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Deputy Prime Minister Of New Zealand

Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand

The Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand is second most senior officer in the Government of New Zealand, although this seniority does not necessarily translate into power. Generally, the position is held by the deputy leader of the ruling party, but now that the MMP electoral system makes coalitions more likely, the role may increasingly go to the leader of a junior party. This occurred with Winston Peters, leader of New Zealand First, and Jim Anderton, leader of the Alliance. The post of Deputy Prime Minister was established in 1949. Since then, sixteen people have held the position (one of them doing so twice). Of those people, only Holyoake, Marshall, Muldoon, Palmer, and Clark have eventually served as Prime Minister. New Zealand category:New Zealand politicians Deputy Prime Minister

Politics of New Zealand

New Zealand functions as a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government. The basic system is closely patterned on that of the United Kingdom, although a number of significant modifications have been made. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, but actual government is conducted by a Prime Minister and Cabinet drawn from an elected Parliament.

Constitution

New Zealand has no formal, written constitution; the constitutional framework consists of a mixture of various documents (including certain acts of the United Kingdom and New Zealand Parliaments), the Treaty of Waitangi and constitutional conventions. Most constitutional provisions became consolidated into the Constitution Act 1986. There have, at times, been proposals for a formal constitution, but there have not yet been any serious moves to adopt one.

Monarchy

Constitution Act 1986 New Zealand's head of state is the Queen of New Zealand, currently Elizabeth II. The New Zealand monarchy has been distinct from the British monarchy since the New Zealand Royal Titles Act of 1953, and all Elizabeth II's official business in New Zealand is conducted in the name of the Queen of New Zealand, not the Queen of the United Kingdom. In practice, the functions of the monarchy are conducted by a Governor-General, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. As of 2004, the Governor-General is Silvia Cartwright. There have occasionally been proposals to abolish the monarchy and establish a republic. Unlike its neighbour Australia, New Zealand has not yet held a referendum on the matter, but a number of prominent politicians (including the current Prime Minister) believe that an eventual move to republicanism is inevitable. Opinion polls however have shown that unlike Australia, a majority of New Zealanders favour keeping the monarchy. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/07/23/wnz23.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/07/23/ixworld.html] See also: Republicanism in New Zealand

Executive

Republicanism in New Zealand The Cabinet, which is responsible to Parliament, exercises executive authority. (The Cabinet forms the practical expression of a formal body known as the Executive Council.) The Prime Minister, as the leader of the political party or coalition of parties holding the majority of seats in the House of Representatives, leads the Cabinet. All Cabinet Ministers must be Members of Parliament (MPs) and are collectively responsible to it. |Queen |Elizabeth II | |6 February 1952 |- |Governor-General |Dame Silvia Cartwright | |April 2001 |- |Prime Minister |Helen Clark |Labour |5 December 1999 |{{{{{{{{{{

New Zealand

New Zealand or Aotearoa, the Land of the Long White Cloud, is a country of two large islands and many smaller islands in the south-western Pacific Ocean. New Zealand is notable for its isolation, being separated from Australia on the northwest by the Tasman Sea, some 2,000 km wide. The closest neighbours to the north are New Caledonia, Fiji and Tonga. The population of New Zealand is mostly of European descent, with the indigenous Māori as the largest minority. Non-Māori Polynesian and Asian peoples are also significant minorities, especially in the cities. Officially, Elizabeth II is the Queen of New Zealand and is represented in the country by a non-political Governor-General; though the Queen has no real political influence. Political power is held by the Prime Minister who is leader of the Government in the democratically elected Parliament of New Zealand. The monarch's Realm of New Zealand also includes the Cook Islands and Niue, which are entirely self-governing; Tokelau, which is moving towards self-government, and New Zealand's claim in Antarctica.

History

New Zealand is one of the most recently settled major land masses. Polynesian settlers arrived in their waka some time between 800 and 600 years ago to establish the indigenous Māori culture. Settlement of the Chatham Islands to the south-east of New Zealand produced the Moriori people but it is disputed whether they moved there from New Zealand or elsewhere in Polynesia. Most of New Zealand was divided into tribal territories called rohe, resources within which were controlled by an iwi ('tribe'). Usually no two iwi had overlapping rohe. Māori adapted to eating the local marine resources, flora and fauna for food, hunting the giant flightless moa (which soon became extinct), and ate the Polynesian Rat and kumara (sweet potato), which they introduced to the country. The first Europeans known to reach New Zealand were led by Abel Janszoon Tasman, who sailed up the west coast of the South and North islands in 1642. He named it Staten Landt, believing it to be part of the land Jacob Le Maire had discovered in 1616 off the coast of Chile. Staten Landt appeared on Tasman's first maps of New Zealand, but this was changed by Dutch cartographers to Nova Zeelandia, after the Dutch province of Zeeland, some time after Hendrik Brouwer proved the South American land to be an island in 1643. The Latin Nova Zeelandia became Nieuw Zeeland in Dutch. Lieutenant James Cook subsequently called the archipelago New Zealand, although the names he chose for the North and South islands were rejected, and the main three islands became known as North, Middle and South, with the Middle Island being later called the South Island. Cook began extensive surveys of the islands in 1769, leading to European whaling expeditions and eventually significant European colonisation. From as early as the 1780s, Māori had encounters with European sealers and whalers. Acquisition of muskets by those iwi in close contact with European visitors destabilised the existing balance of power between Māori tribes and there was a temporary but intense period of bloody inter-tribal warfare, known as the Musket Wars, that only ceased when all iwi were so armed. Concern about the exploitation of Māori by Europeans, Church Missionary Society lobbying and French interest in the region led the British to annex New Zealand by Royal Proclamation in January 1840. To legitimise the British annexation, Lieutenant Governor William Hobson had been dispatched in 1839; he hurriedly negotiated the Treaty of Waitangi with northern iwi on his arrival. The Treaty was signed in February, and in recent years it has come to be seen as the founding document of New Zealand. The Māori translation of the treaty promised the Māori tribes "tino rangatiratanga" would be preserved in return for cedeing kawanatanga, which the English versions translates as "chieftainship" for "sovereignty"; the real meanings are now disputed. Disputes over land sales and sovereignty caused the New Zealand land wars which took place between 1845 and 1872. In 1975 the Treaty of Waitangi Act established the Waitangi Tribunal, charged with hearing claims of Crown violations of the Treaty of Waitangi dating back to 1840. Some Māori tribes and the Moriori never signed the treaty. Although New Zealand was initially administered as a part of the Australian colony of New South Wales, it became a colony in its own right in 1841. European settlement progressed more rapidly than anyone anticipated, and settlers soon outnumbered Māori. Self-government was granted to the settler population in 1852. The first capital of New Zealand was Kororareka (known today as Russell) but shortly afterwards moved to Auckland. There were political concerns following the discovery of gold in Central Otago in 1861 that the South Island would form a separate colony. So in 1865 the capital was offically moved to the more central city of Wellington. New Zealand was involved in a Constitutional Convention in March 1891 in Sydney, New South Wales, along with the then-colonies of Australia. This was to consider a potential constitution for the proposed federation between the then-British Colonies of Australasia. New Zealand lost interest in joining Australia in a federation following this convention. New Zealand became an independent dominion on 26 September 1907 by royal proclamation. Full independence was granted by the United Kingdom Parliament with the Statute of Westminster in 1931; it was taken up upon the Statute's adoption by the New Zealand Parliament in 1947. Since then New Zealand has been a sovereign constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth of Nations.

