Story: Interest groups

Roger Kerr, the executive director of the Business Roundtable, poses in his office in early 2011. Under Kerr's leadership, the Roundtable became one of the most influential interest groups in New Zealand. It espoused economic policies that sought to reduce the role of the state in society – an agenda largely adopted by governments between 1984 and 1993. The controversial impact of neo-liberal reforms saw the organisation's influence wane from the late 1990s. Kerr died in October 2011.