Wikipedia:WikiProject New Zealand/governments

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This sub-project page is the base for creating (and then improving) articles on New Zealand governments.

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[edit] Naming of Government

Should it be "<Prime Minister name> <Party name> Government" (eg. "Bolger National Government") or "<number> <Party name> Government" (eg. "Fourth Labour Government") or something else? What about coalitions?

I have copied debate on this from the Rogernomics page: --Helenalex 05:01, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I support making those articles. They really are needed, and Australia has them for each of their governments. The series by Margaret Clark on political leaders would be a good source, and Ian Grant's Public Lives as well. There will need to be some discussion on how to deal with the coalition governments - I would suggest

The Bolger National Government and National-led Coalition Government
The Fifth Labour Government in Coalition
NB, National governmen--Lholden 07:39, 10 January 2007 (UTC)ts have tended to be referred to as "The Bolger National Government" whereas Labour governments have tended to be "The Fourth Labour Government". --Midnighttonight (rendezvous) 22:38, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

I had also been wondering about what to do with coalitions. I think you're right in that we need to sort of treat a series of coalitions led by one party as a government, ie now back to 1999 as the fifth Labour government rather than three or more seperate governments. There is a similar issue for governments before the advent of party politics in about 1890. Before this time 'ministries' were made up of a loose collection of individual MPs temporarily united behind a leader (the Vogel Ministry etc). These could last anywhere from a few days to the best part of a decade. My inclination is to just start the government series in 1890 and deal with the ministries seperately.

In reference to naming, I think we should be consistent one way or the other, ie name them all after their main leader, with a slash in cases of two major leaders, ie the Savage / Fraser government, or all numbered. James Belich numbers all his governments in Paradise Reforged. Personally I'm not sure which way to go. The fourth Labour government is the only one which has a basically invariable name in terms of what people call it, and 'the Lange government' sounds kind of weird. On the other hand in the early 20th century parties changed their names quite a bit and it could get confusing, whereas things like 'the Ward government' are pretty straight forward. Either way it should be consistent and the other name should direct people to the page, ie if we choose numbering than a search for 'Muldoon government' should lead people directly to 'third National government' and vice versa. --Helenalex 01:16, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Having looked at the list below, numbering looks like it would work well... the party name changes I'm thinking of must have occurred when the party in question was in opposition. --Helenalex 05:03, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

FYI: Australia has the articles linked off Australian Commonwealth ministries, but they just list people and positions. There is also the subcats under Category:National cabinets for Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands. - SimonLyall 06:10, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I would be more inclined to go for 'the <leader> government' as opposed to the 'fifth National government' idea Brian | (Talk) 03:22, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

I've done a quick example here. --Lholden 07:39, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
Actually, it really should be (e.g.) "The First Liberal Ministry" --Lholden 07:50, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
Looks pretty good so far. There needs to be a brief section for the elections in between when they won and when they lost - not too much detail since elections should have pages of their own, but just enough for people to see how they fit into the context of what the govt was doing. Other than that I can't see any issues, although some will probably pop up once things get more detailed.
I think the list of Premiers and PMs settles the question of what to call the governments - we can't call it the 'Ballance/Seddon/Hall-Jones/Ward/Mackenzie Government'. And I would lean towards calling it the Liberal Government rather than the Liberal Ministry. I'm pretty sure thats what people usually call it, and it fits in with the rest of them. --Helenalex 08:55, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
I've created the first article - the First Liberal Government of New Zealand, and as you can see below, the Governments of New Zealand article. --Lholden 05:04, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
I knew all it would take was a rainy weekend :) Will try and get stuff done on this once I've finished rewriting the History of New Zealand page. --Helenalex 05:05, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
Basic Fourth Labour Government of New Zealand page done. --Helenalex 03:58, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
A very basic Third National Government of New Zealand page is up. --Helenalex 21:23, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
Fourth National Government of New Zealand. Could other people start pages too? --Helenalex 11:01, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] What needs to be included?

  • Prime Minister
  • Cabinet members
  • Major legislation/policy
  • Election results
  • Coalition agreements (if applicable)
Legislation and policy should probably be subdivided the same way for each govt, perhaps:
  • Economic
  • State services (health, education, welfare etc)
  • Infrastructure (rail, roads, energy)
  • Constitutional
  • Race relations
  • NZ in the world (trade, foreign relations, wars, national identity)
  • Social and cultural (abortion and other sex-related stuff, alcohol, censorship, the arts etc)
I can't think of anything off the top of my head that wouldn't fit into any of these categories. I'm not sure if the 'NZ in the world' category should be subdivided or not. In some eras (4th Labour, for example), all this went together, but in others it probably didn't so much.
There should also be a section on the 'politics in the narrow sense' side of things, for example major dissension within parties, tone of debate, major issues/concerns that weren't reflected in legsislation and so forth. I have no idea what this would be called. --Helenalex 05:11, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Governments

Main article: Governments of New Zealand

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Governments of New Zealand   Flag of New Zealand

