New Zealand in 1997
New Zealand in 1997
Area: 270,534 sq km (104,454 sq mi)
Population (1997 est.): 3,653,000
Capital: Wellington
Chief of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by Governor-General Sir Michael Hardie-Boys
Head of government: Prime Ministers Jim Bolger and, from December 8, Jennifer Shipley
In 1997 the first full year of mixed-member proportional government, in which a party’s representation in the legislature is a mixture of those elected by the public and those appointed by political parties according to the aggregate percentage of votes for those parties, was traumatic for New Zealand’s politicians. Following the October 1996 general elections, neither the governing National Party (NP), with 44 seats, nor its rival for 60 years, the Labour Party (LP), with 37 seats, had the majority to form a government without calling on each other or on a newcomer party to form a coalition. The NP, led by Prime Minister Jim Bolger, was the more daring in negotiating an agonizingly detailed basis for a coalition with the New Zealand First Party (NZFP), which held the balance of power with 17 seats and included in its representation all Maori districts. While the LP remained aloof from new liaisons, Bolger was considered too accommodating by many observers in regard to the number of Cabinet positions he offered to so inexperienced a partner. The chief beneficiary was the NZFP’s charismatic leader, Winston Peters, who took over as deputy prime minister and treasurer in the new coalition government.
During 1997 the electorate became so frustrated by a lack of clear direction for government policy, particularly in regard to privatization of health care, that by the year’s end the NP’s popularity was down from 34% at the elections to 28% and the NZFP was down from 13.1% to an insignificant 1%.
An outstanding reversal for the NZFP and for Peters personally was the size of the defeat of a referendum seeking approval of a national compulsory superannuation (retirement savings) scheme. More than 80% of the electorate voted, and of those, 91.8% said "no." As treasurer, Peters in the June budget attempted to balance social policy spending promises against the need for a tight grip on the purse strings. An expected budget surplus had been halved, the question of superannuation was still unresolved, and beneficiaries would be required to follow a code of social responsibility. For the unemployed this referred to seeking work; for parents it was looking after their children.
In early October, with calls for his resignation increasing, Bolger signaled a return to some of the NP’s old privatization policies and assured party critics that the agreement with the NZFP would not work as a "strait-jacket." However, in November a majority of NP members of Parliament lobbied to replace Bolger with Minister of Transport Jennifer Shipley. Bolger resigned; the NP Caucus duly elected Shipley New Zealand’s first woman prime minister; and the NZFP continued in the coalition.
In a positive step for race relations, the government finally addressed a long-held Maori grievance concerning land rights.(See Spotlight: Racial Integration in Australia and New Zealand.) One agreement, which had been worked on by the NP for some years, was a settlement with the leading Maori tribe of South Island in reparation for the colonial administration’s laying aside, in the 1850s, of insufficient areas for native reserves. In September the government returned a 1,150-ha (2,842-ac) tract of forest to a Maori tribe on North Island.
by: John Kelleher