Formation The National Party was formed in May 1936, but its roots go considerably further back. The party came about as the result of a merger between the
United Party (known as the
Liberal Party until 1927, except for a short period between 1925 and 1927 when it used the name "National Party") and the
Reform Party. while the Reform Party had a
rural base and received substantial support from
farmers, who then formed a substantial proportion of the population. Like other political parties, the National Party is constituted by two separate entities. An unincorporated association of members operating outside of parliament under a written constitution, called The New Zealand National Party, and a second unincorporated association of elected members of parliament, called the Parliamentary National Party. Historically, the Liberal and Reform parties had competed against each other; however, between 1931 and 1935, the
United–Reform Coalition held power in New Zealand. The coalition went into the
1935 election under the title of the "National Political Federation", a name adopted to indicate that the grouping intended to represent New Zealanders from all backgrounds (in contrast to the previous situation, where United served city-dwellers and Reform served farmers). However, because of the effects of the
Great Depression and a perception that the existing coalition government had handled the situation poorly, the National Political Federation lost heavily in 1935 to the
Labour Party, the rise of which had prompted the alliance. The two parties were cut down to 19 seats between them. Another factor was a
third party, the
Democrat Party formed by
Albert Davy, a former organiser for the coalition who disapproved of the perceived "socialist" measures that the coalition had introduced. The new party split the conservative vote, and aided Labour's victory. was the first leader of the National Party. In hopes of countering Labour's rise, United and Reform decided to turn their alliance into a single party. In the
1943 election, National reduced Labour's majority from 12 seats to four. In the
1946 election, National made further gains, but Labour was able to cling to a one-seat majority. However, in the
1949 election, thirteen years after the party's foundation, National won power after taking eight seats off Labour, and Holland became prime minister.
First Government (1949–1957) was the first National Prime Minister, 1949–1957 Sidney Holland was finance minister as well as prime minister in the new government. In 1949 National had campaigned on "the private ownership of production, distribution and exchange". Once in power the new Holland Government proved decidedly administratively conservative, retaining, for instance, compulsory unionism and the
welfare state set up by the previous Labour government. In 1951, the
Waterfront Dispute broke out, lasting 151 days. The National government stepped into the conflict, acting in opposition to the maritime
unions. Holland also used this opportunity to call the 1951
snap election. Campaigning on an
anti-communist platform and exploiting the Labour Opposition's apparent indecisiveness, National returned with an increased majority, gaining 54 parliamentary seats out of 80. In the
1954 election, National was elected to a third term, though losing some of its seats. Towards the end of his third term, however, Holland became increasingly ill, and stepped down from the leadership shortly before the general election in 1957.
Keith Holyoake, the party's long-standing deputy leader, took Holland's place. Holyoake, however, had insufficient time to establish himself in the public mind as prime minister, and lost in the
election later that year to Labour, then led by
Walter Nash.
Second Government (1960–1972) , Prime Minister, 1957 and 1960–1972 Nash's government became very unpopular as Labour acquired a reputation for poor economic management, and much of the public saw its
1958 Budget, known since as the "Black Budget", as miserly. After only one term in office, Labour suffered defeat at the hands of Holyoake and the National Party in the
elections of 1960. Holyoake's government lasted twelve years, the party winning re-election three times (in
1963,
1966, and
1969). However, during this period
Social Credit arose, which broke the National/Labour duopoly in parliament, winning former National seats from 1966. Holyoake retired from the premiership and from the party leadership at the beginning of 1972, and his deputy,
Jack Marshall, replaced him. Under Muldoon, National won three consecutive general elections in 1975,
1978 and
1981. However, public dissatisfaction grew, and Muldoon's controlling and belligerent style of
leadership became less and less appealing. In both the 1978 and 1981 elections, National gained fewer votes than the Labour opposition, but could command a small majority in Parliament because of the then-used
First Past the Post electoral system. Dissent within the National Party continued to grow, however, with rebel National MPs
Marilyn Waring and
Mike Minogue causing particular concern to the leadership, threatening National's thin majority in parliament. When, in 1984, Marilyn Waring refused to support Muldoon's policies on visits by nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed ships, Muldoon called a snap
