Everything about New Zealand First totally explained
New Zealand First, a
political party in
New Zealand, has had members in the
New Zealand House of Representatives since 1993. Commentators dispute the appropriate classification of the party on the traditional
political spectrum, but New Zealanders might arguably associate it with advocacy of
senior citizens' benefits, and opposition to
immigration, especially from Asia.
The party's founder,
Winston Peters, a former
New Zealand National Party cabinet minister, resigned from his former party in 1992 and founded New Zealand First in 1993.
As of 2008 he continues to lead the political/parliamentary wing of the party.
Policies
In the
2002 election campaign, New Zealand First focused on three primary policies:
- reducing immigration (especially immigration by Asians), with the aim of preserving New Zealand's culture.
- attempting to bring crime under control by increasing judicial sentences and increasing police presence.
- reducing payments related to the settlements process for the Treaty of Waitangi.
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. Rather than defining the party's precise position on the
left-right spectrum, some commentators simply label NZ First as "
populist" — in line with its emphasis on
direct democracy and on popular
referendums.
Senior party members have caused controversy with their remarks on Asian immigration.
Winston Peters has expressed the opinion on several occasions that the rate of Asian immigration in New Zealand is too high; in
2004, he stated: "We are being dragged into the status of an Asian colony and it's time that New Zealanders were placed first in their own country." On April 26, 2005, he said: "
Maori will be disturbed to know that in 17 years' time that'll be outnumbered by Asians in New Zealand", an estimate refuted by Statistics New Zealand, the government's statistics bureau. In
April 2008, deputy party leader
Peter Brown drew widespread criticism after voicing similar views and expressing concern at the increase in New Zealand's ethnic Asian population: "We are going to flood this country with Asian people with no idea what we're going to do with them when they come here." Politicians
Keith Locke (
Green) and
Peter Dunne (
United Future) responded by accusing Brown of being a racist. The
National Party issued a statement stating that it disagreed with New Zealand First's views. Similarly, business leaders from the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Northern Employers and Manufacturers Association underlined Asian New Zealanders' contributions to the economy, likened Brown to
Pauline Hanson, and denounced what they referred to as racial stereotyping. Winstons Peters stated that he supported Browns' comments, and that New Zealand First was "not anti-Asian". Brown's views were commented on by the media in
Malaysia,
Australia,
China and
South Africa.
Fairfax New Zealand hinted at political motives, and commented: "NZ First has revived its attack on Asian migration as its fortunes flag."
The Maori vote
The New Zealand First Party has a part-Maori
leader, once held all the then available
Maori seats, and continues to receive significant support from voters registered in Maori seats. But as a party, New Zealand First doesn't support the retention of the Maori seats and has declared that it won't stand candidates in the Maori seats in the future. It didn't stand candidates in the Maori seats in the
2002 General Election or in the
2005 General Election.
History
1993 election
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. This did much to counter the perception of New Zealand First as merely a personality-driven vehicle for Peters.
1996 election
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 put New Zealand First in a powerful position just three years after its formation. Neither of the two traditional major parties (National and
Labour) had enough seats to govern alone, and only New Zealand First had enough seats to become a realistic coalition-partner for either. This placed the relatively new party 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 harshly attacked his former National colleagues during the campaign, and appeared to promise that he wouldn't even consider going into coalition with them.
Coalition with National 1996- 1998
However, to the surprise of the electorate, which had apparently voted for New Zealand First in order to get rid of National, Peters decided to enter a coalition
with National, enabling and becoming part of the third term of the
fourth National government. 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 National Party 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 concessions from National.
Whatever the case, New Zealand First exacted a high price from incumbent Prime Minister
Jim Bolger in return for allowing him to stay in power. 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 Bolger, who had sacked Peters from a former National cabinet, the two, who had signed off on a detailed coalition agreement, didn't 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 wouldn't 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 Transport Minister
Jenny Shipley gained enough support within the National caucus to force Bolger's resignation and become 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 wouldn't 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 Cabinet. 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.
Return to opposition, 1998
Peters immediately broke off the coalition with National. However, several other MPs, unwilling to follow Peters out of government, tried to replace Peters with Henare. This caucus-room coup failed, and 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. Until
1999, however, they provided National with enough support to continue on without the rump New Zealand First.
1999 General Election
In the
1999 elections the voters gave New Zealand First a severe mauling. Some voters had apparently not forgiven Peters for going into coalition with National after being led to believe that a vote for him would help get rid of National. The party gained only 4% of the vote, and wouldn't have received any seats in Parliament had Peters not held onto his electorate seat of Tauranga. (Under New Zealand's MMP rules, a party must either win an electorate seat or 5% of the vote to qualify for representation.) Peters held his Tauranga seat by a mere 63 votes, and New Zealand First received (by proportionality) only five seats in total.
2002 General Election
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 won 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 couldn't 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 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 (in his "
Rotorua speech") that he'd support the party that won the most seats, or at least abstain in
no-confidence motions against it. However, he also said he wouldn't support any government that included the
Greens within the Cabinet.
2005 General Election
In the
2005 elections, however, the smaller political parties (including New Zealand First) suffered a severe mauling. Though it remained the third-largest party in the House, New Zealand First took only 5.72 percent of the vote, a considerable loss from 2002, and just barely enough to cross the MMP proportionality quota of 5%. In addition, Peters narrowly lost his previously
safe constituency seat of
Tauranga by 730 votes to National's
Bob Clarkson, and became a
list MP.
New Zealand First
currently has seven MPs, all elected on the party list:
Winston Peters
Peter Brown
Brian Donnelly
Ron Mark
Doug Woolerton
Barbara Stewart
Pita Paraone
Following the 2005 election, New Zealand First agreed to a supply-and-confidence agreement with the Labour Party (along with United Future) in return for policy concessions and the post of Foreign Minister (outside Cabinet) for Peters. Some reaction
to Peters' becoming Minister of Foreign Affairs detected a change in his attitude since the "Rotorua speech",
which had spoken of sitting on the cross-benches (and thus staying out of government) and eschewing "the baubles of office".
Soon after the 2005 election Peters launched a legal challenge against Bob Clarkson. The case alleged that Clarkson had spent more than the legal limit allowed for campaign-budgets during elections in New Zealand. This legal bid ultimately failed, with a majority of the judges in the case declaring that Clarkson hadn't overspent.
Office-holders
Parliamentary leader:
Deputy parliamentary leader:
Party President:
Further Information
Get more info on 'New Zealand First'.
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