37-449: The Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand was the government of New Zealand from 10 December 1999 to 19 November 2008. Labour Party leader Helen Clark negotiated a coalition with Jim Anderton , leader of the Alliance Party . While undertaking a number of substantial reforms, it was not particularly radical compared to previous Labour governments. The previous government,
74-516: A minority coalition government with the left-leaning Alliance party, supported by the Green Party . During its first term, the government pursued a number of reforms. The controversial Employment Contracts Act was repealed, replaced by an Employment Relations Act more friendly to unions and collective bargaining; a state-owned bank, Kiwibank , was created at the behest of the Alliance;
111-620: A feat that had never occurred under MMP in New Zealand, they won 41.3% of the vote and 52 seats. Although this was an improvement on their results in the 1999 election, it was not enough to govern alone, and Labour entered a coalition with the Progressive Coalition Party, and a confidence and supply agreement with United Future . Labour's success was highlighted by the National Party's demise, as they accrued
148-488: A majority stake in the national airline, Air New Zealand , was purchased; and the public health sector was reorganised with the re-establishment of partly elected district health boards . Closing the Gaps , an affirmative action strategy targeting socio-economic inequalities between Māori and Pasifika ethnic groups and other groups, was a particularly controversial reform among right-wing National and ACT voters. With
185-549: A political party or taking a position on any political matter, or more than NZ$ 1,000 criticising or supporting an individual member of parliament, without first registering with a state agency, the Electoral Commission. The Bill as introduced required that unregistered third parties file statutory declarations before publishing election advertisements. The Bill originally limited the spending of registered third parties on political advertising to $ 60,000, but this
222-723: A protest in Auckland against the Bill, organised by John Boscawen , drew over 2,000 protestors. A second Auckland protest, on 1 December 2007, drew a crowd of around 5,000. Smaller protests were held in Wellington and Christchurch. The Bill was introduced on 23 July 2007 by Minister of Justice Mark Burton , who said at its introduction "The package of reforms introduced to Parliament will help promote participation in parliamentary democracy, and aims to clean up New Zealand's electoral system and protect it from abuse." Under section 7 of
259-403: A record low 20.9% of the vote. After initial doubt as to what date the election would be held, 17 September was the chosen day. After falling behind National in the initial opinion polls, Labour fought back to obtain 41.1% of the vote. Although this was a 0.2% decrease from the previous election, it still saw them sit ahead of National by 2%. The 2005 election saw a dramatic fall in the success of
296-484: A result of the controversial Foreshore and Seabed Act , they oversaw a successful campaign based on a critical assessment of Labour's record with Maori issues. Their success was highlighted by the decline of ACT New Zealand, who won two seats, and the Progressive Coalition and United Future, who each won only a single seat. The table below shows the total party votes for Labour and parties that supported
333-414: A serious restriction of civil liberties , and further regarded spending private money on political campaigning as a democratic right. The Act amended numerous areas of New Zealand electoral law, but was repealed on 17 February 2009. Principally and most controversially it regulated "third party" election campaigns The Act made it illegal for anyone to spend more than NZ$ 12,000 criticising or supporting
370-519: A slim margin on the strength of the Working for Families assistance package and financial assistance to students, benefiting also from mistakes in National's campaign. Helen Clark moved even more to the centre, enlisting support for her Government from both New Zealand First and United Future. Greens were excluded from the resulting coalition, due to a refusal by United Future and NZ First to work with
407-761: The Direct Democracy Party of New Zealand also opposed the Bill. Criticism has also been made over the process that led to the Bill's introduction, which involved discussions only with the Labour Government's supporting parties and not the Opposition. Political commentator Chris Trotter had harsh criticism of the detractors of the Act in several opinion pieces in The Dominion Post . On 17 August he wrote On 17 November 2007
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#1732779714728444-594: The Labour , Greens , NZ First , United Future and Progressive voting in favour, and the National Party , Māori Party and independents Gordon Copeland and Taito Phillip Field voting against. ACT did not vote. The legislation was sent to the Justice and Electoral Committee for consideration, with agreement from MPs to extend the membership of the committee for consideration of the Bill to include members from almost all Parliamentary parties. The committee's report on
481-660: The National Party , also opposed the Bill. Political commentator Matthew Hooton argued that the Bill should not proceed, and that the Minister of Justice was a "danger to democracy". On 6 October 2007 the Free Speech Coalition was formed by prominent right-wing bloggers David Farrar and Cameron Slater , and Bernard Darnton , leader of the Libertarianz Party, to oppose the Bill. The New Zealand Anti-Vivisection Society and NORML New Zealand , and