election. Muldoon made the television announcement of this election while visibly
inebriated, and some believe Many more conservative and centrist National supporters preferred Muldoon's more authoritarian and interventionist policies over the free-market liberalism promoted by Douglas. However, the new National Party Finance Minister,
Ruth Richardson, strongly supported Rogernomics, believing that Douglas had not gone far enough. Her policies—dubbed "
Ruthanasia"— encouraged two MPs to leave the National Party and form the
Liberal Party. Richardson's views also met with considerable opposition within the National Party Parliamentary Caucus and for a time caused damage to the party's membership base. At the
1993 election, National was narrowly able to retain government owing partly to a slight economic recovery and the opposition being split between three competing parties. National's unprecedented eighteen-seat majority had virtually disappeared and the country faced an election night
hung parliament for the first time since
1931, with National one seat short of the required 50 seats to govern. Final
special votes counted over the following days revealed National had won , allowing it to form a government with the majority of one seat but required the election of a Speaker from the opposition benches (
Peter Tapsell of the Labour Party) to hold a working majority in the House. At the same time as the election, however, a referendum took place which established the
MMP electoral system for future use in New Zealand general elections as widespread dissatisfaction with the existing political system led to reform. This would have a significant impact on New Zealand politics. Some National Party MPs defected to a new grouping,
United New Zealand in mid-1995 whilst other splinter parties emerged. And, as a result of the new electoral mechanics, the
New Zealand First party, led by former National MP and former Cabinet minister
Winston Peters, held the balance of power after the
1996 election. After a prolonged period of negotiation lasting nearly two months, in which New Zealand First played National and Labour off against each other (both parties negotiated complete coalition agreements), New Zealand First entered into a coalition with National despite the fact many expected Peters to form such a coalition with Labour. Under the coalition agreement, Peters became
Deputy Prime Minister and had the post of
Treasurer especially created by the Crown for him. New Zealand First extracted a number of other concessions from National in exchange for its support. The influence of New Zealand First angered many National MPs, particularly
Jenny Shipley. Many hoped that English would succeed in rebuilding the party, given time, but a year later polling showed the party performing only slightly better than in the election. In October 2003 English gave way as leader to
Don Brash, a former governor of the
Reserve Bank who had joined the National Parliamentary caucus in the 2002 election. Under Brash, the National Party's overall popularity with voters improved markedly. Mostly, however, the party achieved this by "reclaiming" support from electors who voted for other centre-right parties in 2002. National's campaigning on race relations, amid claims of preferential treatment of
Māori, and amid their opposition to Labour Party policy during the
foreshore-and-seabed controversy, generated considerable publicity and much controversy. Strong campaigning on a tax-cuts theme in the lead-up to the
2005 election, together with a consolidation of centre-right support, may have contributed to the National Party's winning 48 out of 121 seats in Parliament. National, however, remained the second-largest party in Parliament (marginally behind Labour, which gained 50 seats), and had fewer options for forming a coalition government. With the formation of a new Labour-dominated Government, National remained the major Opposition party. Before the leadership of John Key, the National Party had made renewed efforts to attract social conservative voters, through adoption of
anti-abortion and anti-
same-sex marriage policies. In the 2005 general election run up, it was revealed that the
Exclusive Brethren, a conservative Christian group, had distributed attack pamphlets critical of the Labour Party and praising of National to letterboxes throughout New Zealand. Labour insisted that National had close ties to and prior knowledge of these attacks, which was repeatedly denied by National. It was later admitted by the leader Don Brash that he indeed did have knowledge of the plan, a statement that was contradicted by MP Gerry Brownlee who subsequently denied the National party had any foreknowledge. After the 2005 election defeat Don Brash's leadership of National came under scrutiny from the media, and political watchers speculated on the prospect of a leadership-challenge before the next
general election due in 2008. Brash resigned on 23 November 2006, immediately before the release of
Nicky Hager's book
The Hollow Men, which contained damaging revelations obtained from private emails.
John Key became the leader of the National caucus on 27 November 2006. Key fostered a more "centrist" image, discussing issues such as
child poverty.
