Murray McCully

Murray Stuart McCully (born 19 February 1953 in Whangarei, Northland) is a New Zealand politician. He is a member of the National Party, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister for Sport and Recreation, and Minister for the Rugby World Cup.

McCully was educated at Arapohue Primary School, Dargaville High School, the University of Auckland, and Victoria University of Wellington. He has a LLB degree and is a qualified Barrister and Solicitor, working as a lawyer before entering politics. His former partner, Jane Clifton, works as a columnist for The New Zealand Listener and as a political journalist

Cabinet minister

During the National government of 1990–1999, McCully served in a number of Cabinet roles, including those of Minister of Customs, Minister of Housing, Minister of Tourism, and Minister of Immigration. He has a reputation as one of the National Party's chief strategists

Murray McCully resigned from his Tourism portfolio in April 1999 after questions were raised regarding his handling of the resignation and subsequent payout of members of the Tourism board.These questions culminated in a report of the Controller and Auditor General that deemed these payouts "unlawful".

After National winning the 2008 election, McCully was sworn in as a Cabinet Minister on 19 November 2008. McCully was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister for Sport and Recreation, and Minister for the Rugby World Cup by Prime Minister John Key.

Winston Peters

Winston Raymond Peters (born 11 April 1945) is a New Zealand politician and leader of New Zealand First, a political party he founded in 1993. Peters has had a turbulent political career since entering Parliament in 1978. He served as Minister of Maori Affairs in the Bolger National Party Government before being sacked in 1991 and losing party endorsement for his Tauranga seat. He returned to Parliament as an independent, then formed his own party, New Zealand First. In Opposition, Peters became an outspoken critic of New Zealand immigration policies. As leader of New Zealand First, he held the balance of power following the 1996 election, enabling the National Party to form a coalition government and securing for himself the positions of Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer. However, the coalition dissolved in 1998 following the replacement of Bolger by Jenny Shipley as Prime Minister.

Following the dissolution of the coalition, New Zealand First split between supporters of Shipley's government and opponents. Support for the party collapsed at the 1999 election. He was defeated in his Tauranga seat in 2005, but remained in Parliament as a list MP and was given the Foreign Affairs, Senior Citizens and Racing portfolios in the Labour government. On 29 August 2008, he stood down as Foreign Affairs and Racing Minister pending a police investigation into accusations that he failed to declare a series of political donations received by his party. On 23 September 2008, Peters was censured by the Parliament for "knowingly providing false or misleading information on a return of pecuniary interests" over a $100,000 donation made in 2005.

Peters was born in the Northland city of Whangarei, New Zealand. He is of mixed ethnicity, his father being Māori and his mother being of Scottish descent. His iwi affiliation is Ngāti Wai and his clan is McInnes. Two of his brothers, Ian and Jim, have also been MPs, and another brother Ron has also stood as a New Zealand First candidate.

Shortly before the 1993 election, Peters established New Zealand First and retained his Tauranga seat. Another New Zealand First candidate, Tau Henare, unseated the Labour incumbent in Northern Maori, helping to convince people that New Zealand First was not simply Peters' personal vehicle.

In the 1996 elections, the MMP electoral system delivered a huge windfall to New Zealand First. The party won 17 seats and swept all of the Māori electorates. More importantly, it held the balance of power in Parliament. Neither National nor Labour had enough support to govern alone. Neither party could form a majority without the backing of New Zealand First, meaning Peters could effectively choose the next prime minister.

It was widely expected that he would throw his support to Labour and make Labour leader Helen Clark New Zealand's first female prime minister. Peters had bitterly criticised his former National colleagues, and appeared to promise that he would not even consider a coalition with Bolger. However, after over a month of negotiations with both parties, Peters decided to enter into coalition with National. Michael Laws, the party's campaign manager, later claimed that Peters had already decided to join forces with National and used his negotiations with Labour simply to win more concessions from Bolger.