Politics

New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy. Under the New Zealand Royal Titles Act (1953), Queen Elizabeth II is Queen of New Zealand and is represented as head of state by the Governor-General, Dame Silvia Cartwright. The New Zealand Parliament has only one chamber, the House of Representatives which usually seats 120 members of Parliament. Parliamentary elections are every three years under a form of proportional representation called Mixed Member Proportional (MMP). The 2005 General Election created an 'overhang' of one extra seat (occupied by the Māori Party), due to that party winning more seats in constituencies than its proportional entitlement. There is no single written constitution; however, the Constitution Act (1986) is the principal formal statement of New Zealand's constitutional structure. The Governor-General has the power to appoint and dismiss Prime Ministers and to dissolve Parliament. The Governor-General also chairs the Executive Council which is a formal committee consisting of all ministers of the Crown. Members of the Executive Council are required to be members of Parliament, and most are also in Cabinet. Cabinet is the most senior policy-making body and is led by the Prime Minister who is also the Parliamentary leader of the governing party or coalition. The current Prime Minister is Helen Clark of the Labour Party. She has served two complete terms as Prime Minister and has begun her third. On 17 October 2005 she announced that she had come to a complex arrangement that guaranteed the support of enough parties for her Labour-led coalition to govern. The core of the coalition is a cabinet consisting of Labour Party ministers and Jim Anderton, the Progressive Party's only MP. In addition to the parties represented in cabinet the leaders of New Zealand First and United Future are to be appointed as Ministers outside Cabinet. An arrangement of this kind has never been attempted before in New Zealand. A further arrangement has been made with the Green Party, which has given a commitment not to vote against the government on confidence and supply. This commitment assures the government of a majority of seven MPs on confidence. The Leader of the Opposition is National Party leader Don Brash who was formerly Governor of the Reserve Bank. Also in opposition are the Māori Party and ACT New Zealand. The highest court in New Zealand is the Supreme Court of New Zealand. The Supreme Court was established in 2004 following the passage of the Supreme Court Act in 2003. The Act abolished the option to appeal Court of Appeal rulings to the Privy Council in London. The current Chief Justice is Dame Sian Elias. New Zealand's judicary also has a High Court which deals with serious criminal offences and civil matters, and a Court of Appeal, as well as subordinate courts.

Foreign relations and military

New Zealand maintains a strong profile on environmental protection, human rights and free trade, particularly for agriculture. New Zealand is a member of the following geo-political organisations: APEC, Commonwealth of Nations, OECD and the United Nations. It has signed up to a number of free trade agreements, of which the most important is Closer Economic Relations with Australia. For its first hundred years, New Zealand followed Britain's lead on foreign policy. "Where she goes, we go, where she stands, we stand", said Prime Minister Michael Savage, in declaring war on Germany on 3 September 1939. However, Britain's inability to protect New Zealand from Japanese aggression in World War II led New Zealand to come under the influence of the United States of America for the generation following the war. New Zealand has traditionally also worked closely with Australia, whose foreign policy followed a similar historical trend. In turn, many Pacific Islands such as Western Samoa have looked to New Zealand's lead. The American influence on New Zealand was weakened by the disappointment with the Vietnam War, the nuclear danger presented by the Cold War, the Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior by France and by disagreements over environmental and agricultural trade issues. New Zealand is a party to the ANZUS security treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the United States. In 1984 New Zealand refused nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships access to its ports. In 1986 the United States announced that it was suspending its treaty security obligations to New Zealand pending the restoration of port access. The New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament and Arms Control Act of 1987 prohibits the stationing of nuclear weapons on the territory of New Zealand and the entry into New Zealand waters of nuclear armed or propelled ships. This legislation remains a source of contention and the basis for the United States' continued suspension of treaty obligations to New Zealand. In addition to the various wars between Iwi, and between the British, settlers and Iwi, New Zealand has fought in the Boer War, World War I, (sustaining the highest casualties per head of population of any combatant nation), World War II, the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency (and committed troops, fighters and bombers to the subsequent confrontation with Indonesia), the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and the Afghanistan War and has briefly sent a unit of army engineers to help with rebuilding Iraqi infrastructure. The New Zealand military has three branches: the New Zealand Army, the Royal New Zealand Navy, and the Royal New Zealand Air Force. New Zealand considers its own national defence needs to be modest; it dismantled its air combat capability in 2001. New Zealand has contributed forces to recent regional and global peacekeeping missions, including those in Cyprus, Somalia, Bosnia, the Sinai, Angola, Cambodia, the Iran/Iraq border, Bougainville and East Timor.

Local government and external territories

East Timor The early European settlers divided New Zealand into provinces. These were abolished in 1876 so that government could be centralised for financial reasons. As a result, New Zealand has no separately represented subnational entities such as provinces, states or territories apart from its local government. The spirit of the provinces however still lives on, and there is fierce rivalry exhibited in sporting and cultural events. Since 1876, local government has administered the various regions of New Zealand. In 1989, the government completely reorganised local government, implementing the current two-tier structure of regional councils and territorial authorities. Today New Zealand has 12 regional councils for the administration of environmental and transport matters and 74 territorial authorities that administer roading, sewerage, building consents, and other local matters. The territorial authorities are 16 city councils, 57 district councils, and the Chatham Islands County Council. Four of the territorial councils (one city and three districts) and the Chatham Islands County Council also perform the functions of a regional council and thus are known as unitary authorities. Territorial authority districts are not subdivisions of regional council districts, and a few of them straddle regional council boundaries. Regions are (asterisks denote unitary authorities): Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne
- , Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, Manawatu-Wanganui, Wellington, Marlborough
- , Nelson
- , Tasman
- , West Coast, Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands
- . As a major South Pacific nation, New Zealand has a close working relationship with many of the smaller Pacific Island nations, and continues a political association with the Cook Islands, Niue, and Tokelau. New Zealand operates Scott Base in its Antarctic territory, the Ross Dependency. Other countries also use Christchurch to support their Antarctic bases and the city is sometimes known as the "Gateway to Antarctica".

Geography

Ross Dependency are visible in the centre of the North Island. The Southern Alps and the rain shadow they create are clearly visible on the South Island]] New Zealand comprises two main islands (simply called the North and South Islands in English, or usually Te-Ika-a-Maui and Te Wai Pounamu in Māori) and a number of smaller islands. The total land area of New Zealand, 268,680 km², is a little less than that of Japan and a little more than the United Kingdom. The country extends more than 1600 km along its main, north-north-east axis. The most significant of the smaller inhabited islands of New Zealand include Stewart Island/Rakiura, Waiheke Island, an island in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf, Great Barrier Island, east of the Hauraki Gulf and the Chatham Islands, named Rekohu by Moriori. The country has extensive marine resources, with the fifth largest Exclusive Economic Zone in the world covering over 4 million km², more than 15 times its land area. The South Island is the largest land mass, and is divided along its length by the Southern Alps, the highest peak of which is Aoraki/Mount Cook, at 3,754 metres (12,316 feet). There are 18 peaks of more than 3,000 metres in the South Island. The North Island is less mountainous than the South, but is marked by volcanism. The tallest North Island mountain, Mount Ruapehu (2,797 metres), is an active cone volcano. The dramatic and varied landscape of New Zealand has made it a popular location for the production of television programmes and films, including the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Lord of the Rings The usual climate throughout the country is mild, mostly cool temperate to warm temperate, with temperatures rarely falling below 0°C or rising above 30°C. Conditions vary from wet and cold on the West Coast of the South Island to dry and continental in the Mackenzie Basin of inland Canterbury and subtropical in Northland. Of the main cities, Christchurch is the driest, receiving only some 640 millimetres of rain per year. Auckland, the wettest, receives a little less than three times that amount.

