Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand


The Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand was the government of New Zealand from 10 December 1999 to 19 November 2008. Labour Party leader Helen Clark negotiated a coalition with Jim Anderton, leader of the Alliance Party and later the Progressive Party, and New Zealand First. While undertaking a number of substantial reforms, it was not particularly radical compared to previous Labour governments.

Overview

The previous government, the fourth National government, had been in power since 1990. It was widely unpopular by 1999, with much of the public antagonised by a series of free-market economic reforms, and was bedevilled by weakness and instability. In the 1999 general election, the Helen Clark-led Labour Party defeated the National Party easily, becoming the largest single party in the House of Representatives. Labour formed a minority coalition government with the left-leaning Alliance party, supported by the Green Party.
During its first term, the government pursued a number of reforms. The controversial Employment Contracts Act was repealed, replaced by an Employment Relations Act more friendly to unions and collective bargaining; a state-owned bank, Kiwibank, was created at the behest of the Alliance; a majority stake in the national airline, Air New Zealand, was purchased; and the public health sector was reorganised with the re-establishment of partly elected District Health Boards. Closing the Gaps, an affirmative action strategy targeting socio-economic inequalities between Māori and Pacific Island ethnic groups and other groups, was a particularly controversial reform. The policy was widely criticised for unfairly privileging Māori, leading to calls for "one standard of citizenship" for all New Zealanders.
With the disintegration of the Alliance in 2002, Helen Clark called a snap election, even though she still had the confidence of the House. Labour handily won the election. The Alliance failed to return to parliament, although a rump returned as Jim Anderton's Progressives. Labour formed a coalition with the Progressives, and turned to the centrist United Future party for confidence and supply. This second term was notable largely for its social and constitutional legislation, with the Government establishing a Supreme Court and ending appeals to the Privy Council, decriminalising prostitution, and providing for civil unions, the latter two changes in particular supported by the Green Party and opposed by United Future. The Government was also faced in this term with the foreshore and seabed controversy. While Labour, in cooperation with the New Zealand First party, eventually resolved the legal dispute by vesting foreshore and seabed title in the Crown, a dissident Labour minister, Tariana Turia, formed the Māori Party, while on the other side of the spectrum a resurgent National Party, now under former Reserve Bank governor Don Brash, became considerably more popular. In the 2005 election, the Government was returned with a slim margin on the strength of the Working for Families assistance package and financial assistance to students, benefiting also from mistakes in National's campaign.
Helen Clark was obliged to move even more to the centre, enlisting support for her Government from both New Zealand First and United Future. Almost immediately, the Government parties became involved in a protracted funding scandal, having apparently used public money for party political purposes during the election campaign. A heavy-handed attempt at campaign finance reform later in this term also harmed the Government, which by now appeared tired and at a loss for direction, although it did succeed in implementing a wide range of social and economic reforms during its time in office.
In the 2008 election, the Labour Party lost convincingly to National, and the government was succeeded by the National Party led by John Key as Prime Minister.

Significant policies

Economic

Treaty settlements:
Aspects of the Clark-led governments actions in relation to the Treaty of Waitangi is shown through settlements.
The following positions were appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Government:

Governor-General

With the creation of the Supreme Court of New Zealand in 2003, the government appointed the first full bench of the Court.
Acting judges were also appointed from the retired judges of the Court of Appeal:
The government has appointed three presidents of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand:
The Fifth Labour government was elected in the 1999 general election, after entering a coalition with the Alliance Party and a confidence and supply agreement with the Green Party. Labour managed to increase their percentage of the votes by 10.5% and won 12 more seats than in the 1996 election. With this coalition in place the Labour Party returned to government for the first time in nine years, and Helen Clark became New Zealand's first elected female Prime Minister. The 1999 election also became Labour's first successful MMP election.

The 2002 election

The 2002 Election was held a few weeks before the Parliamentary term elapsed. This had only occurred twice before in New Zealand's political history, in 1951 and 1984. The Government cited the collapse of the Alliance Party, with whom they had entered a coalition in 1999 as the reason for the earlier date. The Alliance Party had split after Jim Anderton, their leader, left to form the Progressive Coalition Party. However, some critics believe that Labour could have continued to govern for the remaining few weeks. They say that the election was called early to capitalise on high opinion poll ratings before they could be undermined by a potential softening in the New Zealand economic performance.
After initial polls indicated Labour may have enough votes to govern alone, a feat which has never occurred under MMP in New Zealand, they won 41.3% of the vote and 52 seats. Although this meant they improved on their results in the 1999 election, it was not enough to govern alone. As a result, Labour entered a coalition with the new Progressive Coalition Party. Additionally, they entered a confidence and supply agreement with United Future. Labour's success was highlighted by the National Party's demise as they accrued a record low 20.9% of the vote.

The 2005 election

After some initial doubt as to what date the election would be held, 17 September was the chosen day. After falling behind National in the initial opinion polls, Labour fought back to obtain 41.1% of the vote. Although this saw a 0.2% decrease from the previous election, it still saw them sit ahead of National by 2%. The 2005 election saw a dramatic fall in the success of the minor parties. New Zealand First and United Future each won less than half of the percentage of total votes they achieved in 2002. In order to reach the required majority, Labour entered confidence and supply agreements with New Zealand First and United Future. This was done in addition to a coalition agreement with the Progressive Coalition Party, of whom only Jim Anderton obtained a seat.
The newly formed Maori Party accrued four seats. After only being formed in 2004 as a result of the controversial Foreshore and Seabed Act they oversaw a successful campaign based on a critical assessment of Labour's record with Maori issues. Their success was highlighted by the decline of ACT New Zealand, the Progressive Coalition, and United Future who each won only a single seat each.

Defeat

Election results

The following table shows the total votes* for Labour, plus parties supporting the Labour-led government. For more details of election results, see the relevant election articles.
was Prime Minister from when the government was elected in 1999 until it was defeated by the National Party in the 2008 elections.

Cabinet Ministers