New Zealand First

New Zealand First is a political party in New Zealand. It had members in the New Zealand House of Representatives for over fifteen years, from the date that Winston Peters, its leader, won his Tauranga electorate seat in 1993. Commentators dispute the appropriate classification of the party on the traditional political spectrum, but New Zealanders might arguably associate it with advocacy of senior citizens' benefits, and opposition to immigration, especially from Asia.

The party's founder, Winston Peters, a former New Zealand National Party cabinet minister, resigned from his former party in 1992 and founded New Zealand First in 1993. As of 2010 he is the leader of the political wing of the party.

The party was able to stay in Parliament in part due to Peters' once-unbreakable hold on the North Island constituency seat of Tauranga. Peters lost this seat in 2005. The party failed to regain it in 2008, and also failed to pass the 5% threshold required for party list only representation under New Zealand's Mixed Member Proportional electoral system of proportional representation. Instead, it polled 4.07% of the total vote

The New Zealand First Party has a part-Māori leader, once held all the then available Māori electorates, and continues to receive significant support from voters registered in Māori electorates. But as a party, New Zealand First does not support the retention of the Māori electorates and has declared that it will not stand candidates in the Māori electorates in the future. It did not stand candidates in the Māori electorates in the 2002, 2005, or 2008 general elections.

History

New Zealand First emerged as a political grouping on 18 July 1993, shortly before the that year's general election. Peters, the MP for Tauranga and a former Minister of Māori Affairs, had left the National Party after disputes with its leadership. He had been told he would not be allowed to run under National's banner in the 1993 election. However, Peters stole a march on National when he resigned shortly before the writs were issued for the general election. Tauranga voters had re-elected him in a special by-election as an independent.

However, to the surprise of the electorate, which had apparently voted for New Zealand First in order to get rid of National, Peters decided to enter a coalition with National, enabling and becoming part of the third term of the fourth National government. The most common explanation for this decision involved National's willingness to accept New Zealand First's demands (and/or Labour's refusal to do so). However, Michael Laws (a former National Party MP who served as a New Zealand First campaign-manager) claims that Peters had secretly decided to go with National significantly before this time, and that he merely used negotiations with Labour to encourage more concessions from National.

Whatever the case, New Zealand First exacted a high price from incumbent Prime Minister Jim Bolger in return for allowing him to stay in power. Winston Peters would serve as Deputy Prime Minister, and would also hold the specially-created office of Treasurer (senior to the Minister of Finance). The National Party also made considerable concessions on policy.

2008 General Election

In the months before the 2008 general election, New Zealand First became embroiled in a dispute over donations to the party from Owen Glenn, the Vela family and Bob Jones escalated in 2008. This resulted in an investigation into party finances by the Serious Fraud Office on 28 August 2008 and an investigation into Peters by the Privileges Committee. On 29 August 2008 Peters stood down from his ministerial roles while the investigations were ongoing. Although the Serious Fraud Office and the police both found that Peters was not guilty of any wrongdoing, the episode harmed Peters and the party in the lead-up to the election.