Labour Party, New Zealand The nascent labour movement was at first tied to the
Liberal Party, whose leader,
Seddon, consciously sought to court its support through the introduction of legislation on social reforms, such as the introduction of pensions, women's suffrage, and industrial tribunals. Even under Seddon, however, representatives of labour became dissatisfied, as they felt that the Liberals were half-hearted about pursuing their interests. In 1906 some of them broke away to form their own political parties, and after several attempts at establishing a coherent party organization, the Labour Party was founded in 1916. It quickly gained the support of the urban working classes, thus depriving the Liberals of vital support. Helped by urbanization and the growing electoral weight of towns relative to the countryside, the weak organization of the
Reform and
United Parties, and by those parties' inability to cope with the Great
Depression, it won the 1935 general election.
In contrast to its sister parties in the UK and Australia, the first Labour government, under
Savage, had a comfortable majority in parliament. This enabled Savage to lay the foundations of the
welfare state, through the introduction of unemployment benefits, universal health care, and universal access to education. Labour continued to govern after the death of Savage, when
Fraser led the party through World War II. Weakened by internal divisions, and associated with tight wartime control and economic shortages, it lost power to the revived
National Party in 1949. Re-elected with a majority of one under
Nash in 1957, it was unable to hold onto power in the 1960 elections owing to its harsh and unpopular budgetary measures.
After several successive defeats, Labour took over government under the ebullient
Kirk in 1972. His generous fiscal and monetary policies compounded the effects of the worldwide economic depression which set in in 1973. Led by the rather colourless Wallace E. (‘Bill’) Rowling since 1974, it was routed in the 1975 elections. After twice failing to beat
Muldoon's National Party, Rowling was replaced by the more populist and charismatic
Lange, who duly won the 1984 elections.
Buttressing his popularity through his anti-nuclear policies, Lange also benefited from a general economic upswing in the 1980s, which was complemented by the liberal, deregulatory policies of his Minister of Finance, Roger Douglas. While this was in some ways a prelude to
Bolger's reforms of the 1990s, Labour shied away from the anti-welfare implications of these policies. After a bitter row, Douglas was dismissed from the cabinet for his ‘extremism’, though pressure from the party for his reinstatement led to Lange's resignation, just before the elections, in 1989. His rather stale successor, Geoffrey Palmer, failed to inspire the electorate, and was replaced after two months by Mike Moore, who had less than two months to change the mood of the electorate. Despite his best efforts, the party lost the 1990 elections to the National Party and was reduced to its smallest parliamentary size since 1931. It was unable to offer any convincing opposition to Bolger's ambitious legislation that followed, and in the following elections Labour was again defeated by the National Party. Led by Helen
Clark from 1993, the party was not able to return to power until 1999, when its parliamentary representation increased from 37 to 49 seats. Clark reversed some of her predecessor's post-welfarist policies by increasing taxation for the better off, and raising public spending for the provision of public health care and pensions. On the back of a thriving economy, Labour extended its parliamentary strength to 52 in 2002, which allowed it to continue in government against a fragmented opposition.
http://www.labour.org.nz