518-747: The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 , the Attorney-General must advise Parliament at the introduction of a bill if that bill is inconsistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. The Crown Law Office , which undertook the review, concluded that the Bill was consistent with the Bill of Rights. The National Business Review described Crown Law's opinion as "...one of the worst, most politically expedient calls on New Zealand human rights legislation in memory." The Bill passed its first reading on 27 July by 65 votes to 54, with
555-635: The New Zealand First party, eventually resolved the legal dispute by vesting foreshore and seabed title in the Crown , a dissident Labour minister, Tariana Turia , formed the Māori Party, while on the other side of the spectrum a resurgent National Party, now under former Reserve Bank governor Don Brash , became considerably more popular. In the 2005 election , the Government was returned with
592-480: The Progressive Coalition Party . However, some critics believe that Labour could have continued to govern for the remaining few weeks. They say that the election was called early to capitalise on high opinion poll ratings before they could be undermined by a potential softening in the New Zealand economic performance. After initial polls indicated Labour might win enough seats to govern alone,
629-585: The fourth National government , had been in power since 1990. It was widely unpopular by 1999, with much of the public antagonised by a series of free-market economic reforms, and was bedevilled by weakness and instability. In the 1999 general election, the Helen Clark -led Labour Party defeated the National Party easily, becoming the largest single party in the House of Representatives . Labour formed
666-478: The Bill was due by 25 January 2008. Public submissions on the Bill closed on 7 September 2007. Radio New Zealand reported on 31 August that the Government had indicated it might write to the Committee indicating that it intended to make unspecified changes to the parts of the legislation dealing with third parties. This would have prevented the committee from hearing criticism of the existing provisions and allow
703-712: The Bill, particularly the failure of the Bill to ban secret donations to political parties, given the strong financial disclosure requirements placed on third parties. The broad definition of "election advertisement" came in for particular criticism. Critics, including the New Zealand Law Society , Catholic charity Caritas , and the Royal New Zealand Forest and Bird Society argued the definition will catch not just electoral speech, but almost all political speech – including things like placards at protest marches. The parliamentary opposition,
740-443: The Bill. The Select committee reported the Bill to the House of Representatives on 18 November 2007, and recommended that the Bill proceed. Annette King , who became Minister of Justice following a Cabinet reshuffle on 31 October 2007, announced a number of changes to the Bill. These changes included: The Bill was put to a second reading vote on 22 November 2007. It passed by 65 votes to 54, with Labour, New Zealand First,
777-589: The Government to introduce changes during the Committee of the Whole House without the public being able to make submissions on the new provisions. Then Prime Minister Helen Clark denied this. Investigative journalist Nicky Hager , author of The Hollow Men , submitted in favour of the need for changes to New Zealand electoral law. The New Zealand Law Society , and the New Zealand Human Rights Commission submitted against
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#1732779714728814-437: The Government, which by now appeared tired and at a loss for direction, although it did succeed in implementing a wide range of social and economic reforms during its time in office. In a 2000 feature article "Siege of Helengrad", The Australian newspaper wrote that Clark's "uncompromisingly autocratic and pervasive leadership has seen New Zealand dubbed Helengrad". In January 2008, the term 'Helengrad', "a noun used to describe
851-481: The Greens in cabinet. They were, however, able to negotiate a cooperation agreement which saw limited input into the budget and broad consultation on policy. Almost immediately, the Government parties became involved in a protracted funding scandal, having apparently used public money for party political purposes during the election campaign. A heavy-handed attempt at campaign finance reform later in this term also harmed
888-515: The Greens, United Future, and the Progressive Party supporting it. National, ACT, the Māori Party, and independents Gordon Copeland and Taito Phillip Field voted against it, the Māori party voting two of its four votes in favour. The Committee of the whole House stage began on 3 December 2007. The Bill passed its third reading on 18 December 2007 by 63 votes to 57, with the National Party,
925-794: The Labour-led government. For more details of election results, see the election articles. Notes Helen Clark was Prime Minister from when the government was elected in 1999 until it was defeated by the National Party in the 2008 elections . List of New Zealand governments Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.226 via cp1108 cp1108, Varnish XID 220697815 Upstream caches: cp1108 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 07:41:54 GMT Electoral Finance Act The Electoral Finance Act 2007