Flora and fauna

Northland Because of its long isolation from the rest of the world, and its island biogeography New Zealand has extraordinary flora and fauna. About 80 percent of the New Zealand flora only occurs in New Zealand, including more than 40 endemic genera. The main two types of forest have been dominated by podocarps including the giant kauri and southern beech. The remaining vegetation types in New Zealand are grassland of grass and tussock, usually associated with the subalpine areas, and the low shrublands between grasslands and forests. Until the arrival of the first humans, 80% of the land was forested and, barring two species of bat, there were no non-marine mammals at all. Instead, New Zealand's forests were inhabited by a diverse range of birds including the flightless Moa which is now extinct, the Kiwi, Kakapo, and Takahē which are all endangered due to human actions. Unique birds capable of flight include the Haast's eagle which was the world's largest bird of prey before it became extinct and the large parrots the Kaka and Kea. Reptiles present in New Zealand include skinks and geckos and the Tuatara. There are no snakes but there are many species of insects— including the weta which may grow as large as a House Mouse.

Economy

House Mouse New Zealand has a thriving, modern, developed economy. The country has a high standard of living, ranking 19th on the 2005 Human Development Index and 15th of The Economists 2005 world-wide quality-of-life index. Since 1984 successive governments have engaged in major macroeconomic restructuring, transforming New Zealand from a highly protectionist and regulated economy to a liberalised free-trade economy. During the late 1980s, the New Zealand Government sold a number of major trading enterprises, including its telecommunications company, railway network, a number of radio stations and two financial institutions in a series of asset sales. Although the New Zealand Government continues to own a number of significant businesses, collectively known as State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), they are operated through arms-length shareholding arrangements as stand-alone businesses that are required to operate profitably, just like any privately owned enterprise. Unfortunately, due in part to the sudden transition to a market economy, an economic bubble developed in the New Zealand stock market starting in 1984. This burst in October 1987 and the total value of the market halved within a year (it has still to recover this lost value). The effect of this bubble was a period of poor economic growth which lasted until the mid 90s. It also led the government to begin a programme of massive immigration to boost GDP. However, since 1999 New Zealand has enjoyed a period of relatively strong and sustained growth, and contained inflationary pressures. The current New Zealand government's economic objectives are centred around moving from being ranked among the lower end of the OECD countries to regaining a higher placing again, pursuing free-trade agreements, "closing the gaps" between ethnic groups, and building a "knowledge economy." In 2004 it began discussing free trade with China, one of the first countries to do so. New Zealand is heavily dependent on trade—particularly in agricultural products—to drive growth, and it has been affected by global economic slowdowns and slumps in commodity prices. Since agricultural exports are highly sensitive to currency values and a large percentage of consumer goods are imported, any changes in the value of the New Zealand dollar has a strong impact on the economy. Its primary export industries are agriculture, horticulture, fishing, forestry and information technology. There are also substantial tourism and export education industries. The film and wine industries are considered to be up-and-coming.

Demographics

New Zealand has a population of about 4.1 million. About 70% of the population are whites of European descent. New Zealanders of Anglo-Celtic ancestry are known as Pākeha - this term is used variously and some Māori use it to refer to all non-Māori New Zealanders. A large proportion of white New Zealanders are of Scottish ancestry. Māori people are the second largest ethnic group (the percentage of the population of full or part-Māori ancestry is 14.7%; those who checked only Māori are 7.9%). Between the 1996 and 2001 censuses, the number of people of Asian origin (6.6%) overtook the number of people of Pacific Island origin (6.5%) (note that the census allowed multiple ethnic affiliations). Virtually all Māori are of mixed heritage (Māori/Pākeha), but a large portion of them marked themselves as Māori-only on the Census. New Zealand is positive about immigration and is committed to increasing its population by approx 1% per annum. At present migrants from the UK constitute the largest single group (30%) but new migrants are drawn from many nations, increasingly from East Asia. Christianity is the predominant religion in New Zealand, although nearly 40% of the population has no religious affiliation. The main Christian denominations are Anglicanism, Presbyterianism, Roman Catholicism and Methodism. There are also significant numbers who identify themselves with Pentecostal and Baptist churches and with the Mormon church. The New Zealand-based Ratana church has many adherents among Māori. According to census figures, other significant minority religions include Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam.

Culture

IslamNew Zealand has a diverse contemporary culture with influences from British, the Māori,and other European immigrants and most recently Polynesian cultures. There were many people from Scotland amongst the early British settlers and elements of their culture persist; New Zealand is said to have more bagpipe bands than Scotland. Cultural links between New Zealand and the UK are maintained by a common language, sustained migration from the UK and the fact that many young New Zealanders spend time in the UK on their "overseas experience (OE)". Pre-European contact Māori culture had no metal tools, relying on stone and wood. Modern Māori do not live a traditional lifestyle. Elements of Māori culture survive and the Government actively promotes it to all New Zealanders. Use of the Māori language (Te Reo Māori) as a living, community language remained only in a few remote areas in the post war years but it is currently going through a renaissance; with generous state support for Māori language medium schools and a Māori language television channel. New Zealand's landscape has appeared in a number of television programmes and films. In particular, the television series Hercules and Xena were filmed around Auckland, and the film Heavenly Creatures in Christchurch. The television series The Tribe is set and filmed in New Zealand as well. Director Peter Jackson shot the epic The Lord of the Rings trilogy in various locations around the country, taking advantage of the spectacular and relatively unspoiled landscapes, and Mount Taranaki was used as a stand-in for Mount Fuji in The Last Samurai. The latest of such major international films to be released are King Kong and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Sport

New Zealand's most popular sports are rugby union, cricket, netball, lawn bowling, soccer (the most popular sport amongst children) and rugby league. Also popular are golf, tennis, cycling and a variety of water sports, particularly sailing, whitewater kayaking, Surf Lifesaving and rowing. In the latter, New Zealand enjoyed an extraordinary Magic 45 minutes when winning four successive gold medals at the 2005 world championships. Snow sports such as skiing and snowboarding are also popular. Equestrian sportsmen and sportswomen make their mark in the world (Mark Todd being chosen international "Horseman of the Century"), and all the way down to the juniors at pony club level.

Olympic Games

The country is internationally recognised as achieving extremely well on a medals-to-population ratio at Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games. See, for example, New Zealand Olympic medallists and New Zealand at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Rugby

Rugby as a sport is closely linked to New Zealand's national identity. The national rugby team is called the All Blacks and has the best winning record of any national team in the world, including being the inaugural winners of the World Cup in 1987. The style of name has been followed in naming the national team in several other sports. For instance, the nation's basketball team is known as the Tall Blacks. New Zealand is to host the 2011 Rugby Union World Cup. New Zealand's national sporting colours are not the colours of its flag, but are black and white (silver). The silver fern is a national emblem worn by New Zealanders representing their country in sport. The haka—a traditional Māori challenge—is often performed at sporting events. The All Blacks traditionally perform a haka before the start of international matches.

