New Zealand general election, 1975

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The 1975 New Zealand general election was held to elect MPs to the 38th session of the New Zealand Parliament. It was the first election in New Zealand where all permanent residents of New Zealand were eligible to vote, although only citizens were able to be elected.

1 Background
2 The election
3 Results
4 References

[edit] Background

The incumbent Labour Party, following the sudden death of Labour leader Norman Kirk, was led by Bill Rowling, a leader who was characterised as being weak and ineffectual by some political commentators. Labour's central campaign was the so-called "Citizens for Rowling" petition which attacked National leader Rob Muldoon's forthright leadership style. This campaign was largely seen as having backfired on Labour.

The National Party responded with the formation of "Rob's Mob", while Muldoon, a former Minister of Finance in the previous National government, and a consummate orator, focused on the economic impact of Labour's policies, particularly a recently introduced compulsory, personal superannuation scheme. National party campaign advertising, complete with an infamous "Dancing Cossacks" cartoon commercial, suggested Labour's superannuation scheme would result in the Government owning the New Zealand economy (akin to a communist state), using the workers's money. Muldoon argued that his New Zealand superannuation scheme could be funded from future taxes, rather than an additional tax on current wages.

Muldoon was a skilled television performer, which helped his popularity with voters.^[1]

[edit] The election

The election took place on 29 November. 1,953,050 people were registered to vote, and turnout was 82.5%.

[edit] Results

The final results of election: National won 55 seats, and Labour 32 seats. Thus Rob Muldoon replaced Bill Rowling as Prime Minister, ending the term of the Third Labour government, and beginning the term of the Third National government. The party seat numbers were an exact opposite of the 1972 election. No minor parties won seats.

Notable electorate results included the election of two Māori MPs to general seats; the first time that any Māori had been elected to a non-Māori seat since James Carroll in 1893. The MPs in question were Ben Couch in Wairarapa and Rex Austin in Awarua.