962-536: The Maori Party, ACT, United Future and independent MP Taito Phillip Field voting against and Labour, the Greens, New Zealand First and Progressive voting for. Independent MP Gordon Copeland did not vote. The Governor-General signed the Act into law on 19 December 2007. The Electoral Finance Act was repealed on 17 February 2009 by a vote in Parliament of 112 to 9. The Green Party was the only Party opposing
999-802: The Treaty of Waitangi is shown through settlements. The following positions were appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Government: With the creation of the Supreme Court of New Zealand in 2003, the government appointed the first full bench of the Court. Acting judges were also appointed from the retired judges of the Court of Appeal: The government appointed three presidents of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand : The Fifth Labour government
1036-534: The disintegration of the Alliance in 2002, Helen Clark called a snap election , even though she still had the confidence of the House. Labour handily won the election. The Alliance failed to return to parliament, although a rump returned as Jim Anderton's Progressives . Labour formed a coalition with the Progressives, and turned to the centrist United Future party for confidence and supply . This second term
1073-531: The iron grip of New Zealand's prime minister over Wellington", was reported as having made Australia's Macquarie online dictionary among 85 other new words. In the 2008 election , the Labour Party lost convincingly to National, and the government was succeeded by the National Party led by John Key as Prime Minister . Treaty settlements: Aspects of the Clark-led governments actions in relation to
1110-482: The minor parties. New Zealand First and United Future each won less than half of the percentage of total votes they achieved in 2002. In order to reach the required majority, Labour entered confidence and supply agreements with New Zealand First and United Future. This was in addition to a coalition agreement with the Progressive Coalition Party, of whom only Jim Anderton obtained a seat. The newly formed Maori Party accrued four seats. After only being formed in 2004 as
1147-403: The period starting on 1 January of election year – from three months to around ten, depending on the timing of the election. During this period electoral advertising by candidates, political parties and third parties must follow election rules, and spending limits apply. The Coalition for Open Government , a group that advocates the reform of election finance law in New Zealand, opposed parts of
Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand - Misplaced Pages Continue
1184-488: The repeal, saying it should stay in force until a replacement Bill was prepared. National Party Justice Minister Simon Power said during debate on the repeal bill that all parties in Parliament had agreed to take part in consultations to draft replacement electoral law. Parliament eventually passed the Electoral (Finance Reform and Advance Voting) Amendment Bill 116–5 ahead of the 2011 general election . The new law set
1221-565: Was Labour's first successful MMP election. The 2002 election was held a few weeks before the Parliamentary term elapsed. This had only occurred twice before in New Zealand's political history, in 1951 and 1984 . The Government cited the collapse of the Alliance Party, with whom they had entered a coalition in 1999, as the reason for the earlier date. The Alliance Party had split after Jim Anderton , their leader, left to form
1258-600: Was a controversial act in New Zealand . The Fifth Labour Government introduced the Electoral Finance Bill partly in response to the 2005 New Zealand election funding controversy , in particular to "third-party" campaigns. The proponents of the bill generally held that such a law was required to prevent wealthy private parties from "buying elections" anonymously via advertising campaigns or other financially costly lobbying, while opponents considered it
1295-470: Was elected in the 1999 general election, after entering a coalition with the Alliance Party and a confidence and supply agreement with the Green Party . Labour managed to increase their percentage of the votes by 10.5% and won 12 more seats than in the 1996 election . With this coalition in place the Labour Party returned to government for the first time in nine years, and Helen Clark became New Zealand's first elected female prime minister. The 1999 election
1332-518: Was later increased to $ 120,000 by the Select Committee. The regulation of third parties also extends to their finances. The Act requires that third parties disclose all donations they receive over $ 5000. Anonymous donations that third parties receive over this level must be given to the State. The Act extends the "regulated period" for election campaigning from the previous 90-day period to
1369-566: Was notable largely for its social and constitutional legislation, with the Government establishing a Supreme Court and ending appeals to the Privy Council , decriminalising prostitution , and providing for civil unions , the latter two changes in particular supported by the Green Party and opposed by United Future. The Government was also faced in this term with the foreshore and seabed controversy . While Labour, in cooperation with
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