These were sensitive areas which the preceding Labour administration had not been willing to reform in light of its traditional working class constituency. Richardson and the then Minister of Social Welfare, Jenny Shipley, immediately reformed the Social Welfare programme in the "Mother of all Budgets" by reducing available unemployment, sickness and welfare benefits across the board. In 1991, the National government enacted the Employment Contracts Act (ECA), which effectively demolished New Zealand's post-war industrial relations framework, replacing collective bargaining and compulsory union membership in many sectors with the concept of the individual employment contract. Whilst the ECA did not directly address unions, the practical effect of removing the requirement for employees to be members, and allowing those employees who did want union membership to choose "which" union they wished to join, dramatically reduced the bargaining position of the unions in the New Zealand economy. This reform of labour laws had already been outlined in the 1990 National manifesto. Ken Douglas, then president of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, recalled in the 1996 documentary "Revolution":  Roger Douglas, minister of finance in the preceding fourth Labour government, said (after his retirement from politics):  "Ruthanasia" came to an end after the 1993 election, when National's majority was reduced from 18 (out of 99 seats) to 1. Jim Bolger responded by replacing Richardson with Bill Birch. Bolger then acknowledged both the benefits and unpopularity of Ruthanasia in his televised announcement of Richardson's removal:  Internal party ideological tensions also led to the secession of Winston Peters from the National Party caucus and the formation of New Zealand First in 1993. Peters was viewed as an acolyte of Rob Muldoon's protectionist economic policies and had a substantial support base amongst New Zealand's senior citizens and their related lobby organisations. Peters' erstwhile prominence was due to the other consequence of Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson's New Right economic policies, which fuelled a movement for electoral reform in New Zealand after Sir Geoffrey Palmer convened a Royal Commission on the Electoral System in 1985–1986. In two electoral reform referenda, the general public endorsed the Mixed Member Proportional electoral system as a response to what they perceived as an unaccountable New Right government. Jim Bolger believes that, had his government not instituted such unpopular policy prescriptions, MMP may not have passed. After Richardson's resignation, National retained power for six more years against a divided Labour Party and splintered opposition, hampered by its own legacy of economic retrenchment. While several MPs seceded to form non-viable centre-right satellite parties before the 1996 general election National retained power by going into coalition with Winston Peters and New Zealand First.