The New Zealand Liberal Party founded in 1991 (not to be confused with the original Liberal Party or the 1962 Liberal Party) was a splinter group of the National Party. History The Liberal Party was founded by Gilbert Myles and Hamish MacIntyre, two dissident National MPs. Myles and McIntyre were opponents of the economic reforms (dubbed "Ruthanasia") promoted by Minister of Finance Ruth Richardson, believing that they were harmful to society. As a result of their objections, Myles and McIntyre fell out with their National Party colleagues, and eventually decided to break away. After a short time as independents, they established the Liberal Party. At its launch the party predicted it would win "six or seven seats" at the next election and hold the balance of power. Myles and MacIntyre also stated that they were anticipating a third National MP would soon join. They were careful not to mention a name, but media quickly identified Cam Campion as the MP inferred. Campion was interviewed and stated that he had not given up on National just yet and was still "flat out" trying to change National's policy direction. The party's membership was made up of erstwhile National supporters as well as active members who resigned from National to join the Liberals. Prominent members of the party organisation also left including two members of National's Auckland divisional council in October 1991. Judith Surgenor (chair of National's electorate committee) and Larry Belshaw (electorate committee secretary and 1990 candidate for ) both resigned to join the Liberal Party citing dissatisfaction with the policies of the National government. In November another former National Party divisional councillor Malcolm Wright was chosen as the president of the party. The new organisation was plagued by organisational difficulties, and neither Myles not MacIntyre — both first-term MPs — had much political experience. Not long after the party was established, Myles and McIntyre opted to join the Liberals with the newly formed Alliance party. Although the Alliance was considerably more left-wing than the Liberals, it was emerging as the most significant political group to oppose Ruth Richardson's policies — the leader of the Alliance, Jim Anderton, had quit his own Labour Party out of opposition to Roger Douglas, an ideological ally of Richardson. In 1993, however, a more prominent dissident within the National Party, Winston Peters, also quit. Although it was briefly considered that a pact might be formed between