Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern warns pace of house price increases unsustainable

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the Government is firmly focused on the economic rebuild and addressing the housing shortage and affordability. Speaking to reporters in Nelson about this morning's announcement of the details of a public housing build, Ardern said the current pace of housing prices was unsustainable.

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South Australia Premier Mike Rann decides to stand down

South Australian Premier Mike Rann will step down from office on October 20, allowing Education Minister Jay Weatherill to replace him.

Mr Rann told reporters on Monday he was putting the interests of the state ahead of those of the Labor Party by leaving earlier than he intended.

He had previously planned to stay on as leader until March next year, mid-way through his government's third term.

The premier said it remained his belief that there was no pressing need to make the transition to a new leader, with more than two years to go to the next state election.

A meeting more than a week ago over the transition arrangements had forced a change, particularly after some details were leaked.

"The people of South Australia elected me and they have a right to know when and why I am stepping down," Mr Rann said.

"So I have therefore determined that in order to complete the job I have to do and to best assist Jay and the government in the leadership transition, that I will step down from the office of premier on the 20th of October."

Mr Rann said he still wanted to finalise negotiations with BHP Billiton over the future expansion of the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine in the state's north.

A Caucus majority wanted Education Minister Jay Weatherill, who stood beside Mr Rann today as the Premier announced he would move on.

Mr Rann said he had wanted to stay to complete projects - the biggest being the expansion of the BHP Billiton uranium mine at Olympic Dam.

"This is unbelievably complex. It is absolutely important that I do the right thing by the state," he said.

And he made clear he believed his Caucus enemies had broken a previous agreement for him to "mentor" a successor while in office, and then leaked details of the ultimatum delivered two Fridays ago.

"I was disappointed that...inaccurate details of negotiations were leaked in a spirit of obvious mischief and malice," he told reporters.

"It doesn't harm me because ultimately I'll be judged by history on whether out state is in better shape now than when I was elected."

But there was no malice from Mr Weatherill, only praise for the man his backers were in such a hurry for him to replace.

"I've worked with Mike Rann over the last nine and a half years. I've enjoyed every moment of that. I've enjoyed the privileges of being in the port folios he's asked me to serve in, he said.

And I look forward to the insights, the extraordinary insights he no doubt has about this crucial role for our state.

Minister of Foreign Affairs (New Zealand)

Minister of Foreign Affairs is a major ministerial portfolio in the government of New Zealand.

The current Minister of Foreign Affairs is Murray McCully, who was National Party Spokeperson of Foreign Affairs and Shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs. There are also Associate Minister roles. Currently, these roles are held by Tim Groser.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs is responsible for overseeing New Zealand's relations with foreign countries. The Minister is in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, including New Zealand's diplomatic staff. The office is often considered to be one of the more distinguished ministerial posts, and has at times been counted as the most senior role below that of the Prime Minister. In terms of actual political power, however, the Minister of Foreign Affairs is not as prominent as in countries such as Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, with the Minister of Finance being considerably more influential.

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.

Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand

Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand is second most senior officer in the Government of New Zealand, although this seniority does not necessarily translate into power.

Generally, the position is held by the deputy leader of the ruling party, but now that the MMP electoral system makes coalitions more likely, the role may increasingly go to the leader of a junior party. This occurred with Winston Peters, leader of New Zealand First, and Jim Anderton, leader of the Alliance.

The post of Deputy Prime Minister was established in 1949. Since then, sixteen people have held the position (one of them doing so twice). Of those people, only Holyoake, Marshall, Muldoon, Palmer, and Clark have eventually served as Prime Minister.

Little scholarly attention has focused on deputy prime ministers in New Zealand or elsewhere. In 2009, an article by Steven Barnes appeared in Political Science where nine 'qualities' of deputy prime ministership were identified: temperament; relationships with their Cabinet and caucus; relationships with their party; popularity with the public; media skills; achievements as Deputy Prime Minister; relationship with the Prime Minister; leadership ambition; and method of succession. Barnes conducted a survey of journalists, academics, and former Members of Parliament to rank New Zealand's Deputy Prime Ministers since 1960. Across the nine deputy prime minister 'qualities', Don McKinnon achieved the number one ranking, followed by Brian Talboys, Michael Cullen, and John Marshall. In a second 'overall' ranking, Cullen was ranked number one, followed by Talboys, McKinnon, and Marshall. Jim Anderton, Winston Peters, and Bob Tizard were ranked lowest in both sections of the survey.

New Zealand National Party

New Zealand National Party, currently is the largest party in the New Zealand House of Representatives and in November 2008 formed a minority government with support from three minor parties.

According to the party's website, "The National Party seeks a safe, prosperous and successful New Zealand that creates opportunities for all New Zealanders to reach their personal goals and dreams".

