New Zealand

F

1

National Party Dominance

Labour lost its hold on power in the 1949 elections. The National Party (established as a successor to the Reform Party in 1936) won a decisive victory under the leadership of Sidney Holland, who became prime minister. In 1951 his government responded to a prolonged dockworkers’ strike by restricting civil liberties. Holland served as prime minister until he retired, citing ill health, in 1957. In the elections of that year the National Party, under the leadership of Holland’s successor, Keith Holyoake, lost to the Labour Party under Walter Nash. But Holyoake led the National Party to victory in the 1960 elections and in three subsequent elections, holding office as prime minister until 1972. That year the Labour Party secured an election victory under Norman Kirk. Kirk died in office in 1974 and was replaced by Wallace Rowling. The National Party was reelected in 1975, now under Robert Muldoon, who served as prime minister until 1984.

During these decades of National Party dominance, a high level of integration between state, business, farming, and even workers’ unions persisted. The economy was fairly prosperous from the 1950s through the 1970s. Waning demand for New Zealand products in Britain led to more diversified trading partners. Muldoon’s government regulated many parts of New Zealand’s economy, to the benefit of farmers and businesses. He advocated traditional social values and maintained close ties with Britain and the United States. These policies, along with his authoritarian brand of leadership, brought him into conflict with Maori rights organizations, feminist groups, and a growing anti-nuclear environmentalist movement.

Several dramatic social changes took place between the 1950s and the early 1980s. Perhaps the most important was the resurgence of Maori, whose population began to make a healthy recovery in the 1940s. The Maori population increased from 45,000 to 523,000 between 1896 and 1996. This growth was coupled with massive Maori urban migration and, from 1970, political protest and radical activism that resulted in more official recognition of Maori concerns. Other important social changes included a major movement of women into the paid workforce and new waves of immigration by people from Europe as well as the Pacific Islands and, especially after 1984, East Asia. In the 1960s nonconformist youth and marginalized groups began to challenge the status quo. This was coupled with considerable activity in the arts. New Zealand experienced a general social liberalization, perhaps even cultural decolonization, as a result of these social changes.

G

Third Period of Reform

In 1978 and 1981 the Muldoon government was narrowly returned to power, but when Muldoon called an early election in 1984, the Labour Party under David Lange defeated him. Growing support for social, political, and economic reforms as well as frustration over a depressed economy contributed to the National Party’s downfall. As prime minister, Lange initiated the third period of intense reform in New Zealand’s modern history. Reversing its traditional position, the Labour Party set out to deregulate economy and society and to disengage the state from both. The policies, often referred to as “Rogernomics,” were masterminded more by Finance Minister Roger Douglas than by Lange, who eventually came to oppose them and removed Douglas in 1988. However, economic restructuring was continued by succeeding governments, both National and Labour, until 1999.

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The new Labour government also set the precedent of making the first real attempt to address Maori grievances. Since 1975 Maori had been able to submit grievances to the Waitangi Tribunal, but only for claims of recent breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi. The tribunal was largely ineffectual until 1985, when the government enabled it to consider Maori grievances from as far back as 1840. Since then there have been several major settlements, under which the state paid compensation to Maori tribal groups for breaches of the treaty. Although the settlements met with a mixed reception from some Maori claimants, the tribunal process does suggest that at least some reconciliation is possible.

Under Lange the Labour government also adopted an antinuclear policy, which led to the suspension of the ANZUS treaty. After the Labour election victory in 1984, a strong section of the party and of the public advocated an uncompromising antinuclear policy, directed against French nuclear testing in the Pacific and visits to New Zealand’s coastal waters by nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered ships of the U.S. Navy. Protests against French tests were led by the environmental organization Greenpeace. In 1985, before planned Greenpeace protests at the nuclear test site of Mururoa, an atoll in French Polynesia, the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior was blown up and sunk in Auckland’s harbor. One person died as a result of the bombing. Investigations revealed that the ship had been deliberately sabotaged with explosives planted by undercover agents of the French military. This incident broadened and strengthened public support in New Zealand for an antinuclear stance. New Zealand’s military alliance with the United States, effectively the cornerstone of foreign policy since 1942, lapsed. In 1986 the United States suspended its ANZUS security guarantees to New Zealand. (Separate defense agreements with Australia remained in force.) In June 1987 New Zealand’s ban on nuclear-carrying vessels in its territorial waters became law with the enactment of the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Bill.

The Labour government won reelection in 1987. Citing ill health, Lange resigned in 1989 and was replaced by Geoffrey Palmer. Internal disputes within the party and the declining popularity of the government caused Palmer to resign in favor of Michael Moore in September 1990. The national election held the following month was fought mainly over economic issues. Labour was ousted by the National Party, then headed by James (Jim) Brendan Bolger.

H

Recent Developments

The results of the parliamentary election in 1993 were the closest of the 20th century. The initial outcome was a hung Parliament, with no party holding an outright majority. Recounts of votes in marginal electorates allowed the National Party, led by Bolger, to emerge with 50 seats, a 1-seat majority in Parliament. Soon after the narrow defeat of the Labour Party in the 1993 elections, Helen Clark replaced Moore as party leader, becoming the first woman to head a major political party in New Zealand.

Also in the 1993 elections, a national referendum was held on whether New Zealand should retain its majority-vote electoral system or replace it with a system of proportional representation, known as the mixed-member proportional (MMP) system. The MMP system was seen as a way to limit the dominance of the two largest parties, Labour and National, by making it more difficult for either party to win a simple majority, forcing them to form coalitions with smaller parties. By a slim margin, voters approved the new system to go into effect with the 1996 elections.

The first elections under MMP returned Bolger and the National Party to power in a coalition with the New Zealand First party. A challenge from Jenny Shipley, former minister of social welfare, forced Bolger to resign as prime minister and head of the National Party in 1997. Shipley replaced him in November of that year, becoming New Zealand’s first female prime minister.

In the 1999 legislative elections voters, weary of economic restructuring, ended nine years of National Party rule by voting in a center-left coalition led by the Labour Party. Labour was led by Helen Clark, who became New Zealand’s first female prime minister to be selected following parliamentary elections. Clark began a second term following the 2002 elections, in which the Labour Party won a plurality in Parliament. Clark formed a government with the support of the center-right United Future party, but that party declined to become an official coalition partner. In 2005 Clark became the first Labour leader to win a third term as prime minister. Her party formed a coalition government with the support of a number of minor parties, including United Future and the nationalist New Zealand First party.

The Land and Resources and Economy sections of this article were reviewed by Ward Friesen. The People and Society, Culture, and History sections were contributed by James Belich.

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