In 2005, Peters received $100,000 to fund legal costs to challenge the election of Bob Clarkson to the Tauranga electorate. The money came from Owen Glenn, a wealthy businessman and philanthropist based in Monaco. Under parliamentary rules anything that is deemed to be a gift to MPs that is over the value of $500 must be relinquished. Peters denied knowing about the source of the money but this was not corroborated by his lawyer Brian Henry. Glenn has contradicted this testimony.

The Vela family, prominent in the racing industry, had donated $150,000 to Peters over a four year period. The payments were made in sums of $10,000 in order to remain within rules governing political party funding.

The Dominion Post published details from New Zealand First sources that before the 2005 election $25,000 had been donated to the party from Bob Jones via the Spencer Trust. The Trust is administered by Wayne Peters, a brother of Winston Peters. Jones confirmed that he had paid the money to the Spencer Trust and was asked by Winston Peters to make the donation. Peters denies that he had asked Jones for a donation to the party.The donation was not declared to the Electoral Commission as required by law.

Bill English

Simon William "Bill" English, born 1961 is the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Minister of Infrastructure of New Zealand.

English entered parliament in 1990 as a National party MP representing the Wallace electorate. In 1999 English served as Minister of Finance for a brief period until National, under the leadership of Jenny Shipley at the time, lost the election later that year. In October 2001 he replaced Shipley as the leader of the National Party, but after a disastrous result in the 2002 election he was replaced as the leader by Don Brash in October 2003. After Don Brash's resignation in November 2006 he became deputy leader of the party under John Key, becoming the Deputy Prime Minister after a November 2008 election victory.

English was born in the small Southland town of Dipton. He was a boarder at St. Patrick's College, Silverstream in Wellington, and was Head Boy. He later gained degrees in commerce at the University of Otago, where he was a resident at Selwyn College and in English literature, at Victoria University of Wellington. After completing his studies, he returned to Dipton to work as a farmer. In 1987, he returned to Wellington to work as a policy analyst in the New Zealand Treasury, returning to Dipton two years later.

He married a GP, Mary, and they now have six children. He is an active Roman Catholic, but considers his religious beliefs personal and separate from politics.

On 7 June 2002, English took part in TV3's Fight For Life, a celebrity boxing fundraiser, in this case for the Yellow Ribbon anti youth-suicide campaign. English took part because of the death of a teenage nephew in 1997,and lost to entertainer Ted Clarke.

On 2 November 2003, when Brash announced changes in responsibilities for certain MPs, English became National's spokesman for education, ranked at fifth place in the party's parliamentary hierarchy. He remained in parliament after the 2005 election. In his new shadow education portfolio, English performed strongly, and remained a party favourite despite his election defeat as leader in 2002, as indicated by his subsequent appointment as Deputy Leader of the Opposition (see below) and spokesman for Finance and Revenue.

English became Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand in the Fifth National Government, being sworn into office on 19 November 2008. He also became Minister of Finance and gained the new portfolio of Minister of Infrastructure.

Living allowances controversy

In 2009, the media, including TVNZ and TV3 revealed that English was receiving about NZ$900 a week as part of a living allowance for ministers, to live in his own NZ$1.2 million Wellington home. English also receives $276,200 in his annual salary as Deputy Prime Minister. It was also revealed other ministers with homes in the capital city were also claiming accommodation allowances. On Monday 3 August 2009, Prime Minister John Key announced a review of the housing allowances claimed by cabinet ministers. The Prime Minister also stated that English was only claiming what he was entitled to under current ministerial housing allowances.

John Key

John Phillip Key (born 9 August 1961) is the 38th and current Prime Minister of New Zealand and leader of the New Zealand National Party.

After a career in foreign exchange Key entered the New Zealand House of Representatives in 2002 representing the Auckland constituency of Helensville, a seat that he has held since then. In 2004 he was appointed Finance Spokesman for National and eventually succeeded Don Brash as the National Party leader in 2006. Key led his party to victory in the November 2008 general election.