The National Party currently advocates policies of reducing taxes, reducing social welfare payments, promoting free trade, restoring or maintaining New Zealand's traditional (Western) defence and security alliances and promoting one standard of citizenship for all New Zealanders ("One law for all"). The party's policy-documents contain commitments to doubling New Zealand's economic growth, to giving welfare payments only to "those in genuine need" and to "speedy, full and final settlements to historic Waitangi Treaty claims".

National's 2008 tax package plan set out a three-year programme of personal tax cuts.

The National Party wants to retain skilled New Zealand workers and attract overseas New Zealanders back to New Zealand. The National Party wants to better match skills of immigrants and make immigration services world class in efficiency and effectiveness, restoring confidence in their integrity.

National features both regional and electorate-level organisational structures. National traditionally had a strongly decentralised organisation, designed to allow electorates and the five regions to appeal to the unique voter base in their area. However, in light of the 2002 election result, a review of the party organisation resulted in decisions to weaken the regional structure and to implement a more centralised structure in order to make the structure more 'appropriate' for the new mixed member proportional electoral system. The Party President (currently Peter Goodfellow) heads the administration outside of National's current sitting MPs.

The National Party officially formed in May 1936, but its roots go considerably further back. The party came about as the result of a merger between the United Party (known as the Liberal Party until 1927, except for a short period between 1925 and 1927 when it used the name "National Party") and the Reform Party. The United Party gained its main support from the cities, and drew upon businesses for money and upon middle class electors for votes, while the Reform Party had a rural base and received substantial support from farmers, who then formed a substantial proportion of the population.

Historically, the Liberal and Reform parties had competed against each other, but from 1931 until 1935 a coalition between the United and Reform parties held power in New Zealand. The coalition went into the 1935 election under the title of the "National Political Federation", a name adopted to indicate that the grouping intended to represent New Zealanders from all backgrounds (in contrast to the previous situation, where United served city-dwellers and Reform served farmers). However, because of the effects of the Great Depression and a perception that the existing coalition government had handled the situation poorly, the National Political Federation lost heavily in 1935 to the Labour Party, the rise of which had originally prompted the alliance.

On the 8 November 2008, the National Party, led by John Key, won 58 seats in the national election. The Labour Party, who had spent three terms in power, conceded the election and on November 19 the New Government was sworn in. The National Party was joined in electoral success by the right-wing ACT Party, led by Rodney Hide, which won 5 seats and have joined National in forming a coalition government. The single seat won by Peter Dunne for his United Future Party is also part of a centre-right coalition government.

After the election John Key entered into talks with the Maori Party even though he had a majority. The National Government currently consists of National (58), Act (5) Maori Party (5) and United Future's Peter Dunne. The National Government Currently has 69 seats in a 122 seat Parliament. In Key's First Cabinet he gave Act Party's Rodney Hide and Heather Roy a seat outside cabinet and the Maori Party's Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples the same. Peter Dunne also received back the ministerial post outside cabinet he had held within the Labour Government.

Prime Minister of New Zealand

Prime Minister of New Zealand is New Zealand's head of government consequent on being the leader of the party or coalition with majority support in the Parliament of New Zealand. Since 19 November 2008, the Prime Minister has been John Key of the National Party.

The title "Prime Minister" had made its first formal appearance in the 1873 Schedule of the Civil List Act, but originally the Prime Minister was entitled Colonial Secretary or First Minister. This was formally changed in 1869 to "Premier". However, this title too did not last, being informally changed by Richard Seddon to "Prime Minister" in 1901 during his tenure in office.Following the declaration of New Zealand as a Dominion in 1907, the term "Prime Minister" has been used exclusively.

The role of the Prime Minister is not formally defined, being based on constitutional convention rather than specific legislation. According to these conventions, the Prime Minister is leader of Cabinet (itself a body existing by convention), and takes a co-ordinating role.

The Prime Minister is regarded by convention as "first among equals". He or she does indeed hold the most senior post in the administration, but is also required to adhere to any decisions taken by Cabinet. The actual ability of a Prime Minister to give direct orders is surprisingly limited; most of the position's power comes about through other means, such as:

The ability to set the Cabinet agenda, thereby controlling what issues will be discussed.

The ability to appoint and dismiss ministers. The extent to which this power can be exercised varies between different parties; the Labour Party, for example, places most of this responsibility in the hands of the Caucus, leaving the Prime Minister only with the power to choose which portfolios a minister is given. Furthermore, the MMP electoral system has complicated this, as the Prime Minister may have to consult with another party leader.

The influence a Prime Minister is likely to have as leader of the dominant party. These powers may give him or her more direct control over subordinates than is attached to the Prime Minister's role itself.

The power gained simply from being central to most significant decision-making, and from being able to comment on and criticise any decisions taken by other ministers.

