"Key and Bill English refused to even taste them!" "Did you mention it was Roger's very own recipie?" "The trick is to swallow them whole..." 3 December 2009

The cartoon shows former prime minister Don Brash who is heading the 'Brash Task Force' and who raises the lid of a tureen to reveal two roasted rats. He says that Prime Minister John Key and Finance Minister Bill English 'refused to even taste them!' He is speaking to Leader of the ACT Party Rodney Hide and ACT Party MP Sir Roger Douglas. Rodney Hide asks if they were told that it was Roger's own recipe and Roger Douglas adds that 'the trick is to swallow them whole...' Refers to the news that most of the Task Force recommendations have been dismissed by the government as being too radical. The Task Force was asked to suggest ways in which the economic gap between New Zealand and Australia could be closed. Roger Douglas was the force behind the so-called 'Rogernomics' economic policies that he espoused when he was appointed Finance Minister in 1984.The policies included cutting agricultural subsidies and trade barriers, privatising public assets and the control of inflation through measures rooted in monetarism, and were regarded in some quarters of Douglas's New Zealand Labour Party as a betrayal of traditional Labour ideals. The Labour Party subsequently retreated from pure Rogernomics, which became a core doctrine of ACT.

Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).