Key was born in Auckland, New Zealand, only son of George Key and Ruth Key (née Lazar), on 9 August 1961. His father was an immigrant from Britain, and a veteran of the Spanish Civil War and World War II. He died of a heart attack in 1967. Key and his two sisters were raised in a state house in Christchurch by his Austrian-Jewish immigrant mother.

He attended Aorangi School, then Burnside High School, and earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree in accounting from the University of Canterbury in 1981. He has attended management studies courses at Harvard University.

Key met his wife Bronagh when they were both students at Burnside High School. They married in 1984. She also has a BCom degree, and worked as a personnel consultant before becoming a full-time mother. They have two children, Stephie and Max

In 2004, Key was promoted to the Opposition front benches by party leader Don Brash and was made the party spokesman for finance. In late 2006 Brash resigned as leader, citing damaging speculation over his future as the reason. His resignation followed controversies over an extramarital affair, and over leaked internal National Party documents which were later published in the book The Hollow Men.

In his maiden speech as leader on 28 November 2006, Key talked of an "underclass" that had been "allowed to develop" in New Zealand, a theme which received a large amount of media coverage. Key followed this speech up in February 2007 by committing his party to a programme which would provide food in the poorest schools in New Zealand.

He relented on his stance in opposition to Sue Bradford's Child Discipline Bill, which sought to remove "reasonable force" as a defence for parents charged with prima facie assault of their children. Many parents saw this bill as an attempt to ban smacking outright. Key and Prime Minister Helen Clark agreed a compromise giving police the discretion to overlook smacking they regard as "inconsequential".

In August 2007, Key came in for criticism when he changed his position regarding the Therapeutic Products and Medicine Bill:

"John Key had finally slipped up. National's leader had told the Herald on Tuesday he would have signed up to a New Zealand First-initiated compromise on the stalled Therapeutic Products and Medicines Bill had he seen it - and was still willing to sign up - only to change his mind yesterday after his remarks appeared in print.

Key became Prime Minister following the general election on 8 November 2008 which signalled an end to the Labour-led government of nine years under Helen Clark. The National Party, promoting a policy of "change", won 45% of the party vote and 59 of the 122 seats in Parliament (including a two-seat overhang), a substantial margin over the Labour Party, which won 43 seats.

Key was sworn in as Prime Minister on 19 November 2008 along with his new cabinet. His first international outing as Prime Minister was the 20th APEC meeting in Peru the following day.

Arriving at the Ngapuhi Te Tii marae the day before Waitangi Day 2009, Key was briefly shoved and grabbed by two protesters before diplomatic protection officers pulled them off. He told reporters he was "quite shocked" but continued onto the marae and spoke, while police took the two men away and charged with them with assault.

Religious views

Key attends church frequently but is agnostic when it comes to belief in God.] He has stated that he does not believe in life after death, and that he sees religion as 'doing the right thing'. Key's wife, Bronagh (née Dougan) Key, is the daughter of Northern Irish immigrants of Catholic and Protestant confession. Key is the third prime minister or premier of New Zealand (after Julius Vogel and Francis Bell) with Jewish ancestry.

Moira Coatsworth

Moira Coatsworth is the current President of the New Zealand Labour Party succeeding former President Andrew Little on 2 April 2011. Before being elected President she was Senior Vice President of the Labour Party.

Liverpool was home to Moira Coatsworth for the first three years of her life. Moira Nadine Coatsworth now lives with family in Northampton. Moira has 2 brothers Stacy and Garland and a sister Alisha. Moiras auntie Olivia Coatsworth lives nearby in Northampton.

Moira has worked for BT for 4 years. Moiras favourite actor is Nicole Kidman. Moiras favourite television program is Beavis and Butt-head. Moiras best quotation is "Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.".

Phil Goff

Philip Bruce Goff (born 22 June 1953), generally known as Phil Goff, is the current Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party. During the Fifth Labour Government, he served in a number of ministerial portfolios, including Minister of Defence of New Zealand, Minister of Corrections, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control and Associate Minister of Finance.

