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Taken from the jacket of "Toward Prosperity" (1987) : When Roger Douglas entered parliament as the Labour Member for Manukau in 1969, he was the third generation of the Douglas-Anderton family to take his seat in the House of Representatives. His father, Norman Douglas, was still MP for Auckland Central. The family's connections with the Labour movement stretch back to England and the days of Keir Hardie and Ramsay MacDonald. Born on 5th December 1937, educated at Auckland Grammar School and Auckland University, where he completed an accountancy degree, Douglas later worked as company secretary for Bremworth Carpets. He began his public life on the Manukau City Council, serving on the finance and general purposes committee for three years until he left to enter parliament. In the third Labour Government, he had the Broadcasting, Post Office, Housing and Customs portfolios, the youngest Cabinet Minister for nearly half a century. After Labour's defeat in 1975 Douglas used his less pressured time in Opposition to develop his interest in economic planning and policy. His Alternative Budget in 1980, written while he was shadow minister of transport, led to his dismissal from the Opposition front benches and became the basis for a book published later that year, There's Got To Be A Better Way. When David Lange was elected Leader of the Labour Party in 1983, Douglas became the Party's spokesman on finance. Since Labour's election in July 1984, Roger Douglas, as Minister of Finance, has implemented the most radical changes in New Zealand's economic history since the first Labour Government instigated its social welfare system in the thirties. He has introduced major change into an over-regulated and moribund economy at an unprecedented rate, altering the fundamental structure of both public and private sectors, and attracting interest and accolades from financial commentators, theorists and politicians throughout the world. Taken from the jacket of "Unfinished Business" (1993) : Since his retirement at the 1990 election, Roger Douglas has travelled as an international consultant on privatisation and structural reform in countries as various as Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Pakistan, Canada, Peru, Vietnam, China, Australia, South Africa and Singapore. Much of his consultancy work is on behalf of the World Bank. In New Zealand, he has advised private sector business and public sector corporations. |