We live in a very strong and robust democracy” -Helen Clark
NZ’s political system is that of a Parliamentary Representative Democratic Monarchy, which is based on the Westminster system, with a few slight alterations. Although the NZ Government is conducted by the Prime Minister and the cabinet, drawn from an elected parliament, although the actual head of state is that of Queen Elizabeth II. The distinction between the NZ monarchy and the British monarchy is due to the NZ Royal Titles Act of 1953, causing all the official business to be conducted in the name of the Queen of NZ, rather then the the Queen on the UK. Therefore, the Queen is represented in NZ by the Governor General, who has permission to appoint and dismiss the Prime Minister, as well as having the ability to dissolve parliament. As of 2007 the NZ Governor General is Anand Satyanand.
New Zealand Political Environment
The NZ’s legislative body, unlike that of the US, is unicameral, entitled the NZ House of Representatives. The voting system adopted in 1996, is Mixed Member Proportional (MMP), with it being that of First Past the Post before that. MMP is a voting system that enables small parties to be represented as long as the make the 5% threshold. In order for a NZ member of parliament to be elected they need to be elected by the people in a particular constituency or be appointed by that party list, which correlates with the number of votes a particular party receives. Therefore, the highest on the list and MP falls the greater chance they have of taking one of the 120 seats in the NZ Parliament. Within the NZ Parliament there are 7 parties - National, Labour, Greens, Act, Maori, Progressive and United Future. However, a unique factor with regards to the NZ parliament is the fact that there is an allocated number of Maori seats, however Maori can choose to run for ‘non-reserved’ seats. NZ made was the first country to have women suffrage, the allowance of woman to vote. This was achieved due the hard work Kate Sheppard’s tireless work, which eventually led to women first beginning to vote in 1893.
The Governor General is also responsible for chairing the Executive Council which is a committee consisting of the ministers of the Crown. The members of the Executive Council must also be members of Parliament and are usually also in the cabinet. The cabinet is the most ‘senior’ policy making body, led by the Prime Minister
With regards to the NZ judicial system, the highest court in NZ is that of the Supreme Court which was established in 2004 following the Supreme Court Act of 2003. It was this act that abolished the Court of Appeal and Privy Council in London. NZ’s judiciary also involves the High Court and Court of Appeal, as well as many other District Courts scattered around NZ. The current NZ Chief of Justice is that of Dame Sian Elias. The superior court judges are appointed by the Governor General on the Advice of the Attorney General, Chief Justice and Solicitor General, however the Chief Justice is appointed by that of the Prime Minister. NZ has three principal sources of law: English Common Law, certain statutes from the UK Parliament (enacted before 1947) and the Statutes of the NZ Parliament.
The current NZ Prime Minister is John Key of the National Party, who was recently elected in the NZ November 2008 elections. John Key took the leadership from the long running Helen Clark of the Labour Party. Below is a summary of the last NZ election.