52nd New Zealand Parliament


The 52nd New Zealand Parliament is the current legislature that opened on 7 November 2017 following the 2017 general election. The New Zealand Parliament comprises the Sovereign and the House of Representatives, which consists of 120 members. Under section 17 of the Constitution Act 1986, Parliament expires three years "from the day fixed for the return of the writs issued for the last preceding general election of members of the House of Representatives, and no longer." With the date for the return of writs for the general election set at 12 October 2017, the 52nd Parliament must be dissolved on or before 12 October 2020.
The Parliament was elected using a mixed-member proportional representation voting system. Members of Parliament represent 71 geographical electorates: 16 in the South Island, 48 in the North Island and 7 Māori electorates. The remaining members were elected from party lists using the Sainte-Laguë method to achieve proportionality. The number of geographical electorates was increased by one at the 2014 election, to account for the North Island's higher population growth.

2017 general election

The 2017 general election was held on Saturday, 23 September 2017. Voters elected 120 members to the House of Representatives, with 71 electorate members and 49 list members. Official results indicated that the National Party had won a plurality, winning 56 seats; down from 60 in 2014. The Labour Party won 46 seats, up from 32 at the last election. Their partner, the Green Party won 8 seats, down from 14. New Zealand First won 9 seats, down from 11. ACT won the electorate of Epsom, and enough party votes to avoid an overhang, but failed to win any more party votes to entitle it to more seats. New Zealand First was left in the position of Kingmaker between National and the Labour/Green bloc. On 19 October, Winston Peters announced he was forming a coalition agreement with Labour, with the Greens in a confidence-and-supply agreement. The Greens' support, plus the coalition, resulting in 63 seats to National's 56—enough to ensure that Ardern maintains the confidence of the House.

Major events

On 31 October 2017, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that the government would amend the by Christmas to categorise existing residential properties as 'sensitive', to restrict its sale to citizens and permanent residents only.
On 8 November 2017, extending paid parental leave to 22 weeks from 1 July 2018 and 26 weeks from 1 July 2020, was introduced in the name of Minister of Immigration Iain Lees-Galloway, and given royal assent on 4 December 2017.

Ministry

The Sixth Labour Government began with the 52nd Parliament, following the announcement of a coalition deal between the Labour Party and New Zealand First, with the Green Party providing confidence and supply, thus giving the government 63 seats, opposite the main opposition party, National, with 56 seats. The government was formally sworn in on 26 October 2017 by Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy.
Jacinda Ardern, as Leader of the Labour Party, serves as Prime Minister. Winston Peters, as Leader of New Zealand First, serves as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Prime Minister Ardern appointed Grant Robertson as Minister of Finance, Ron Mark as Minister of Defence, Kelvin Davis as Minister of Corrections, David Parker as Attorney General, Andrew Little as Minister of Justice, Dr David Clark as Minister of Health, and Chris Hipkins as Minister of Education and Leader of the House.
For a period of six weeks beginning 21 June 2018, Winston Peters served as Acting Prime Minister of New Zealand, while Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern took maternity leave. Ardern was only the second head of government to give birth while in office, after Benazir Bhutto, who gave birth while serving as Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Officeholders

The current officers of the 52nd Parliament are listed below:

Speaker

The following is a list of other parliamentary officers who are non-political:
The table below show the members of the 52nd Parliament based on the official results of the 2017 general election. Ministerial roles were officially announced on 25 October 2017.

Overview

This table shows the number of MPs in each party:
Notes

Seating plan

The chamber is in a horseshoe-shape.

As of 7 November 2017 (start)


As of 21 July 2020 (current)


Committees

The 52nd Parliament has 12 select committees and 7 specialist committees. They are listed below, with their chairpersons and deputy chairpersons:

Summary of changes during term

The following changes occurred in the 52nd Parliament:
The resignation of Andrew Falloon took place less than six months before the next general election and therefore a by-election to fill the vacancy was not required.