New Zealand in 2005

New Zealand in 2005

Area: 270,534 sq km (104,454 sq mi)
Population (2005 est.): 4,096,000
Capital: Wellington
Chief of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright
Head of government: Prime Minister Helen Clark

The New Zealand election on Sept. 17, 2005, broke new constitutional ground as mixed member proportional (MMP) voting returned 121 members of Parliament, an increase of one from the previously fixed 120-member House of Representatives. Prime Minister Helen Clark’s government was elected to a third three-year term, but Clark was obliged to negotiate support from four minor parties to form an administration. Clark’s Labour Party (with 50 seats) concluded a formal coalition with the Progressive Party (1 seat), agreed to various arrangements with New Zealand First (7) and United Future (3), and made policy concessions to the Greens (6) in return for a pledge from the Greens to abstain on financial issues and votes of confidence. The opposition comprised the National Party (48 seats), ACT New Zealand (2), and the Maori party (4). Former attorney general Margaret Wilson, who in 2003 had successfully legislated for a new Supreme Court to replace the Privy Council as the nation’s final appellate court, became the first female speaker of the House of Representatives.

In a move she called “constitutional evolution,” Clark appointed New Zealand First leader Winston Peters foreign minister and United Future leader Peter Dunne revenue minister. Both men remained outside the cabinet, however, and each had unprecedented dispensation to disagree with any government policies apart from his respective portfolio. Labour’s preelection-year program had offered incentives to stimulate personal savings, boost productivity, and encourage more women into the workforce. Finance Minister Michael Cullen’s 2005–06 budget projected an operating surplus of $NZ 6.6 billion ($NZ 1 = about U.S.$0.70), which prompted other parties to run election campaigns in which they promised tax cuts.

It was a busy legislative year for Clark’s government. A law authorizing civil unions took effect on April 26, ending discrimination against both de facto heterosexual and same-sex relationships under more than 100 statutes. The qualifying period for New Zealand citizenship was increased from three years’ residency to five years’, and from Jan. 1, 2006, the automatic right to citizenship of a child born in New Zealand would be replaced by a requirement that one parent had to be a citizen or permanent resident. New passports were reduced from 10 years’ validity to 5 years’ and could be refused or withdrawn for reasons of national security. New Zealand’s troop deployment for reconstruction work in Afghanistan was extended for an additional year to September 2006. The government announced $NZ 4.6 billion in extra spending over the next decade to modernize equipment and increase military personnel by 10,000 in the three armed services; this constituted a 51% increase in defense funding since 1999. Seventeen Skyhawk strike jets and 17 Aermacchi jet trainers, which had been mothballed in 2001 when the air force strike wing was scrapped, were sold to the U.S. Tactical Air Services for training purposes.

Graham Capill, a lawyer, moral crusader, and one-time police prosecutor, was convicted in Christchurch district court on July 14 and sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment for having sexually molested three girls (aged 5–11) over a span of years when he was leader of the Christian Heritage political party. In September former ACT party MP Donna Awatere Huata and her husband, Wi Huata, were jailed for 33 months and 24 months, respectively, for having fraudulently misused $NZ 82,409 in public funds that had been allocated to a trust to help underprivileged Maori children.

Former prime minister David Lange died in August from renal failure. He had been diagnosed in 2002 with amyloidosis. Rod Donald, coleader of the Green Party from 1995 and a member of Parliament since 1996, died suddenly from viral myocarditis on November 5 at age 48. Donald had led the campaign to introduce MMP voting. In June New Zealand golfer Michael Campbell won the $1.17 million U.S. Open. (See Sports and Games: Golf.)

by: Neale McMillan