Sir Roger Owen Douglas (born 5 December 1937) is a retired New Zealand politician, economist and accountant who served as a minister in two Labour governments.

In 1993 Douglas and Derek Quigley founded the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers (the forerunner of the ACT New Zealand party) as a means to further his policy ideas.

His grandfather, William Theophilus "Bill" Anderton, (1891–1966), was a left-wing Methodist local preacher and small business owner in Birmingham, England, who migrated to New Zealand with his wife in 1921.

[6] His case for external protection of the domestic economy and government involvement in investment was characteristic of the Labour Party of the time.

[7] His father, and parliamentary colleague, Norman Douglas, then 62, failed to win a place in the ballot for Cabinet, and did not hide his bitter disappointment.

Douglas was an early and enthusiastic promoter of the government's plans for a compulsory contributory superannuation scheme that would supplement the old age pension.

In Cabinet, Rowling, who was then Minister of Finance, and Douglas were largely responsible for a 1973 White Paper setting out the government's proposals for superannuation.

He was one of the most interventionist and pro-state figures around: as a minister, he even wanted women to be given what became known as baby bonuses, effectively extra cash from the state for producing children, which all seems very Eastern bloc, looking back.

[25] The failure of Lange's leadership bid, continuing dissatisfaction with Labour's approach to economic policy, and his difficult relationship with leading figures in the party led Douglas to declare his intention to retire from Parliament at the 1981 general election.

When disagreement became increasingly a matter of public knowledge, and the 1984 general election drew closer, the party's deputy leader Geoffrey Palmer drafted a compromise proposal that combined elements of both sides of the argument.

[33] Soon after Muldoon called the election, Douglas held a public meeting in his electorate and distributed copies of his economic policy package, which made the case for a 20 per cent devaluation.

Lange said in 1986 that the economic and political climate in 1984 gave Douglas influence he would not have had if the government had been elected in November 1984 and presented its first budget in June 1985.

"[39] Labour promised during the election campaign to "open the books", largely as a challenge to Muldoon's supposedly secretive and ad hoc approach to economic management.

He later stated that he had taken up the finance portfolio with a plan for economic restructuring already in mind, and described the budget he delivered in November 1984 as "an amalgam of what I had originally envisaged and fresh options presented in briefing papers and in debate with fellow ministers and Treasury officials.

"[41] Douglas's insistence that economic policy was the product of a plan conceived by him as early as 1980[42] and not a response to crisis left the government open to charges of bad faith.

In his view, Treasury had no duty to help a government implement its manifesto because its responsibility was to advise its minister in a way that was free of party politics or ideology.

[55] Lange valued Douglas's doggedness in the government's first term of office, when "urgency was needed and boldness was at a premium", but believed he was limited by an inability to accept or understand interests that were not in tune with his.

[56] In 1986, the two took opposing sides in Cabinet debates about the establishment of a royal commission on social policy, which Lange saw as an intellectual counterweight to Treasury.

[61] Douglas's appeal to commercial interests was reflected in the large amounts of money (including $250,000 given by Auckland businessman Alan Hawkins[62]) he collected for the campaign from the business community.

[63] He did not convey the money he raised to the Labour Party organisation, but chose to manage it himself, allocating funds for purposes like television advertising.

[73] The announcement on 17 December 1987 of the government's intention to introduce GMFI and a flat rate of income tax marked the high tide of Rogernomics but did nothing to settle growing tension between Douglas and Lange.

[74] Douglas was in Europe in January 1988 when Lange told a press conference that officials had been unable to resolve the practical difficulties of the flat tax/GMFI proposals and that the government would have to reconsider them.

[76] Although Cabinet abandoned GMFI and reached a compromise about tax scales, the government's standing did not recover from the division between Douglas and Lange, which worsened and became more open as the year went on.

[82] Lange insisted that policy differences were behind his disagreement with Douglas, telling a press conference following his resignation that "Now is the time for the principle to replace the personality".

[83] He was critical of Douglas's conduct: "But with Roger his resolution, and his particular absolutely relentless pursuit of what he conceived to be an agenda worth pursuing, overrode all considerations of loyalty and in the end all manifestations of friendship.

His policies, however, continued under the aegis of Ruth Richardson, the Minister of Finance in the new Fourth National Government of New Zealand (in a style that became known as "Ruthanasia").

[88] Douglas remained a strong supporter of ACT, although he became somewhat unhappy with the party's alleged lack of focus on pure economic policy.

[99] The second, the Tariff Act 1988 Repeal Bill, which would repeal all tariffs on goods imported into New Zealand, was drawn in April,[100][101] and was also defeated at its first reading 116–5[102] The third, the Education (Board of Trustee Freedom) Amendment Bill, which would make school teachers' pay in all state and state integrated schools the responsibility of Boards of Trustees rather than the Ministry of Education was drawn in June, and was defeated on its first reading 111–10.

[105] In early 1992, Douglas gave a schedule of speeches on economics in Russia, which was transitioning from a command economy to free-market capitalism, as part of a privatisation advisory committee organised by the World Bank.

[108] During his absence from national politics, Douglas held senior positions at a number of prominent companies, such as Ron Brierley's BIL, which he briefly served as Executive Chairman.