Pre-colonial politics Before New Zealand becoming a British colony in 1840, politics in New Zealand was dominated by Māori chiefs as leaders of
hapū and
iwi, utilising
Māori customs as a political system. The Māori were organised into large, extended family groups known as iwi, and these iwi were further divided into smaller hapū (subtribes). Each hapū had its own leadership structure, with chiefs (
rangatira) who were responsible for the well-being and governance of their people.
Colonial politics (in
Māori) After the 1840
Treaty of Waitangi, a colonial governor and his small staff acted on behalf of the British Government based on the British political system. The
electoral franchise was limited to property-owning male
British subjects over 21 years old. The
property qualification was relatively liberal in New Zealand compared to Britain, such that by the late 1850s 75% of adult New Zealand European males were eligible to vote, compared to 20% in England and 12% in Scotland. Around 100 Māori chiefs voted in the 1853 election. Again like British practice at the time, NZ's first election used a mixture of single-member districts and multi-member districts, the first using
first-past-the-post voting and the second group using
plurality block voting. During the 1850s
provincial-based government was the norm. Provincial councils were abolished in 1876. In 1863 the mining franchise was extended to goldfield business owners. In 1870, the number of registered voters was only 41,500, but an additional 20,000 miners were also entitled to vote. Arrests followed but the activities persisted. Fears grew among settlers that the resistance campaign was a prelude to armed conflict. The Government itself was puzzled as to why the land had been confiscated and offered a huge 25,000-acre reserve to the activists, provided they stopped the destruction. Commissioners set up to investigate the issue said that the activities "could fairly be called hostile". A power struggle ensued resulting in the arrest of all the prominent leaders by a large government force in 1881. Historian Hazel Riseborough describes the event as a conflict over who had authority or
mana—the Government or the Parihaka protestors. 's statue stands outside Parliament buildings in Wellington. In 1882 the export of meat in the first refrigerated ship started a period of sustained economic export-led growth. This period is notable for the influence of new social ideas and movements such as the
Fabians and the creation in 1890 of the first political party, the
Liberals. Their leader, former gold miner
Richard Seddon from Lancashire, was premier from 1893 to 1906. The Liberals introduced new
taxes to break the influence of the wealthy conservative sheep farm owners. They also purchased more land from Māori. (By 1910, Māori in parts of the North Island retained very little land, and the amount of Māori land would decrease precipitously as a result of government purchases.) The early 20th century saw the rise of the
trade union movement and labour parties , which represented organised workers. The
West Coast town of
Blackball is often regarded as the birthplace of the labour movement in New Zealand, as it was the location of the founding of one of the main political organisations which became part of the New Zealand Labour Party.
Māori politics and legislation Māori political affairs have been developing through
Resource Management Act 1991 and the
Te Ture Whenua Māori Act 1993 and many other new laws. Since then, this progressive change in attitude has materialised as legislation to protect the natural environment or Taonga, and the courts by establishing treaty principles that always have to be considered when deciding laws in the courts. Moreover, the Māori Lands Act 2016 was printed both in and English—the act itself affirms the equal legal status of .
Women in politics is the country's most famous
suffragist. Women's suffrage was granted after about two decades of campaigning by women such as
Kate Sheppard and
Mary Ann Müller and organisations such as the New Zealand branch of the
Women's Christian Temperance Union. On 19 September 1893 the governor,
Lord Glasgow, signed a new Electoral Act into law. As a result, New Zealand became the first self-governing nation in the world in which all women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections. Women first voted in the
1893 election, with a high 85% turnout (compared to 70% of men). The achievement of women's suffrage in New Zealand was groundbreaking, as most other democracies did not grant women the right to vote until after World War I. Women were not eligible to be elected to the House of Representatives until though, when three women, including
Ellen Melville stood. The first woman to win an election (to the seat held by her late husband) was
Elizabeth McCombs in 1933. New Zealand was the first country in the world in which all the highest offices were occupied by women, between March 2005 and August 2006: the Sovereign
Queen Elizabeth II, Governor-General
Dame Silvia Cartwright, Prime Minister
Helen Clark,
Speaker of the House Margaret Wilson, and
Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias. After the 2020 election, women made up half of the 120 MPs in the House of Representatives, marking the highest level of
women's political representation since they were first allowed to stand for Parliament in 1919.
