Though crisis struck mere hours after final votes were cast
And Lange, the PM elect, had faced a storm most harsh
The currency debacle was now more or less resolved
They'd got devaluation done, and steered clear of the shoals
And now, the newly minted leader thought, to push ahead
Get unemployment lower, seek fair wages, and pay debt
One point, however, he had yet to take cognizance of
It was his Finance Minister, not he, calling the shots

In truth, the party was now split into two coteries
One had gained an edge and sought to push it eagerly
Both wanted renovation of the economic realm
But had opposed ideas on how this should be carried out
This all went back to '83 and early '84
When vigorous debates had raged on economic scores
One faction, led by Roger Douglas, held free markets ruled
They favoured promulgations of the new Chicago School
The other, led by Harris, Hercus, and a third, Bill Rowling,
Spoke about consensus, corporatism and involving

For them, the calls on wages, taxes and related questions
Should be hammered out by talk between three major sections
Government and business and the trade unions should meet
And come up with a plan on which the divers groups agreed
This amicable wrangling of the several key attendors
As had been tried in Sweden and Japan in different measure
Would make sure that the interests of all stakeholders were heard
And yield a most robust solution voters would prefer

The two groups had gone back and forth within committee meetings
But neither side could be said to've been definitely beaten
The Rogernomics faction, though, had slowly crept ahead
As months went by and '83 was nearly at an end
They'd found a point of weakness in the oppositions' theory
And hammered on it constantly til others had grown wary
It was a nice idea, they said, to work through a consensus
But would the unions play nice? No, they'd stall, and moan, and threaten.

So what was good in principle would never work in praxis
They must heed the realities of politics and tactics.
Their model was a better one; it needed no agreement
From unions or from citizens or other pesky claimants
It started with devaluation, and from there, it followed
A raft of other measures could be taken on the morrow.
For pushing down the currency would cause prices to rise;
You'd need a price and incomes policy to stem the tide;

A pinched money supply, and to reduce the deficit
And most importantly, shut down the trade protectionists.
All this would flow predictably, with cascading effect
From the initial domino of the decreased forex
An elegant solution, everybody could agree
And best of all, it could be actioned unilaterally
For Roger Douglas was a self-declared elitist wonk
Who scorned consensus and the babble of the public's wants

Reform he held, should come from experts' technical designs
And voters must not interfere with how they were applied
These brazen claims had made some of his colleagues fairly balk
And he was forced to soften them, so all were reassured
His true intent was fixed, though, by November '83
And post-election night, stage one was realised perfectly
Was it coincidence that just as Labour got in office,
The currency debacle broke and threatened major losses?

And that devaluation, which he'd pushed since 1980
Was suddenly an action which could not be obviated?
Or that the Treasury, who'd been advising him for months
Told Lange to devalue or be damned, or said as much?
These questions may not ever be once-and-for-all resolved
Yet there are those who swear there's more than what we have been told
That neither market forces, nor bad luck caused it, but clout
A faction formed. They had a plan; the plan was carried out.