Two Americans emigrate to New Zealand from Colorado,
USA.
We share our Kiwi immigration story and talk about
our new life in Nelson, New Zealand
The current Prime Minister is John Key, leader of the National Party. He is serving his first term as Prime Minister after becoming the National Party leader in 2006. Elections were last held November 2008 and the Nats won by a pretty good margin. They were able to rule on their own (no coalition needed) but worked quickly to formalise coalition talks with ACT party and the Māori Party for good measure, as well as United Future. Those four parties now have working agreements to lead Parliament, and a striking voting majority over the opposition parties.
Labour is now the minority party after 9 years of leadership of Parliament through 2008. They still have an agreement with the Green Party, which says it won't work with National as their goals are too far apart. So Labour and Green are effectively out of any governing position.
The Leader of the Opposition, is Labour Party leader Phil Goff. The former leader Helen Clark was Prime Minister for 9 years up until the 2008 elections, and she was party leader even before that. She resigned after she lost the 2008 election. Labour formerly had a coalition with New Zealand First lead by Winston Peters - he too resigned after he lost the 2008 election and his party lost all seats in Parliament for the first time in many years.
Of the 122 parliamentary seats, they are split up in this manner, with the major political parties:
National Party (58 seats)
Labour Party (43 seats)
and the minor political parties:
ACT New Zealand (5 seats)
Green Party (9 seats)
New Zealand Progressive Party (Jim Anderton) (1 seat)
Māori Party (5 seats)
United Future (1 seat)
It describes itself as centre-left and socially liberal, and has been one of the two primary parties of New Zealand politics since 1935. It is formerly the dominant party in the country's ruling coalition, but now serves as the minority opposition leader.
New Zealand National Party ("National" or "the Nats") currently runs the country, its leader is Prime Minister. "National" has become the largest (in terms of membership) centre-right conservative political party in New Zealand
ACT New Zealand is a free market liberal party. According to current party leader Rodney Hide the party stands for individual freedom, personal responsibility (trusting people), doing the best for our natural environment and for smaller, smarter government in its goals of a prosperous economy, a strong society, and a quality of life that is the envy of the world. Although it has the word 'liberal' in its description, it really is a far right party. Focus more on the 'free liberal' part.
The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand focuses firstly on environmentalism, arguing that all other aspects of humanity will cease to be of concern if there is no environment to sustain it. Left-wing economics, progressive social policies, participatory democracy, and non-violence make up the balance of its platform. The party has two co-leaders, Jeannette Fitzsimons and Russel Norman.
The Progressive Party has a particular focus on the creation of jobs, and has said that it is committed to achieving full employment. The party also lists free education and free healthcare as policy objectives. Economically, the party is moderately left-wing, and places particular attention on economic development. Recently, the party has been promoting its proposal for four weeks of annual leave from work, an "anti-drugs" policy and cutting the corporate tax rate to 30%. It also advocates an abolition of the Goods and Services Tax in favour of a broad based financial transactions tax, and monetary policy reform. Its campaign slogan is "Get things done".
The Māori (pronounced maow - wri) Party was formed in 2004. The leaders of the Māori Party have indicated that they wish to unite "all Māori" into a single political movement. Party policies include Māori ownership of the foreshore and the seabed areas of the country (dating back 200 years to the settlement of the country), retirement age for Māori to be reduced to 60, and tax reductions. Read more at Wikipedia about the interesting history and the ambitions of the Maori Party.
Generally, it is fair to say that United Future is a Christian centre-right party favouring capitalism over socialism. Their sole MP is their leader, Peter Dunne.
New Zealand First is a party rebuilding itself after losing all seats in Parliament in the 2008 election. Former leader Winston Peters made quite a reputation for himself as its leader, but he too has resigned after not being elected by his home electorate of Tauranga. The party is mostly associated among voters with its controversial campaigns against immigration and against the Treaty of Waitangi (linking to Angela's history of the Treaty as posted on the blog in August 2006).
Many people do not believe that New Zealand First will survive without Peters, but that is yet to be determined. 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. Some commentators simply label NZ First as "populist".
