How New Zealand Led The World in Futuring

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In the 1970s Aotearoa was one of the world leaders in future studies. In 1976, following close behind a similar initiative in Sweden, and around the same time as Australia, the Muldoon government founded an institution called the Commission for the Future (CFF). This was part of a new wave of thinking, spearheaded in Aotearoa by a group of forward-thinking government ministers (known as the "Young Turks"). The commission's aim was to consider the opportunities, trends and risks up to thirty years into the future and feed their findings back to politicians and the public. Although it didn't last long, the CFF  brought futures studies into the mainstream and left a legacy. Following its dissolution in 1982, the New Zealand Futures Trust was founded - an independent Trust, which aimed to continue the commission's work exploring the future and engaging decision makers and public.

Here, Yvonne describes these two important institutions:

Commission for the Future 1976 - 1982

The Commission for the Future (CFF) had its first minuted meeting in September 1976 and its final meeting in May 1982. 

The CFF was formalised as an official body in the New Zealand Planning Act part 11, passed in 1977 by the Government to look thirty years ahead, and to support and compliment the work of the New Zealand Planning Council whose brief was to consider priorities for economic and social planning for the five to ten year horizon.

In the six years of its existence the CFF produced a number of public reports and discussion papers, conducted two major public surveys the “Murphy Poll” (1980) and the “Televote” Survey (1981).  It also participated in TV programmes, radio and talk-back shows, seminars and public speaking engagements to encourage futures thinking among the public.  

NZ Futures Trust 1982 - 2013

When the CFF was disestablished in 1982, Professor James Duncan, the ex-chairman and others involved in the CFF set up The New Zealand Futures Trust, to continue the public future focused aims of the CFF as laid out in the act.   

The NZFT continued to interact with the wider community, firstly through the quarterly journal, Future Times (first issue Vol 1 No, December 1982 – final issue 2013/ Vol 1& 2 in June) and in public forums, workshops and invited presentations at minimal costs to the participants.  It also provided services, if asked, to government and private organisations acting as a not-for-profit NGO. It conducted its own in- house research and encouraged those who choose to be members, or attend events, an opportunity to participate in their research in futures thinking and long-term policy development. It set up, a freely accessible website, www.futurestrust.org.nz, that was operational until 2013 and has since been replaced by the current archival site www.futuretimes.co.nz.   

The NZFT was set up as a charity in 1982 with $1 in its bank account, and with the support of many generous businesses, organisations and individuals either underwriting, or offering their talents as volunteers, the Trust was able to offer their expertise to all who asked, either freely or at prices they were able to afford, for over 30 years.  The NZFT bank account was closely overseen for the majority of that time by Dr Eddie Robertson, and the NZFT was never in the red.

Until the NZFT formally wound up in 2013, it retained its original constitution and legal identity as a charitable trust, but it changed its operational rules, and in 2006 adopted the brand name Futures Thinking Aotearoa to conform with changing constitutional practice.

Have a look at the archival website, and you can decide, in hindsight, if the public of New Zealand were well served by both the CFF and the NZFT during their “lifetimes”.  I think we have been, but their worth is now largely hidden treasure. 


Yvonne Curtis

28 January 2021

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