Yachting, America's Cup

New Zealand is one of the leading nations in world yachting, especially open water long distance or around the world races. Round-the-world yachtsman, Sir Peter Blake was something of a national hero before his untimely death at the hands of river pirates while on an environmental exploration trip on the Amazon. In inshore yachting, Auckland hosted the last two America's Cup regattas (2000 and 2003). In 2000, Team New Zealand successfully defended the trophy they had won in 1995 in San Diego, which made them the only team in the history of the Cup to successfully defend a challenge other than a United States team, but in 2003 they lost to a team headed by Ernesto Bertarelli of Switzerland, whose Alinghi syndicate was skippered by Russell Coutts, the former skipper of Team New Zealand. Team New Zealand will compete for the America's Cup at the next regatta in Valencia in 2007. The team manager is Grant Dalton.

Public holidays

Statutory Holidays
(These holidays are legislated by several Acts of Parliament, such as the Holidays Act. New Zealand Statutes can be viewed at [http://www.legislation.govt.nz/browse_vw.asp?content-set=pal_statutes legislation.govt.nz]) There are also Provincial Anniversary Days to celebrate the founding days or landing days of the first colonists of the various colonial provinces. The actual observance of Anniversary days can vary even within each province due to local custom, convenience or the proximity of seasonal events or other holidays. This may differ from the historical observance day, and may be several weeks from the historic date of the events being commemorated. A full list of Anniversary days is listed in the article Holidays in New Zealand.

International rankings


- UN Human Development Index (HDI), 2005: 19th out of 177 behind Norway; United Nations Development Programme (pdf) [http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2005/pdf/HDR05_complete.pdf]
- Quality of Life Index, 2005: 15th out of 111 behind Ireland; The Economist Intelligence Unit (pdf) [http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/QUALITY_OF_LIFE.pdf]
- Environmental Sustainability Index, 2005: 14th (out of 146) behind Finland; Yale University Center for Environmental Law and Policy & Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (pdf) [http://www.yale.edu/esi/ESI2005_Main_Report.pdf]
- Index of Economic Freedom, 2005: 5th= (out of 155) behind Hong Kong; Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal [http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/]
- GDP Ranking, 2005: 25th out of 111 behind Luxembourg; The Economist Intelligence Unit (pdf) [http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/QUALITY_OF_LIFE.pdf]
- Transparency International 2005: 2nd= (out of 159) behind Iceland on its list of least corrupt countries in the world. [http://ww1.transparency.org/cpi/2005/cpi2005_infocus.html#cpi]

See also

Notes

McGlone, S.M. and Wilmshurst, J.M. 1999. Dating initial Māori environmental impact in New Zealand. Quaternary International 59:5 - 16
Ministry for the Environment. 2005. Offshore Options: Managing Environmental Effects in New Zealand's Exclusive Economic Zone. [http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/water/offshore-options-jun05/html/page3.html Introduction]
Allan, H.H. 1982. Indigenous Tracheophyta - Psilopsida, Lycopsida, Filicopsida, Gymnospermae, Dicotyledons, Flora of New Zealand Volume I. Botany Division, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research

External links


- [http://www.teara.govt.nz/ Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand]
- [http://webdirectory.natlib.govt.nz/index.htm Te Puna Web Directory ] - A directory to New Zealand web sites
- [http://www.mch.govt.nz/ Ministry for Culture and Heritage] - includes information on flag, anthems and coat of arms.
- [http://www.govt.nz/ New Zealand Government Portal]
- [http://www.nzte.govt.nz/ New Zealand Trade and Enterprise] - New Zealand's trade and economic development agency.
- [http://wikitravel.org/en/article/New_Zealand Wikitravel] - New Zealand travel guide.
- [http://www.metservice.co.nz/ New Zealand weather]
- [http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/ NZHistory.net.nz New Zealand history website]
- [http://www.stats.govt.nz/ Statistics New Zealand] - Official statistics.
- [http://www.newzealand.com/ Tourism New Zealand]
- [http://www.astronomy.net.nz/ Astronomy in New Zealand] The guide to astronomy in New Zealand
- [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ New Zealand Herald] - New Zealand newspaper online A
Category:Island nations Category:Members of the Commonwealth of Nations Category:Former British colonies Category:Monarchies Category:Oceanic countries Category:Polynesia als:Neuseeland zh-min-nan:Aotearoa ko:뉴질랜드 ms:New Zealand ja:ニュージーランド simple:New Zealand th:ประเทศนิวซีแลนด์

Mixed member proportional

The Additional Member System (AMS) is a voting system in which some representatives are elected from geographic constituencies and others are elected under proportional representation from party lists. The constituency representatives are generally elected under the first-past-the-post voting system. The party list representatives are elected by a second vote, where the electors vote for a political party, not directly for an individual. This party vote determines the number of representatives the party has in the assembly. The particular individuals selected come from lists drawn up by the political parties before the election, at a national or regional level. Variations of the AMS have different ways of determining how many party list representatives each party is entitled to. The main difference between systems is whether the constituency representatives are counted when list representatives are allocated to each party.
- Under the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) or Top-Up system, the aim is either for the party's total number of representatives, including constituency representatives, to be proportional to its percentage of the party vote, or for the allocation of additional party list seats to offset some or all of the disproportionate result in the constituencies.
- Under the Parallel Voting or Supplementary Member (SUP) system, the party list seats are allocated proportionally, and any constituency seats the party may have won are additional. Parallel Voting is the more common variation among voting systems of the world, but MMP is the system described here. Small parties will generally win more seats under MMP than SUP unless there is a threshold of exclusion, such as the 5% or 3 constituencies threshold in Germany, or the 5% or 1 constituency seat threshold in New Zealand. voting systems of the world

Employment

The AMS is used to elect members to numerous representative bodies around the world.
- Germany
  - Bundestag (Federal lower house)
  - some state parliaments
- New Zealand, where the system is known only as MMP (Mixed Member Proportional), not as AMS
  - House of Representatives (unicameral Parliament)
- United Kingdom
  - London Assembly
  - Scottish Parliament
  - Welsh Assembly It would have been used for the proposed Regional Assemblies in England. AMS is also used in Bolivia, Italy (lower house, since 1994), Lesotho, Mexico and Venezuela. Hungary has a complex voting system that results in a less proportional representation than AMS but more proportional than Parallel voting.

Proposals for British elections

In 1976, the Hansard Society recommended that the Additional Member System be used for UK parliamentary elections, but instead of using closed party lists, it proposed that seats be filled by defeated candidates, on a 'best loser' basis. A similar system was proposed by the Independent Commission in 1999, known as Alternative Vote plus (AV+). This would involve the use of the Alternative Vote for electing members from single-member constituencies, and regional party lists. However, contrary to the Labour party's earlier manifesto promises, there was not a referendum before the 2001 election and the statement was not repeated.

Procedures

The voter makes two votes: one for a constituency representative and one for a party. In a lesser-used variant, which is used by some of the several States of Germany, both votes are combined into one, so that voting for a representative automatically means also voting for the representative's party. In each constituency, the representative is chosen using a single winner method, typically first-past-the-post (that is, the candidate with the most votes, by plurality, wins). On the district or national level (i.e. above the constituency level) two different methods are used:
- The total number of seats in the assembly are allocated to parties proportionally to the number of votes the party received in the party portion of the ballot. Subtracted from each party's allocation is the number of constituency seats that party won. The number of seats remaining allocated to that party are filled using the party's list.
- Alternatively, something like a highest averages method is used to allocate the list seats, but the number of seats already won in the constituencies is taken into account in setting the denominators used in the calculations for the list seats. If a candidate is on the party list, but wins a constituency seat, they do not receive two seats; they are instead crossed off the party list and replaced with the next candidate down.

