AHC: No Roger Douglas

Stop the lizard!

Perhaps 1981 Springbok tour goes to more insane levels of violence than OTL, some protest marchers, police and bystanders get killed, Labour wins 1981 election under the "No more tours, no more bloodshed" promise & tipped off by Jim Anderton, new Prime Minister Rowling keeps a close watch over the more radical elements of his caucus, banishing any minister that proposes wholesale deregulation to the back benches... meanwhile grooming Anderton as his replacement for leader later in the 1980s.
 
I don't think making 1981 worse helps - everyone's opinion was set anyway, and ratcheting up the violence would just lead to finger-pointing. Muldoon would order an enquiry that'd whitewash the police - an "orchestrated litany of lies, part 2." To get Labour winning 1981, I think you have to sabotage Muldoon's energy initiatives, or else have the Tour delayed until 1982.

To answer the question, you've got two options - either stop Douglas getting his paws on Finance or else stop him being the figure we know and love. The latter is actually really easy - Roger Douglas did not convert to neoliberalism until 1983 (he was a Minister under Kirk and Rowling, and was tribal Labour). The former means keeping Bill Rowling as Labour leader - also pretty do-able.

How about Colin Moyle never gets "stung" and remains an MP. There is no 1977 Mangere by-election, so David Lange doesn't enter Parliament (or if he does, it's much later). Rowling remains in place because no-one has the charisma to head a right-wing challenge. Rowling wins 1984, with Bob Tizard as Minister of Finance.
 
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