Fifth Government (2008–2017) , Prime Minister, 2008–2016 On 8 November 2008, the National Party won 58 seats in the
general election. The Labour Party, which had spent three terms in power, conceded the election and Prime Minister
Helen Clark stepped down. National formed a minority government under
John Key with
confidence-and-supply support from the
ACT Party (5 seats), the
Māori Party (5 seats) and
United Future (1 seat). On 19 November the Governor-General swore in the new National-led government. In Key's first Cabinet he gave the ACT Party's
Rodney Hide and
Heather Roy ministerial portfolios outside Cabinet, and the Māori Party's
Tāriana Turia and
Pita Sharples the same. United Future leader
Peter Dunne retained his ministerial post outside Cabinet which he had held within the immediately preceding
Labour Government. National came to power during the
2008 financial crisis. In response to New Zealand's rising debt, Finance Minister
Bill English made budget deficit-reduction his main priority for the first term. The government also
cut taxes on all income; the top personal tax rate was lowered from 39% to 38% and then 33% in 2010. At the
26 November 2011 general election, National gained 47.31% of the party vote, the highest percentage gained by any political party since MMP was introduced, helped by a lower voter turnout and the misfortunes of its traditional support parties. The National Government won a third term at the
2014 general election. The National Party won 47.04% of the party vote, and increased its seats to 60. National resumed its confidence and supply agreements with ACT and United Future. The National parliamentary caucus was split on the issue of
same-sex marriage in 2014. Throughout his second and third terms, Key campaigned heavily in favour of free-trade agreements such as the
Trans-Pacific Partnership. After serving prime minister for eight years, Key announced his resignation as the party leader on 5 December 2016. He stepped down as prime minister on 12 December. Key's deputy
Bill English was acclaimed as the party's new leader on 12 December 2016 after Health Minister
Jonathan Coleman and Minister of Police
Judith Collins withdrew from the
leadership election.
Opposition (2017–2023) In the
2017 general election, National's share of the party vote dropped to 44.4%. It lost four seats, dropping to 56, but remained the largest party in Parliament. Two of the National government's three support parties lost representation in parliament. On 27 February 2018, English was succeeded by
Simon Bridges. Following the
Christchurch Mosque shootings, the party removed content from their website which indicated opposition to the UN
Migration Compact; a position also espoused by the terrorist in his manifesto. On 2 July 2020, however, the party's new leader Todd Muller confirmed in response to a question from a journalist that the party was still opposed to the pact, although it was not an issue he was focused on. On 22 May 2020, following poor
poll results for the party during the
COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand, the National Party held an emergency caucus meeting and voted to oust both leader Simon Bridges and deputy leader
Paula Bennett, replacing them with
Todd Muller and
Nikki Kaye, respectively. Less than two months later, Muller resigned citing that his position had "become untenable from a health perspective". This came after a series of gaffes and scandals surrounding Muller and the National caucus during his tenure, triggering the
second leadership election in as many months. He was succeeded by
Judith Collins. Kaye, who served as interim leader during the hours between Muller's resignation and Collins's election, was succeeded by
Gerry Brownlee. Collins led the party through the
2020 election, but was unable to recoup polling losses seen by the party throughout 2020 in time for the election, leading to the party losing 23 seats and suffering the second worst defeat in its history. Brownlee, who was the party campaign manager, lost his
electorate seat, returning as an MP via the party list and resigning as deputy leader two weeks later; he was replaced by
Shane Reti. has served as the party's leader since November 2021.On 1 February 2021, Collins announced that the National Party would contest the
Māori electorates at the
2023 New Zealand general election. Her successor
Christopher Luxon confirmed they would still be contesting the seats under his leadership. On 24 November 2021, Collins announced that Bridges was being demoted and stripped of his portfolios, in what was seen by many inside and outside the caucus (including National MP and Bridges' brother in-law
Simon O'Connor) as an act of political revenge. O'Connor later announced that he was resigning his portfolios in protest, and demanded Collins' own resignation. Collins was removed as leader in an emergency caucus meeting the following morning, with Reti becoming interim leader. Christopher Luxon was
elected unopposed, with
Nicola Willis as his deputy, after Simon Bridges withdrew his candidacy.
Sixth Government (2023–present) During the
2023 general election held on 14 October, National under the leadership of Christopher Luxon defeated the incumbent Labour Party. National's traditional coalition partner ACT won 11 seats, leaving a prospective National–ACT coalition just short of a majority with 59 seats. National formed a majority government with ACT and New Zealand First, the first three-party coalition under MMP. In late January 2026, National and the opposition Labour Party agreed to co-sponsor new legislation targeting
modern slavery despite opposition from ACT, National's coalition partner. ==Ideology and factions==