ROGER PARTRIDGE: Taking comfort from the 1970s

When a story recently emerged about the government getting advice on carless days under the Petroleum Demand Restraint Act, older New Zealanders will have felt a warm flush of nostalgia. 

The 1979 restrictions brought coloured windscreen stickers announcing the weekday car owners had promised not to drive. Thursday proved the most popular choice. A thriving black market followed. Forty-three percent of vehicles secured exemptions. 

The first person prosecuted under the original scheme was caught driving at 3.45 am –after falling asleep in his car following a party. His designated non-driving period had begun at 2 am. 

Petrol consumption fell by a paltry three per cent. The policy was abandoned. 

But the story got me thinking. Which of the 1970s’ other good ideas might be worth reviving? 

They were halcyon times for a teenager growing up in Auckland. 

If you wanted a holiday job, you first had to join a union. In my case, the Storemen and Packers Union. Card-carrying membership was required before the first box could be packed. 

The drinking age was 20. If you happened to be 18 in your first year at university, this was a rather obvious design flaw. 

Telephones came attached to walls by cords long enough to reach the kitchen bench, but rarely the couch. Television remotes had cords as well. Freedom had limits. 

Imported goods were largely theoretical. If something was branded, stylish or made overseas, it was either unavailable in New Zealand, or cost a year’s wages. Import licences protected New Zealanders from the dilemmas of consumer choice. And foreign appliances. 

Telethon was the year’s great national spectacle. The country gathered around the television for 24 hours while Selwyn Toogood urged us to give generously. The Osmonds appeared. Lauren Bacall also came and asked what on earth was going on. We understood her confusion. We watched anyway. 

Wage and price controls. Think Big. Public debt rising from $4 billion to $22 billion in less than a decade. Britain disappearing into Europe just as New Zealand discovered the risk of depending on a single export market. 

There was also trouble in Iran. 

Rogernomics eventually rescued us from the 1970s. Yet oddly, the Petroleum Demand Restraint Act still survives. 

Nearly half a century on, Treasury is again projecting persistent deficits and a debt crisis. The 1970s, it turns out, did not need reviving. We managed that ourselves. 

Still, it’s comforting to know we can stop people driving on Thursdays. 

This article first appeared in the NZ Initiative newsletter.

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