Overhang seats

Because a party can gain fewer seats by the party vote than needed to justify the won constituency seats, overhang seats can occur. There are different ways of dealing with overhang seats. In Germany's Bundestag and the New Zealand House of Representatives the overhang seats remain. In some systems the other parties receive extra seats to restore proportionality. Overhang seats are not an explicit issue where the percentages are only applied for the list seats, as in the systems used in the United Kingdom, but the effect is to reduce the share of seats in the whole assembly held by parties which win disproportionately few constituencies. For example, in New Zealand's 2005 General Election the Māori Party won 2.1% of the Party Vote, entitling them to 3 seats in the House, but won 4 electorates, leaving an overhang of 1 seat, which results in a 121-member house.

Threshold

In order to be eligible for list seats in the New Zealand, German and various United Kingdom systems, a party must either earn at least 5% of the total party vote or must win at least one constituency seat (three constituency seats in Germany). If neither of the two conditions are met, no candidates from the party list are chosen. Candidates having won a constituency will still have won their seat. Having a member with a 'safe' constituency seat is therefore a tremendous asset to a minor party in such a system.

Potential for tactical voting

In terms of tactical voting, the first vote for the district representative is often much less important (than the second party list vote) in determining the overall result of an election; in other cases a party may be so certain of winning seats in the district election that it expects no extra seats in the proportional top-up. Some voters may therefore seek to get a double representation by voting tactically and splitting their votes, though this runs the risk of unintended consequences. In systems with a threshold, tactical voting for a minor party that is predicted to poll slightly below the threshold is relatively common, especially by voters who are afraid that the minor party missing the threshold would weaken the larger political camp that the minor party belongs to. For example the German moderate-right Free Democratic Party (FDP) has often received votes from voters who preferred the larger Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, because they feared that if the FDP received less than five percent of the votes, the conservative camp would be weakened so much that the CDU wouldn't be able to form a government.

Decoy lists

Political parties can also abuse the system: in the 2001 Italian elections, the two main coalitions (the House of Freedoms and the Olive Tree) linked many of their constituency candidates to decoy lists (liste civetta) in the proportional parts, under the names Abolizione Scorporo and Paese Nuovo respectively, so that if they won constituencies then they would not reduce the number of proportional seats received by the coalitions. Between them, the two decoy lists won 360 of the 475 constituency seats, more than half of the 630 total number of seats, despite winning a combined total of less than 0.2% of the national proportional part of the vote. In the case of Forza Italia (part of the House of Freedoms), the tactic was so successful that it did not have enough candidates in the proportional part to receive as many seats as it in fact won, missing out on 12 seats. Decoy lists are not used in most countries using AMS, where most voters vote for candidates from parties with long-standing names.

See also


- List of democracy and elections-related topics Category:Voting systems

Winston Peters

:This page refers to the New Zealand politician. For the Trinidad and Tobago calypsonian and politician see: Gypsy (calypsonian) The Right Honourable Winston Raymond Peters (born April 11, 1945) is a New Zealand politician and Member of Parliament, the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, outside cabinet. He is the leader of the New Zealand First political party.

Career

Peters was born in the town of Whangarei. He is half Maori, his father being Maori and his mother Pakeha. His iwi affiliations are Ngati Wai and his Clan is McInnes. After attending Whangarei Boys High School and Dargaville High School he studied history, politics and law at Auckland University and graduated BA/LLb and has worked both as a teacher and as a lawyer. Two of his brothers, Ian Peters and Jim Peters, have also been Members of Parliament. He was a member of the University Rugby Club in Auckland and captain of the Auckland Maori Rugby team. He also played in the Prince of Wales Cup, which are trials for the Maori All Blacks. One of his other brothers, Wayne Peters, played rugby for Otago and North Auckland in the National Provincal Championship and was in the Junior All Blacks while another brother, Allan Peters, represented Wanganui in rugby.

National Party

He entered national politics in 1975, standing unsuccessfully for the National Party in the electorate seat of Northern Maori. This followed a sucessful campaign by Peters, then a lawyer, and other members of his iwi, Ngati Wai, to retain their tribal land in the face of the Labour governments plans to create coastal land reserves for the public. The result was that no virtually ancestral land was taken by the Government of the day in the Whangarei coastal areas. The Ngati Wai action helped to inspire the 1975 Land March led by Whina Cooper. Peters initially entered parliament under the banner of the National Party,entering parliament in 1979 after winning in the High Court an electoral petition which overturned the election night result for the seat of Hunua (an electorate in the Auckland area) against Malcolm Douglas, the brother of Roger Douglas. He lost this seat in 1981, but in 1984 he successfully stood in the electorate of Tauranga. After winning Tauranga, he became the National Party's spokesperson on Maori Affairs, Consumer Affairs, and Transport. In 1987, he was elevated to National's Front Bench, acting as spokesperson for Maori Affairs, Employment, and Race Relations. After National won the 1990 elections, Peters became Minister of Maori Affairs in the government of Jim Bolger. While Peters was relatively popular with the public, he became increasingly disliked within his own party. Peters disagreed with the party leadership on a number of matters, and frequently spoke out against his party regarding them. While National could possibly have tolerated his difference of opinion, they were far less willing to accept his public criticism, which they regarded as undermining the party. Eventually, in October 1991, Bolger dismissed Peters from his cabinet position. Peters remained as a National backbencher, continuing to criticise the party. In late 1992, when the National Party was considering possible candidates for the elections in the following year, it was decided that Peters would not be allowed to seek nomination for Tauranga. Peters unsuccessfully challenged this decision in the High Court, and in early 1993, he chose to resign from the party and from parliament. This prompted a by-election in Tauranga some months before the scheduled national elections. He stood as an independent and won easily.