Goff was born and raised in Auckland. His family was relatively poor, and his father wanted Goff to enter the workforce immediately after finishing high school. Goff, however, wished to attend university, a decision that caused him to leave home when only sixteen years old. By working as a freezing worker and a cleaner, Goff was able to fund himself through university, gaining an MA (with first class honours) in political studies at the University of Auckland. In 1973, he was Senior Scholar in Political Studies, and also won the Butterworth Prize for law. While completing his MA, he lectured in Political Studies. He also briefly worked as an Insurance Workers Union organiser.

Goff had joined the Labour Party in 1969, the same year he left home, and held a number of administrative positions within the party. In the 1981 elections, Goff stood for Parliament in the Roskill electorate, and was elected.

n the 1999 elections, which Labour won, Goff accepted seventh place on the party list, but also retained his electorate seat. In Clark's new government, he became Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Minister of Justice. He retained this position after the 2002 elections. Following the 2005 elections Rt Hon. Winston Peters was made Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Goff was made Minister of Defence and Disarmament and retained the Trade portfolio.

In 2005, as justice minister, he passed legislation that dramatically strengthened laws condemning child pornography, and child sex.

In his Trade portfolio during the 2005-2008 parliamentary term, Goff signed the free trade agreement with China. He has been known for his like of free trade.

At the 2008 election Labour was defeated, and Clark resigned as leader. Goff was widely tipped as her successor. Goff became leader after a special caucus meeting on 11 November 2008.

Both Goff and Prime Minister John Key have said that they will not vote in the corporal punishment referendum. Goff said that the question "Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?" was "absolutely" the wrong question, and that "the question implies that if you vote `yes' that you're in favour of criminal sanctions being taken against reasonable parents – actually nobody believes that."

Potential GST rise

In John Key's Statement to Parliament in February 2010, the government announced its consideration of raising Goods and Services Tax from 12.5% to 15%. Goff opposed the raise, saying that "GST increase will hurt families that are already struggling to make ends meet", and the Labour caucus set out on an 'Axe the Tax' nationwide road trip. In May 2010 Goff suggested exempting fresh fruit and vegetables from GST. Key called the exemption of such items "very bureaucratic" and Goff's announcement "desperate"

Life outside parliament

Goff is also a member of the Board of Advisors of the Global Panel Foundation-Australasia.

Phil Goff is married to Mary Ellen Goff, and has three children. He lives in the Auckland suburb of Clevedon. Goff's nephew, U.S. Army Captain Matthew Ferrara, was killed in 2007 during the Afghanistan War

Annette King

Annette Faye King born 13 Sep. 1947 is a New Zealand politician. She was a Cabinet Minister in the Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand.

King was born in Murchison, a town in the Tasman region of the South Island. After receiving primary and secondary education in Murchison, she attended the University of Waikato and gained a BA degree. She then obtained a post-graduate diploma in dental nursing, and worked as a dental nurse from 1967 to 1981. She was a tutor of dental nursing in Wellington from 1982 to 1984.

King joined the Labour Party in 1972, and has held various offices within the party (including a term on the party's Executive).

In the 1984 elections, she stood as the party's candidate for Horowhenua, and was successful. She was re-elected in the 1987 election.

Following the 1987 election, she was appointed parliamentary undersecretary to the Minister of Employment and of Social Welfare. In 1989, she was elevated to Cabinet, becoming Minister of Employment, Minister of Immigration, and Minister of Youth Affairs. She was also given special responsibility for liaising between Cabinet and the party caucus.

Deputy Leader of the Opposition

Labour was defeated in the 2008 election by the National Party led by relative newcomer John Key. King retained her seat with a majority of about 7,800. Annette King became the deputy leader of the Labour Party in a special caucus meeting on 11 November 2008 replacing former Deputy Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen. Phil Goff, another senior Labour Party member, became the leader of the Labour Party, replacing former Prime Minister Helen Clark