Modern political history The right-leaning
National Party and the left-leaning
Labour Party have dominated New Zealand political life since a Labour government came to power in 1935. During fourteen years in office (1935–1949), the Labour Party implemented a broad array of social and economic legislation, including comprehensive
social security, a large-scale
public works programme, a forty-hour working week, and compulsory
unionism. The National Party won control of the government in 1949, accepting most of Labour's welfare measures. Except for two brief periods of Labour governments in 1957–1960 and 1972–1975, National held power until 1984. After regaining control in 1984, the fourth Labour government instituted a series of radical
market-oriented reforms. It privatised state assets and reduced the role of the state in the economy. It also instituted several other more left-wing reforms, such as allowing the
Waitangi Tribunal to hear claims of breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi to be made back to 1840. In 1987, the government introduced the
New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act, banning visits by nuclear powered ships; the implementation of a
nuclear-free zone brought about New Zealand's suspension from the
ANZUS security alliance with the United States and Australia. In October 1990, the National Party again formed a government, for the first of three three-year terms. Despite
election promises to halt the unpopular reform process, the new National government largely advanced the free-market policies of the preceding government. Public disillusionment resulting from perceived "broken promises" of the previous two governments fuelled demand for
electoral reform in New Zealand. In 1996, New Zealand inaugurated the new electoral system (mixed-member proportional representation, or MMP) to
elect its Parliament. The MMP system was expected (among numerous other goals) to increase representation of smaller parties in Parliament and appears to have done so in the MMP elections to date. Between 1996 and 2020, neither National nor Labour had an absolute majority in Parliament, and for all but two of those years a
minority government ruled (however, every government has been led by one or other of the two main parties). MMP parliaments have been markedly more diverse, with greater representation of women, ethnic minorities and other
minority groups. In 1996,
Tim Barnett was the first of several New Zealand MPs to be elected as an openly gay person. In 1999,
Georgina Beyer became the world's
first openly transgender MP elected to a national parliament. After nine years in government, the National Party lost the
November 1999 election. Labour under
Helen Clark out-polled National and formed a coalition government with
Jim Anderton's
Alliance, a party to the left of Labour. The coalition partners pioneered "agree to disagree" procedures to manage policy differences. The minority government often relied on support from the
Green Party to pass legislation. Labour retained power in the
July 2002 election, forming a coalition with Anderton's new
Progressive Party, and reaching an agreement for support with the
United Future party. Helen Clark remained prime minister. In early 2004, Labour came under attack for its policies on the
ownership of the foreshore and seabed, eventually culminating in the establishment of a new break-away party, the
Māori Party. Following the
September 2005 election, negotiations between parties culminated in Clark announcing a third consecutive term of Labour-led government. The Labour Party again formed a coalition with the Progressive Party, with confidence and supply from
Winston Peters'
New Zealand First and
Peter Dunne's United Future. After the
general election in November 2008, the National Party moved quickly to form a minority government with
ACT, the Māori Party and United Future. This arrangement allowed National to decrease its reliance on the right-wing ACT party, whose free-market policies are sometimes controversial with the greater New Zealand public. In 2008,
John Key was appointed prime minister, with
Bill English as his deputy. This arrangement conformed to a tradition of having a north-south split in the major parties' leadership, as Key's residence is in Auckland and English's electorate is in the South Island. On 12 December 2016, English was elected as leader, and thus prime minister, by the National Party caucus after Key's unexpected resignation a week earlier.
Paula Bennett (member for
Upper Harbour) was appointed
deputy prime minister, thus continuing the tradition. This north-south arrangement ceased with the next government. Following the
September 2017 general election National retained its
plurality in the House of Representatives, while Labour greatly increased its proportion of the vote and number of seats. Following negotiations between the major and minor parties, Labour formed a minority government after securing a coalition arrangement with New Zealand First. The new government also agreed on a confidence-and-supply arrangement with the Green Party. On 26 October 2017, Labour leader
Jacinda Ardern was sworn in as prime minister and Winston Peters became her deputy. In the
2020 general election Labour won by a
landslide and gained an overall majority of seats in Parliament, sufficient to govern alone—a first under the MMP system. Labour's coalition partner New Zealand First lost its representation in Parliament. Ardern's government was sworn in for a second term on 6 November 2020. The
2023 general election saw the worst defeat of a sitting government since the introduction of the MMP system, with Labour losing nearly half of its seats. Subsequently, National, ACT and New Zealand First formed the country's first
three-party coalition government. National leader
Christopher Luxon became prime minister. In another first, Winston Peters and
David Seymour will take turns as deputy prime minister. ==See also==