Will’s Word: Same tune, different faces and why today feels like déjà vu

Does it ever feel like you're living in a bit of a loop or a flashback?

Let me elaborate, but also note that the time I'm referring to was well before I was born. But I'm a political and history nerd, so indulge my opinion for just a second.

We're seeing job losses today in areas like Tokoroa, public services are under the knife, teachers and nurses are walking off the job, and big reforms are being rushed through. Does it all feel like déjà vu for you?

If you lived through the late 1980s and early 1990s, does it all feel strangely familiar, like you've been here before? Cast your mind back to the late 80s and early 90s.

Roger Douglas and his radical economic reforms, Ruth Richardson with her infamous “mother of all budgets”, and former Prime Minister Jim Bolger, leading a government that was all about “tough medicine”.

Fast forward to today and it probably feels like history is almost looping. We've got a coalition government promising efficiency, tightening belts, shaking up education and paring back the public service.

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Yeah, I suppose the language has shifted, the faces are different, but the rhythm seems oddly familiar. Of course, no era is exactly the same. The late 80s and 90s reforms reshaped New Zealand's economy in ways we're still living with today.

The current lot in the beehive argues its changes are about economic growth and about sustainability and prosperity. What I'm getting at is, do we ever learn from the past?

Or do we keep going back to old, rehashed policies and dressing them up as new and improved? Yes, the irony is not lost on me. I'm talking about a time well before I was born.

But just yesterday, I was reading old news headlines from the 1980s and 1990s, and then contrasted them to today's headlines. I thought, “You could pluck today's headlines and drop it into the 1980s or 90s”.

Seems vaguely familiar.

That's Will's Word.