The Prime Minister can call elections by advising the Governor-General to dissolve Parliament. The Governor-General may reject this advice should an alternative government exist, but so far none have done so.

The post of Prime Minister is, like other ministerial positions, an appointment by the Governor-General "during the Queen's pleasure". However, the convention has long since been established that the Prime Minister must have and retain the support of a majority of Members of Parliament. Historically, this has usually meant that the Prime Minister is the parliamentary leader of the largest political party in the House of Representatives.

The Prime Minister also indirectly holds the power to appoint and recall the Governor-General. By constitutional convention, only the Prime Minister has the right to tender advice to the Sovereign on nominations for the office, and so in effect the Prime Minister may appoint the Governor-General. The Prime Minister may also advise the Queen to recall (dismiss) the Governor-General, so long as the Prime Minister has the support of the House of Representatives, although this power has never been exercised by a Prime Minister in New Zealand. Three Governors were recalled during the colonial period, but on the advice of British ministers.

Within the last fifty years, a convention has also developed of appointing a Deputy Prime Minister. The Deputy typically holds important ministerial portfolios and becomes Acting Prime Minister in the absence or incapacitation of the Prime Minister. The Deputy is commonly a member of the same party as the Prime Minister, but not necessarily so; in coalition Governments, the parliamentary leader of a support party may be offered the post.

New Zealand Labour Party

New Zealand Labour Party, is a New Zealand political party. It describes itself as centre-left and socially progressive and has been one of the two primary parties of New Zealand politics since 1935.

After defeat in the 2008 elections, the Labour party forms the second-largest (in terms of parliamentary seats) political party represented in the New Zealand Parliament, and functions as the core of the Official Parliamentary Opposition.

On 8 November 2008, former leader Helen Clark announced she was stepping down as leader, saying a new leader was expected to be named by Christmas.Her Deputy Michael Cullen followed her the next day. On 11 November 2008 the parliamentary party caucus chose Phil Goff and Annette King to replace Clark and Cullen respectively.

The Labour Party was established on 7 July 1916 in Wellington, bringing together socialist groups advocating proportional representation and "the Recall" of Members of Parliament, as well as the nationalisation of production and of exchange. Its origins lie in the British working-class movement, heavily influenced by Australian radicalism and events such as the Waihi miners' strike. It is the oldest political party in New Zealand. Despite its Wellington origins, the West Coast town of Blackball is often regarded as the birthplace of the party, as it was the location of the founding of one of the main political organisations which became part of the nascent Labour Party.

The Labour Party was an amalgamation of a number of early groups, the oldest of which was founded in 1901. The process of unifying these diverse groups into a single party was difficult, with tensions between different factions running strong.

At the turn of the century, the radical side of New Zealand working class politics was represented by the Socialist Party, founded in 1901. The more moderate leftists were generally supporters of the Liberal Party. In 1905, a group of working class politicians who were dissatisfied with the Liberal approach established the Independent Political Labour League, which managed to win a seat in Parliament. This established the basic dividing line in New Zealand's left-wing politics — the Socialists tended to be revolutionary and militant, while the moderates focused instead on progressive reform.

Michael Joseph Savage, leader of the Labour Party, became Prime Minister on 6 December 1935, marking the beginning of Labour's first term in office. The new government quickly set about implementing a number of significant reforms, including a reorganisation of the social welfare system and the creation of the state housing scheme. Labour also pursued an alliance with the Māori Ratana movement. Savage himself was highly popular with the working classes, and his portrait could be found on the walls of many houses around the country.

The opposition, meanwhile, attacked the Labour Party's more left-wing policies, and accused it of undermining free enterprise and hard work. The year after Labour's first win, the Reform Party and the United Party took their coalition to the next step, agreeing to merge with each other. The combined organisation was named the National Party, and would be Labour's main rival in future years.

Nash, Labour's third prime minister, took office in late 1957. Upon coming to power, Labour decided that drastic measures were needed to address balance of payments concerns. This resulted in the (in)famous "Black Budget" of Arnold Nordmeyer, the new Minister of Finance. The budget raised taxes, particularly on alcohol and cigarettes, and was highly unpopular. It is widely thought to have doomed the party to defeat. In the 1960 election, the National Party was indeed victorious.

Moore was eventually replaced by Helen Clark, who led the party in opposition to the National Party government of Jim Bolger. During the period in opposition, the party made a measured repudiation of Rogernomics, although has never returned to the strong left-wing stance it originally took (it defines itself today as "centre-left" rather than simply "left"). When the 1996 election, the first conducted under the MMP electoral system, gave the balance of power to the centrist New Zealand First party, many believed that Labour would return to power, but in the end New Zealand First allied itself with National. This coalition was unstable, however, and eventually collapsed, leaving National to govern as a minority government. In the 1999 election, Labour returned to power at the head of a coalition government.