New Zealand First

a by-election in Tauranga Shortly before the 1993 general elections, Peters established the New Zealand First party. In the election, Peters retained his Tauranga seat. Another New Zealand First candidate, Tau Henare, was also successful, helping to convince people that New Zealand First was not simply an extension of Winston Peters. In the 1996 elections, the MMP electoral system delivered considerable success to New Zealand First. The party won 17 seats and swept all of the Maori seats. More importantly, it held the balance of power in Parliament. Neither National nor Labour was able to secure a majority in parliament without the backing of New Zealand First, meaning Peters could effectively choose the next prime minister. After over a month of negotiations with both parties, Peters decided to enter into coalition with his former colleagues in National. Earlier, he had appeared to promise not to align with National, but Michael Laws, the party's campaign manager, later claimed that Peters had already decided to join forces with them and used his negotiations with Labour simply to win more concessions from Bolger. Whatever the case, Peters exacted a high price for allowing Bolger to stay on as prime minister. Peters became Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer (senior to the Minister of Finance), the latter post created especially for him. Initially, there were concerns about whether Peters would be able to work with Bolger, the National prime minister who had previously sacked him from Cabinet, but the two did not seem to have any major difficulties. Later, however, tensions began to develop between Peters and the National Party, which only worsened after Jenny Shipley staged a party room coup and became prime minister. After a dispute over the privatization of Auckland International Airport, Peters was sacked from Cabinet again on 14 August 1998. He immediately led New Zealand First back into opposition. However, several MPs, including deputy leader Henare, opted to stay in government and leave New Zealand First. It later came out that Henare had tried to oust Peters as leader, but failed. None of the MPs who opted to stay in government retained their seats in the next election. New Zealand First's ongoing problems caused it to perform badly in the 1999 elections. It collapsed to 4.3% of the vote, and would have been shut out of Parliament had Peters not managed to hold onto Tauranga by a slim margin. This only allowed New Zealand First to win five seats. Still in opposition, he continued to promote his traditional policies, but also became more noticeably more concerned about immigration policies. In the 2002 election, Peters performed well once again, campaigning on three main issues - reducing immigration, increasing punishments for crime, and ending the "grievance industry" around Treaty of Waitangi settlements. This message regained much support for both Peters and his party, which won 10% of the vote and 13 seats. Peters seemed to hope that Labour, in a position to form a government, would choose to ally with New Zealand First. However, Helen Clark, the Labour Party's leader, explicitly rejected this possibility, instead relying on support from elsewhere. This appeared to anger Peters considerably. Peters objects to the image that either he or his party is racist, although many people in New Zealand would consider it so even though he is half-Maori. He tried to appeal to Asian voters in 2002 without much success by claiming himself as having Chinese blood. In a speech at Orewa in 2005, he openly criticised immigration from the Asian countries as "imported criminal activity". In July 2005 Peters said New Zealand should err on the side of caution in admitting immigrants until they "affirm their commitment to New Zealanders' values and standards." In the same occasion, Peters claimed to know that Muslim extremists were regularly entering New Zealand, and accused Islam in New Zealand as "having two faces - a moderate face and a militant underbelly". However, he refused to identify the person or the source. As the 2005 general election approached, Peters did not indicate a preference for coalition with either of the major parties. He promised to either give support in confidence and supply to the party with the most seats, or at least abstain from no-confidence votes against it, and that he would not deal with any coalition that included the Greens. He pledged to keep post-election negotiations to under three weeks following criticism of the seven week marathon it took to broker a deal with National in 1996. In the election, New Zealand First was severely mauled, with much of its support flowing to National. Peters himself narrowly lost his supposedly unbreakable hold on Tauranga, but New Zealand First did well enough to receive seven seats (down from thirteen in 2002), allowing Peters to remain in Parliament as a list MP. In negotiations after the election with Clark, Peters secured the ministerial portfolios of Foriegn Affairs and Racing in a Labour-led government. He is a member of the Executive Council, although he is outside cabinet. He has been given permission to criticise the government in areas not related to his portfolios. [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/event/story.cfm?c_id=1500891&ObjectID=10350720 Constitutional experts] say that this is an unprecedented situation. Considering his previous comments relating to immigration, reaction from overseas was one of [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/event/story.cfm?c_id=1500891&ObjectID=10350866 concern]. In the [http://www.theindependent.co.nz Independent], commentators gave some insight on the process of how Peters decided to join a Labour-led Government in an article titled [http://www.theindependent.co.nz/story1.html 'Who screwed whom?'].

Views and policies

Considerable debate has centred on how to classify the politics of Winston Peters. Common descriptions applied to him include "radical centrist," nationalist, and populist. He says he distrusts the corporate world (a fact sometimes used to classify him as left-wing), but exhibits strong conservatism in his social policy (sometimes used to classify him as right-wing). Perhaps his most notable policy in recent years has been his campaign against immigration, causing some to claim that nationalist describes him best (some critics say "racist", although Peters denies this). Some observers, however, say that his policies do not follow any ideology at all, and claim that he simply attaches himself to whatever cause is popular. This view of Peters as a populist can be either a criticism or a compliment. According to some, he is an opportunist, using his various crusades to keep himself in power. However, others argue that he is a genuine supporter of the people's interests, fighting for them against big government and big business. This latter view is probably the one which Peters himself most promotes - he frequently portrays himself as working for ordinary New Zealanders against an elitist and paternalistic government. As a result of the MMP voting system in New Zealand, many see this populist appeal as one of the main reasons for the longevity of his political career.

External links


- [http://www.nzfirst.org.nz/leader/index.php New Zealand First: Winston Peters biography] Peters, Winston Peters, Winston Raymond Peters, Winston Peters, Winston Peters, Winston Peters, Winston Peters, Winston

New Zealand First

image:NewZealandFirstPartyLogo.png
Current New Zealand First logo
New Zealand First is a political party in New Zealand. Commentators dispute the appropriate classification of the party on the traditional political spectrum, but most voters would probably associate it with its controversial campaigns against immigration and against the Treaty of Waitangi. Winston Peters, the founder of the Party, continues to lead the party. His authority in the party figures very significantly, and many people do not believe that New Zealand First would survive without him. Winston Peters

Policies

In the election campaign of 2002, New Zealand First focused on three primary policies: # reducing immigration # bringing crime under control and increasing judicial sentences # reducing payments related to the settlements process for the Treaty of Waitangi. A lot of New Zealanders regard the party as opportunist, pursuing whichever issues it can gain votes from. The Party espouses a mixture of economic policies. It opposes the privatisation of state assets (particularly to overseas buyers), which might align it with views generally found on the left of New Zealand politics. On the other hand, it favours reducing taxation (a policy typical of the New Zealand right) and tends to espouse quite conservative views on social issues. In this way it is best thought of as Populist. The policies of New Zealand First mirror the views of Winston Peters.

