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21 December 2011
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The 50th Parliament: Some Comparisons

December 2011

The General Election of 26th November 2011 was New Zealand’s 50th since general elections began in 1853, making New Zealand the ninth-oldest continuous parliament in the world. This paper makes some comparisons among every tenth Parliament to show the historical development of the New Zealand Parliament (See Table 1).

From 1853 to 1879 general elections took place over a period of weeks or months, and the parliamentary term was five years. Elections were conducted under first-past-the-post (FPP) using multi-member electorates until 1881 – the first election saw 37 MPs elected from 24 electorates; 12 single-member electorates and 12 multi-member electorates returning from 2 to 3 members each. Not all electorates were contested and candidates tended to be independents, since political parties were not in existence for the first ten parliaments.

By the tenth parliament, some of the key elements of New Zealand’s modern-day electoral system were clearly visible: voting by secret ballot; an electoral roll; general elections held on the same day throughout the country; and a Representation Commission to determine electorates on the basis of population. None of these provisions, however, applied to the four Māori seats which had been introduced in 1867, and which remained fixed at four until 1993.

Table 1: Selected New Zealand Parliaments

Parliament Parties Voting System General Seats Māori Seats Total Seats Total MPs Female MPs MPs per 100k NZ population
1st 1853 (bicameral) N/A * FPP * 24 – 24* 37 0 43.0 86,000
10th 1887 (bicameral) N/A * FPP 91 4 95 95 0 14.9 638,343
20th 1919 (bicameral) 3 FPP 76 4 80 80 0 6.7 1,192,665
30th 1951 (unicameral) 2 FPP 76 4 80 80 3 4.1 1,947,529
40th 1981 (unicameral) 3 FPP 88 4 92 92 8 2.9 3,156,700
50th 2011 (unicameral) 8 MMP 63 7 70 121 39 2.7 4,431,000
*see text

By the 20th parliament, gender discrimination in voting and eligibility to parliament had been removed. The universal adult franchise was introduced in 1893 and women became eligible to stand as a member for parliament in 1919. However, it was not until 1933 that the first woman MP, Elizabeth McCombs, was elected. The 49th Parliament holds the record for the most women MPs (41) and the largest share of Parliament to date (34 percent). There are 39 women MPs in the 50th parliament.

By the 30th parliament New Zealand had become both a fully sovereign parliament – with the capacity to make (and unmake) all law – and a unicameral parliament. In 1947 the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1947 and the New Zealand Constitution Amendment (Request and Consent) Act 1947 repealed the provision in the New Zealand Constitution Amendment Act 1857 (UK), that entrenched a bicameral parliament in New Zealand. This enabled the New Zealand Parliament to legally proceed with abolishing the Legislative Council (New Zealand’s upper house) in 1950.

The 40th parliament saw the New Zealand population surpassing the 3 million mark. Although the total number of seats had been fixed at 80 from 1908, faster population growth in the North Island had resulted in the number of South Island seats being periodically adjusted downwards. The Electoral Amendment Act 1965 fixed the number of South Island electorates at 25, but by 1981 had allowed the total number of general seats to increase to 92.

The 50th parliament is the sixth parliament elected under the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting system, which has impacted parliament in several respects. There are currently eight political parties represented in Parliament, substantially more than FPP facilitated between 1853 and 1993.

While there are fewer electorates than under FPP, the North Island and Māori electorates continue to be adjusted for population growth – the total number of electorates has increased from 65 in 1996 to 70 in 2011. Correspondingly, the number of list seats has reduced from 55 to 50 over the same period. However, the number of South Island electorates (16) is now fixed as is the total number of seats (120), subject to overhang.

The current number of 121 MPs means that New Zealand has 2.7 MPs for every 100,000 people. In terms of MPs per capita New Zealand is ranked the 5th lowest among the 15 OECD nations with unicameral parliaments, and below the average of 2.8 MPs per 100,000 people among lower houses in the 34 member OECD as a whole.

Dr John Wilson, Research Services Analyst

Disclaimer. Every effort has been made to ensure that the content of this briefing paper is accurate, but no guarantee of accuracy can be given.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand licence. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/nz/.