Person

Ruth Richardson

b. 1950 · 20th century

Ruth Richardson is a New Zealand politician who was Minister of Finance in Jim Bolger's National government from 1990 to 1993. Her 1991 budget cut welfare benefits, and she pursued tight fiscal policy and labour-market deregulation through the Employment Contracts Act 1991, continuing the free-market reforms begun under Labour. She passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act 1994 and left Parliament the same year.

Ruth Richardson
Image: Comet Photo AG (Zürich) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

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New ZealandGovernance

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Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Ruth Richardson. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/ruth-richardson
MLA
“Ruth Richardson.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/ruth-richardson. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Ruth Richardson.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/ruth-richardson.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Ruth Richardson’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/ruth-richardson (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