[edit] Resources

[edit] Wikipedia

Terms of the
Parliament of New Zealand
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Flag of New Zealand New Zealand general elections
1853 · 1855 · 1860–61 · 1866 · 1871 · 1875–76 · 1879 · 1881 · 1884 · 1887 · 1890 · 1893 · 1896 · 1899 · 1902 · 1905 · 1908 · 1911 · 1914 · 1919 · 1922 · 1925 · 1928 · 1931 · 1935 · 1938 · 1943 · 1946 · 1949 · 1951 · 1954 · 1957 · 1960 · 1963 · 1966 · 1969 · 1972 · 1975 · 1978 · 1981 · 1984 · 1987 · 1990 · 1993 · 1996 · 1999 · 2002 · 2005 · 2008 · By-elections
Alcohol licensing, 1896–87 · Gambling, 1949 · Military training, 1949 · Pub closing time and alcohol licensing, 1949 · Pub closing time and parliamentary term, 1967 · Parliamentary term, 1990 · Voting method, 1992 · Voting method, 1993 · Firefighters, 1995 · Pensions, 1997 · Justice and MP reduction, 1999

Current Political Parties

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Political parties in New Zealand Flag of New Zealand
Parliamentary parties
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Portal:Politics - List of political parties - Politics of New Zealand

Parties no longer in existence:

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Historic political parties in New Zealand
99 MP · Advance · Animals First · Asia Pacific United · Christian Coalition · Christian Democrats · Christian Heritage · Communists · Conservative · Co-operative · Country · Democrat · Democratic Labour · Destiny · Ethnic Minority · Family Rights Protection Party · Freedom Movement · Future NZ (i) · Future NZ (ii) · Green Society · Imperial British Conservative · Independent Political Labour League · Labour (1910) · Liberal (i) · Liberal (ii) · Liberal (iii) · Mana Wahine · Mauri Pacific · McGillicuddy Serious · Natural Law · New Democrats · New Zealand Party · NMP · One NZ · People's Movement · Phoenix · Progressive Greens · Real Democracy · Reform · Republican (i) · Republican (ii) · Social Credit · Social Democrats · Socialists (i) · Socialists (ii) · Socialist Unity · South Island · Superannuitants and Youth · United NZ · United Labour · United (i) · United (ii) · Values Party · WIN Party · Women's Independence

[edit] Books

  • Margaret Clark (ed.), Keith Holyoake: Towards a Political Biography (Dunmore Press, 1997)
  • Margaret Clark (ed.), Peter Fraser: Master Politician (Dunmore Press,1998)
  • Margaret Clark (ed.) Three Labour Leaders: Nordmeyer, Kirk and Rowling (Dunmore Press, 2001)
  • Margaret Clark (ed.) Holyoake's Lieutenants (Dunmore Press, 2003)
  • Margaret Clark (ed.) Muldoon Revisited (Dunmore Press, 2004).
  • Margaret Clark (ed.) Lange and the Fourth Labour Government (Dunmore Press, 2005).
  • Clifton, Jane. Political Animals: Confessions of a Parliamentary Zoologist. Auckland: Penguin Books, 2005.
  • Boston, Jonathan, Stephen Levine, Elizabeth McLeay, and Nigel S. Roberts, eds. New Zealand Under MMP: A New Politics? Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1996.
  • Boston, Jonathan, Stephen Levine, Elizabeth McLeay, and Nigel S. Roberts, eds. From Campaign to Coalition: New Zealand's First General Election Under Proportional Representation. Palmerston North: The Dunmore Press, 1997.
  • Martin, John E. The House: New Zealand's House of Representatives 1854-2004. Palmerston North: Dunmore Press, 2004.
  • McLeay, Elizabeth, ed. The 1990 General Election: Perspectives on Political Change in New Zealand. Wellington: Occasional Publication No.3, Department of Politics, Victoria University of Wellington, 1991.
  • Miller, Raymond. Party Politics in New Zealand. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2005.
  • Palmer, Geoffrey. New Zealand’s Constitution in Crisis. Dunedin: McIndoe, 1992.
  • Siegfried, Andre. Democracy in New Zealand. Translated by E. V. Burns. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 1982 [1914].

[edit] Articles

  • Boston, Jonathan, Stephen Church, and Hilary Pearse. "Explaining the Demise of the National-New Zealand First Coalition." Australian Journal of Political Science 39, no. 3 (2004): 585-603.
  • James, Colin. "Comment: Ten Prime Ministers." Political Science 56, no. 2 (2004): 5-10.

[edit] Compare to

A number of other countries have similar articles to which we can compare to.

[edit] Any Coordinator?

Is there a Coordinator, so I couuld refer queries on why electorates are Kaimai (NZ electorate) and not Kaimai (New Zealand electorate) (which someone has amended my new page to), on the basis that abbreviations like UK, USA or NZ should not be used in titles? Hugo999 (talk) 03:45, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

User:Vardion created most of them originally I think so best ask him. Probably if it is a policy issue they could be renamed. - SimonLyall (talk) 04:14, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Anyway only one person (from Japan?) has raised it. With over 100 pages on electorates, and various templates etc, hardly justified! Hugo999 (talk) 21:38, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] New Zealand politicians

Is the above a good title for an article on MPs - youngest = Marilyn Waring?? - longest serving = Rex Mason?? etc etc. I don't think I should call it Trivia on MPs! Hugo999 (talk) 21:38, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Electorate Names

Make new ones "Bloggsville (New Zealand electorate)" as many "(NZ electorate)" names get renamed to "(New Zealand electorate)"? And how about standardising with those like "Auckland Central" "Hunua" and "Hutt South" have nothing after the place name - to "Hunua (New Zealand electorate)" ?. Any "double redirect" problems?

PS: I feel sorry for the Canadians who have to type "Newfoundland and Labrador" after anything to do with that state? Hugo999 (talk) 00:50, 29 May 2008 (UTC)