, and now believe we have been sold out. It is obvious now that these political swings from left and right do not promote wellbeing and a prosperous NZ.
You’re onto it. Power swings from Team Red to Team Blue and they re-organise all the furniture (and there’s more of that every day) to suit their friends and hurt their foes. But they never say so, disguising the re-organisations in whatever terms the people of the day will like to hear. “Austerity” being one, “Patriotism”, another. “The Environment,” “Women’s Rights,”….