History

New Zealand First emerged as a political grouping in 1993, shortly before the that year's general election. Peters, the MP for the seat of Tauranga and a former Minister of Maori Affairs, had left the National Party after disputes with its leadership, but Tauranga voters had re-elected him in a special by-election as an independent. In the following general election Peters held onto Tauranga. Tau Henare, another New Zealand First candidate, won the Northern Maori seat, giving the party a total of two MPs. With the switch to the MMP electoral system for the 1996 elections, smaller parties could gain a share of seats proportional to their share of the vote. This enabled New Zealand First to win 13% of the vote and 17 seats, including all five Maori seats. New Zealand First's five Maori MPs--Henare (the party's deputy leader), Tuku Morgan, Rana Waitai, Tu Wyllie and Tuariki Delamere--became known as the "Tight Five." The election result gave New Zealand First the balance of power just three years after its formation - neither of the two traditional major parties (National and Labour) had sufficient strength to form a government, leaving New Zealand First in a position where it could effectively choose the next prime minister. New Zealand First entered into negotiations with both major parties. Before the election, most people (including many New Zealand First voters) had expected Peters to enter into coalition with Labour. In fact, he appeared to promise not to align with National. After seven weeks of negotiations with both parties, it came as a surprise when Peters decided to go into coalition with his former National colleagues after some of the electorate apparently voted for him in order to get rid of National. The most common explanation for this decision involved National's willingness to accept New Zealand First's demands (and/or Labour's refusal to do so). However, Michael Laws (a former MP who served as a New Zealand First campaign manager) claims that Peters had secretly decided to go with National significantly before this time, and that he merely used negotiations with Labour to encourage more incentives from National. New Zealand First gained considerable concessions from National in exchange for this deal. Winston Peters would serve as deputy prime minister, and would also hold the specially-created office of Treasurer (senior to the Minister of Finance). The National Party also made considerable concessions on policy. Initially, New Zealand First had a relatively smooth coalition relationship with National. Despite early concerns about the ability of Peters to work with National leader Jim Bolger, who had sacked Peters from a former National cabinet, the two did not have major problems. New Zealand First had graver concerns about the behaviour of some of its MPs, whom opponents accused of incompetence and extravagant spending. Many people came to the conclusion that the party's minor MPs had come into parliament merely to provide votes for Peters, and would not make any real contributions themselves. A particularly damaging scandal involved Morgan. Gradually, however, the coalition tensions became more significant than problems of party discipline. This became increasingly the case after Jenny Shipley, a National Party Member of Parliament, gained enough support to force Bolger's resignation, and subsequently succeeded him as Prime Minister (8 December 1997). The tensions between the two parties also rose as New Zealand First adopted a more aggressive approach to promoting its policies (including those that National would not implement). This new attitude probably fed off New Zealand First's poor performance in opinion polls, which (to Peters) indicated that the party's success rested on its confrontational style. Many commentators believe that Peters performs better in Opposition than in Government. On 14 August 1998, Shipley sacked Peters from his Cabinet positions. This occurred after an ongoing dispute about a relatively minor matter (the sale of the government's stake in Wellington International Airport). The issue itself appeared merely the outward manifestation of much deeper disagreement. Peters immediately broke off the coalition with National. However, Henare and several other MPs, unwilling to follow Peters out of government, left New Zealand First. Most of these MPs joined Henare in forming a new party, Mauri Pacific, while others established themselves as independents. Many of these MPs had previously come under public scrutiny for their behaviour, and none gained re-election. Until 1999, however, they provided National with enough support to continue on without New Zealand First. In the 1999 elections the voters gave New Zealand First a severe mauling. Some of the electorate had apparently not forgiven Peters for going into coalition with National after it had voted for him in order to get rid of National. The New Zealand First Party gained only 4% of the vote, and would not have qualified for for seats in Parliament under MMP rules had Peters not retained his local electorate. Peters held his Tauranga seat by a mere 63 votes, and New Zealand First only received five seats. By the election of 2002, however, the party had rebuilt much of its support. This occurred largely due to Peters' three-point campaign against immigration, Treaty costs, and crime. The party won 10% of the vote - a considerable improvement on its previous performance (although still not as good as its performance in 1996), and New Zealand First gained thirteen seats in parliament. Winston Peters' campaign phrase "can we fix it? yes we can" gained much media attention, as the same line appears in theme music for the children's television programme Bob The Builder. It appears that New Zealand First had hoped to play in 2002 a similar role to the one it had in 1996, where it found itself able to give power to either Labour or National depending on which offered the best deal. However, National's vote had collapsed to the extent that it could not form a government even with New Zealand First's support, depriving the party of its negotiating advantage. In the end, however, this proved irrelevant, as Labour refused to consider an alliance with New Zealand First in any case. Instead, Labour relied on support from the newly-significant United Future party. Peters appeared angry over this. After the 2002 election, New Zealand First continued to promote its policies strongly. In light of National's decreased strength, New Zealand First attempted to gain more prominence in Opposition, frequently attacking the Labour Coalition government on a wide range of issues. Speculation has occurred on efforts to create a more united front linking New Zealand First, National, and ACT, but Peters has rejected this scenario, saying that the New Zealand voters will decide what alliances are necessary (even though New Zealand never votes directly on preferred coalitions). Unlike ACT, which pursues the role of the "natural" right-wing coalition partner to National, New Zealand First welcomes coalition with any major party, regardless of the political spectrum. For a period in early 2004 New Zealand First experienced a brief decline in the polls after Don Brash became leader of the New Zealand National Party, a change which hugely revived National's previously fallen fortunes. The votes that had apparently previously switched to New Zealand First from National seemed to return to support Brash, and many commentators predicted that New Zealand First would lose a number of its seats in the next election. By 2005 however the proportions had changed again, and as the campaign for the September 2005 election got under way New Zealand First had again reached the 10% mark in political polling. Pre-election polls put New Zealand First ahead of the other minor parties. Some thought it likely that in the event of a National minority, unless ACT's fortunes could dramatically improve; Brash would have to form a second coalition or seek a support agreement with New Zealand First to be able to form a Government. Peters announced that he would support the party that won the most seats, or at least abstain in no-onfidence motions against it. However, he also said he will not support any government that included the Greens within the Cabinet. In the 2005 elections, however, most of the smaller parties, including New Zealand First, suffered a severe mauling. Though it remained the third-largest party in the house, it took only 5.72 percent of the vote, a considerable loss from 2002. That total earned it only seven seats, six fewer than in 2002. In addition, Peters narrowly lost Tauranga by 730 votes, but remained in Parliament as a list MP.

Campaign Message 2005

This election should be about visionary leadership and policies and principles - and not about the pursuit of power and the baubles of office.

New Zealand First Candidates in 2005 General Election

External link


- [http://www.nzfirst.org.nz New Zealand First Official Website] New Zealand First

Jim Anderton

James Patrick Anderton (almost always referred to as Jim Anderton) is leader of the Progressive Party, a political party in the New Zealand Parliament. He has served in Parliament since 1984. Since 1999, he has been Minister of Economic Development, of Industry and Regional Development, of Forestry, and of Public Trust, and Associate Minister of Health. He also served as Deputy Prime Minister from 1999 to 2002.

Early days

Anderton was born on 21 January 1938 in Auckland. He undertook all his education there, eventually graduating as a qualified teacher. He spent only two years in a teaching role, however, before moving on to work as a child welfare officer. In 1960, he became involved in organization for a Catholic youth movement, and later worked as the secretary for the Catholic diocese in Auckland. He later moved into business, working as an export manager for a textiles company before establishing Anderton Holdings, a manufacturing company, in 1971.

Entering politics

His political career began when he was elected to the Manukau City Council in 1965, and again in 1974. He subsequently joined the Auckland Regional Authority in 1977. At the same time, he worked his way up the internal hierarchy of the Labour Party, which he had joined in 1963. He became the party's president in 1979, a year before his term with the Auckland Regional Authority ended. He was also a long-standing member of the party's policy council.

Parliament

In 1984, Anderton successfully stood as the Labour candidate for Sydenham, an electorate in Christchurch. However, he soon came into conflict with the party's leadership, and became one of the most outspoken critics of Minister of Finance Roger Douglas. Douglas and his allies, Richard Prebble and David Caygill, were determined to implement radical reforms of the country's economic system, known unofficially as "Rogernomics". This involved a monetarist approach to controlling inflation, the removal of tariffs and subsidies, and the privatisation of state assets - all of this was regarded by Anderton as a betrayal of the party's left-wing roots, and a severe deviation from the party's election platform. Anderton's severe criticism of Douglas and his reforms earned him the enmity of many within the party, including some of those who shared Anderton's frustration - his public comments were seen as damaging the party's public image. He did, however, become highly popular with the public, as many New Zealanders shared his opposition to the reforms. He also won widespread praise for keeping to Labour's campaign pledges even when the rest of the party abandoned them.

1989 split from Labour

Although many ordinary members of the Labour Party (who were unhappy at the way the party's parliamentary wing was behaving) backed Anderton, he became increasingly isolated in parliament. When Anderton disobeyed party instructions to vote in favour of selling the Bank of New Zealand (which Labour had explicitly promised not to do), he was suspended from caucus. In April 1989, believing that Labour was beyond change, Anderton resigned from the party. He later said: "I did not leave the Labour Party; the Labour Party left me." On 1 May, Anderton announced the creation of the NewLabour Party, intended to represent the "real" spirit of the original Labour Party. Its primary goals were state intervention in the economy, retention of public assets, and full employment. In the 1990 general election Anderton retained his Sydenham seat, ensuring that NewLabour (and Anderton's criticism) would not fade away. In parliament, Anderton attacked the policies of the new National Party government, particularly Ruth Richardson's continuation of Rogernomics.

