[1] Following Bolger's resignation, the government was led by Jenny Shipley, the country's first female prime minister, for the final two years.

This programme, popularly known as "Ruthanasia" after Finance Minister Ruth Richardson, involved the reduction of social welfare benefits and the introduction of fees for healthcare and tertiary education.

This was highly controversial, as was the retention of the superannuation surtax, a tax on old age pensions which National had promised to abolish.

On taking power, National discovered that the Bank of New Zealand needed large and immediate government aid, and that outgoing Finance Minister David Caygill's predictions of a small surplus were very wrong.

[4] In combination with the high unemployment resulting from some of the 1980s reforms, this caused poverty to increase, and foodbanks and soup kitchens appeared in New Zealand for the first time since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

[5] In some areas, governmental standards were relaxed in the expectation that market forces would assure quality via competition, such as in the Building Act 1991, which was seen as one of the steps leading to the leaky homes crisis in the following decade.

One of the most ambitious and controversial aspects of the Fourth National Government's programme was the comprehensive overhaul of the public health system.

The system of democratically elected Area Health Boards was abolished and replaced with Crown Health Enterprises (CHEs), run according to the prevailing new public management ethos that created an internal market for the provision of hospital services and required the CHEs to make a profit.

In 1993 the government sold New Zealand Rail Limited to a consortium led by Fay, Richwhite and Company for $400 million.

By 1990, many New Zealanders were already seriously dissatisfied with their First Past the Post (FPP) electoral system, which had twice (in 1978 and 1981) led to a party losing the popular vote but winning the election.

An Office of Treaty Settlements was established and substantial resources and sums of money were given to various iwi in compensation for past wrongs.

An attempt was made in 1995 to bring the process to an end with a billion dollar 'fiscal envelope' which was to have settled all outstanding grievances in one go.

Several National MPs, most prominently Police Minister John Banks, opposed the Act on religious grounds.

Originally drafted by former Labour Prime Minister and Environment Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer and continued by Simon Upton after Labour's electoral defeat, the RMA replaced many laws regarding the environment, zoning, land and water use and many other issues and provided one piece of legislation requiring developers (including state agencies) to have regard for environmental impacts and Māori and heritage values.

Critics have since argued that the RMA gives too much power to opponents of development, who can slow down or halt projects even if they have no valid objections[citation needed].

[9] In July 1994, four months after the UNFCCC came into force, the Fourth National Government announced a number of specific climate change policies.

The Fourth National Government said that if emissions were not stabilised at 1990 levels by the year 2000, a low-level carbon charge would be introduced in December 1997.

Having rejected reformist Labour, and having been led to believe that National would not follow in its footsteps, many voters were extremely angry when the new government went on to make further reforms along the same lines.

As a consequence of the referendum, New Zealand adopted the Mixed Member Proportional electoral system which would come into effect at the following election.

[14] On 9 May 1995, Graeme Lee left National to form the Christian Democrat Party, but his confidence and supply kept the coalition in power as a 49-seat minority government.

The coalition's seats were further reduced to 45 when a group of MPs, including Peter Dunne and defectors from Labour and National, formed the United Party on 28 June 1995.

To avoid the need for a by-election in Laws' Hawkes Bay electorate, Jim Bolger called for a general election slightly earlier than expected.

[16] New Zealand First was founded by Winston Peters, a former National cabinet minister who had been dismissed by Jim Bolger in 1991 after criticising party policy.

Leader of the opposition Helen Clark spoke after announcement of the coalition which had been reached stating, "I think it is a disappointment to every New Zealander who voted for a government of change on October 12.

Several New Zealand First MPs had gone into politics specifically to combat some of National's early 1990s policies, and were unhappy at being made to perpetuate them.

When Bolger returned to New Zealand, he discovered that Shipley was not only planning to challenge his leadership, but had lined up enough support in the party room to defeat him.

[2] However several New Zealand First MPs, including deputy leader Tau Henare and most of the ministers, opted to leave the party and continue to support National.

They, mostly now in a new party called Mauri Pacific under Henare's leadership joined with renegade Alliance MP, Alamein Kopu in a new coalition which allowed National to retain power until the 1999 election.