Let's just list some of the recent moves which have strenghtened the state and signalled its increased role in society, and then examine in more detail their real purposes and effects:

• The National Government directly intervened into the dispute between the freezing workers and their employers using regulations to tie the hands of the employers and state coffers to finance the deal. Muldoon claimed he had intervened on the side of the workers.
• The Government has completed the re-introduction of the previously discredited Arbitration Court to cover both state and private workers.
• The Government is preparing to provide huge cash subsidies to save Tasman Pulp and Paper from financial collapse.
• The Prime Minister recently announced new powers for the Commissioner of Police to invite armed forces assistance in a variety of situations to counter a "terrorist" threat.
• In a burst of new legislation and regulations last year democratic rights to organise in unions, to have abortions and to live in privacy were all violated —among many other violations of traditional freedoms.