The aim of this paper is to describe and critique key policies and policy documents relevant to older adults' learning and education from the 1980s to 2001. It describes relevant aspects of the historical struggles between competing discourses and ideologies which took place during the period. It then examines the impact of these struggles on the policies and main policy documents concerned. The paper forms part of a larger project which draws on a wide range of sources and extends the analysis back to the 1970s and forward to the present day. This paper, however, draws mainly on a number of government reports. These include the reports of the Working Party on Ageing and Education (1987), the Royal Commission of Social Policy (1987), the establishment of the position of Minister of Senior Citizens and the Senior Citizens' Unit (1990), the report of the Prime Ministerial Task Force on Positive Ageing (1997) and the International Year of Older Persons (1999). The paper concludes by describing the development in 2000 and 2001 of the New Zealand Positive Ageing Strategy and raising questions about its implications for education and older adults. (Contains 1 footnote.) [This article was published in the "New Zealand Journal of Adult Learning" 33(2): 5-25 November 2005.]