The Alliance

When, in 1991, the Alliance was established, NewLabour and Anderton were at the centre of it. Anderton became leader of the new party, and in the 1993 election, he was joined in parliament by Alliance colleague Sandra Lee-Vercoe. He briefly stepped down as leader of the Alliance for family reasons in November 1994, but was persuaded to return in May 1995. In the 1996 election, the first to be held under MMP, the Alliance won 13 seats in Parliament. Anderton retained his constituency seat (the electorate was now renamed Wigram) and he was joined in Parliament by 12 List MPs. Anderton was the most prominent critic of the rash of party-switching (or "waka jumping," as it is called in New Zealand) characterized the 46th Parliament. When Alamein Kopu, a list MP from his party, declared herself an independent and supported the National-led coalition, Anderton blasted her, saying her behavior "breached every standard of ethics that are known." He later started a "Go Now" petition calling on Kopu and every other party-switching MP to resign. When Kopu founded her own party, Mana Wahine Te Ira Tangata in support of the government, Anderton suggested that the new party's creation smacked of corruption--as a party leader rather than a mere independent, Kopu received an additional $80,000 in funding.

Coalition Government

After the 1999 election, the Alliance formed a coalition with Labour, which had mostly purged itself of the influence of Roger Douglas. The two parties entered government together, with Anderton becoming Deputy Prime Minister. He was also given the newly created post of Minister of Economic Development, which had an emphasis on job creation and regional development initiatives. Towards the end of the parliamentary term, however, Anderton came into conflict with the party's administrative wing. Party president Matt McCarten and his allies claimed that the Alliance was too close to Labour, and that it should take a less moderate path. Anderton replied that a certain amount of moderation was required for the Alliance to accomplish any of its goals. There were also complaints that Anderton was too dominant in the party's decision-making and over the fact that Anderton supported the government's stance on the bombing of Afghanistan, while the executive and wider membership opposed it. Eventually, Anderton and three other MPs chose to leave the Alliance, establishing the new Progressive Coalition (now the Progressive Party). In the 2002 election Anderton was returned to Parliament, and once again entered into coalition with Labour. His following, however, was diminished--the Progressives only won 1.4% of the vote and would have been shut out of Parliament had Anderton not won his electorate. As it was, only one other Progressive--deputy leader Matt Robson--was able to enter Parliament. Anderton gave up the deputy prime minister's post to Minister of Finance and Labour deputy leader Michael Cullen. Even though he was leader of the junior partner in the coalition, his support no longer justified such a high post. He remained, however, Minister of Economic Development, while also holding other ministerial portfolios. He ranks third in Cabinet, behind Clark and Cullen. In the runup to the 2005 election Anderton renamed his party to "Jim Anderton's Progressive". However, he was the only Progressive returned to Parliament by a narrow margin after many left-wing voters voted for Labour to prevent a National government. He is now Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry, Biosecurity, and Minister reponsible for the Public Trust, as well as holding associate roles in health and tertiary education. Anderton, Jim Anderton, Jim Anderton, Jim Anderton, Jim Anderton, Jim Anderton, Jim

1949

1949 (MCMXLIX) is a common year starting on Saturday.

Events

January-February


- January 4 - RMS Caronia of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York on her maiden voyage
- January 4 - February 22 - Series of winter storms in Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, Colorado and Nevada - winds of up to 72 mph - tens of thousands of cattle and sheep perish
- January 5 - U.S. President Harry S. Truman unveils his Fair Deal program.
- January 11 - Los Angeles, California receives its first recorded snowfall.
- January 22 - Communist forces enter Peking
- January 25 - The first Emmy Awards are presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club.
- January 25 - In the first Israeli election, David Ben-Gurion becomes Prime Minister.
- January 26 - Australian Citizenship comes into being.
- February 1 - Rationing of clothes ends in Britain
- February 8 - Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary is sentenced to life imprisonment for treason against the Hungarian Communist government.
- February 12 - The Vatican announces the excommunication of all persons involved in the trial and conviction of Cardinal Mindszenty.
- February 14 - The Knesset (Israeli parliament) first convenes.
- February 14 - Antonio Carmona re-elected president of Portugal for lack of opposing candidate
- February 19 - Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.
- February 22 - Grady the Cow, a 1,200-pound cow gets stuck inside a silo on a farm in Yukon, Oklahoma and garners national media attention.

March-April

Yukon, Oklahoma
- March 1 - World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis retires
- March 1 - Indonesia seizes Yogyakarta from the Dutch
- March 2 - The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II under Captain James Gallagher lands in Fort Worth, Texas after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight. It was refueled in flight four times.
- March 3 - The Tucker automobile Corporation folds.
- March 12 - The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Denver & Rio Grande Western and Western Pacific railroads inaugurate the California Zephyr passenger train between Chicago, Illinois and Los Angeles, California as the first train to feature Vista Dome cars as regular equipment.
- March 28 - United States Secretary of Defense James Forrestal resigns suddenly.
- March 31 - The former British colony of Newfoundland joins Canada as its 10th province.
- April 1 - Éire leaves the Commonwealth and becomes the Republic of Ireland
- April 4 - NATO is formed.
- April 18 - Éire formally became the Republic of Ireland.
- April 20 - Royal Navy frigate HMS Amethyst goes up the Yangtze River to evacuate British Commonwealth refugees escaping the advance of the Mao's communist forces. Under heavy fire it rans aground off Rose Island. After an aborted rescue attempt at April 26 it anchors 10 miles upstream. Negotiations with the communist forces to let the ship leave drag on for weeks
- April 23 - Chinese communist troops take Nanking
- April 29 - News Review reveals that neither Selhurst College nor its headmaster H. Rochester Sneath exist

May-June


- May 5 - The Council of Europe is founded by the signing of the Treaty of London.
- May 9 - Rainier III of Monaco becomes Prince of Monaco.
- May 11 - Israel is admitted to the U.N. as its 59th member.
- May 11 - Siam changes its name to Thailand.
- May 12 - Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts its Blockade of Berlin.
- May 20 - The AFSA (predecessor of the NSA) is established.
- May 22 - After two months in Bethesda Naval Hospital, James Forrestal commits suicide, under circumstances that seem suspicious to many.
- May 23 - The Federal Republic of Germany is established.
- EDSAC, the first stored-program computer, begins operation at Cambridge University.
- June 2 - Transjordan becomes kingdom of Jordan
- June 6 - With the passage of the Bodh Gaya Temple Act by the Indian government, Mahabodhi Temple is restored to partial Buddhist control.
- June 8 - Red Scare: Such celebrities as Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Danny Kaye, Fredric March, John Garfield, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson are named in an FBI report as Communist Party members.
- June 8 - George Orwell's book Nineteen Eighty-Four is published.
- June 29 - Last US troops withdraw from South Korea
- June 29 - Dock strike in the UK
- June 29 - Beginning of Apartheid - The South African Citizenship Act suspends the granting of citizenship to British Commonwealth immigrants after five years and imposes a ban on mixed marriages
- July 31 - Captain Kerans of HMS Amethyst decides to make a break after the nightfall under heavy fire from both sides of the river and successfully rejoins the fleet at Woosung the next day

August


- August 5 - In Ecuador an earthquake destroys 50 towns and kills more than 8000
- August 5 - 6.75 Richter scale earthquake kills 6000 in Ecuador
- August 8 - Bhutan becomes independent
- August 14 - Gang of Salvatore Giuliano explodes mines under police barracks outside Palermo, Sicily
- August 14 - Military coup in Syria ousts the president
- August 28 - Last surviving veterans of the United States Civil War meet in Indianapolis - all six
- August 29 - First meeting of the Council of Europe
- August 29