New Zealand First Aotearoa Tuatahi | |
---|---|
Abbreviation | NZ First |
Leader | Winston Peters |
President | Julian Paul[1] |
Secretary | Holly Howard[2] |
Deputy Leader | Shane Jones |
Founded | 18 July 1993 |
Split from | National Party |
Colours | Black |
MPs in the House of Representatives | 8 / 123 |
Website | |
nzfirst | |
New Zealand First, commonly abbreviated to NZ First[3] or NZF, is a political party in New Zealand, led by and identified with veteran politician Winston Peters, who has served three times as deputy prime minister. The party has formed coalition governments with both major political parties in New Zealand: with the New Zealand National Party from 1996 to 1998 and 2023 to present, and with the New Zealand Labour Party from 2005 to 2008 and 2017 to 2020. New Zealand First currently serves in a coalition government with both National and ACT as part of the Sixth National government, having won 6.08% of the total party vote in the 2023 New Zealand general election.
New Zealand First takes a broadly centrist and interventionist position on economic issues and a socially conservative position on moral issues.[4] The party distinguishes itself from the mainstream political establishment through its use of populist rhetoric, and supports binding referendums for major social and political change. The party is also anti-immigration[5][6] and anti-globalisation,[7] while also supportive of protectionism[8][9] and pensioners' interests.[10] The party's support base is mostly composed of middle-aged to elderly, rural and Māori voters.[4][11] New Zealand First presents a challenge for ideological categorisation, with political commentators often simply characterising the party as nationalist[12][13] and populist,[14][15][16] while some analyses have described it variously as centrist,[17][18][19] conservative,[10] socially conservative,[20] centre-right,[21][22] right-wing,[23][24][25][26][27] and right-wing populist.[28][29][30]
New Zealand First was formed shortly before the 1993 New Zealand general election, following the resignation of Winston Peters as the National Party MP for Tauranga after criticising the party's neoliberal economic policies.[31] The party gained support from National Party and Labour voters alike disenchanted with the support of both parties for extensive deregulation. New Zealand First entered the New Zealand House of Representatives shortly after its formation. The party had 17 members of parliament (MPs) at its peak, following the 1996 New Zealand general election, the first to use mixed-member proportional representation. That election the party swept the Māori seats, leading to the "Tight Five" of New Zealand First MPs from those electorates. The party had gained considerable support among socially conservative Māori voters,[32][33] an association still visible today.[34][35] By the end of their first term, however, the New Zealand First caucus had fallen to 9 MPs due to internal conflict over the coalition government with the National Party.
After forming a coalition government with Labour in 2005, left parliament following the 2008 New Zealand general election in which it failed to gain enough party votes to retain seats. However, in the 2011 New Zealand general election, New Zealand First gained 6.59% of the total party vote, entitling it to eight MPs. The party increased its number of MPs to eleven at the 2014 New Zealand general election. During the 2017 election, the party's number of MPs dropped to nine members.[36] In the weeks following the 2017 election, New Zealand First formed a coalition government with the Labour Party.[37] In the 2020 election New Zealand First's share of the party vote fell to 2.6%, with all incumbent MPs, including Peters, losing their seats in Parliament.[38] The party returned to parliament in 2023.[39]
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