This article critically evaluates the Reform of Vocational Education (RoVE) reforms in New Zealand which were prompted by a financial crisis in the sector. Despite the best efforts of policy makers, faith in New Zealand's market-led system has been in decline for many years and the RoVE takes the decline in faith in New Zealand's market-led system a decisive step further. Drawing on the regulation theory and new localism literatures, this article argues that RoVE has emerged as the latest flanking mechanism, or palliative activity, designed primarily to address legitimation deficits created by the decline in the efficacy of New Zealand's market-led system of VE.