New Zealand First

1.

2.

NZ First is a nationalist and populist political party in New Zealand.
The party distinguishes itself from the mainstream political establishment
through its use of populist rhetoric, and supports popular referenda. It has
also advocated restrictive immigration policies.
The party held seats in the New Zealand House of Representatives from its
formation in 1993 until 2008, when it failed to gain enough party votes to
retain representation.
In the 2011 election, New Zealand First gained 6.59% of the total party vote,
entitling it to eight members of parliament (MPs).
In the weeks following the 2017 election, New Zealand First formed a
coalition government with the Labour Party.
New Zealand First takes a centrist position on economic issues and a social
conservative position on social issues such as criminal justice.

3.

Principles
At the core of New Zealand First's policies are its "Fifteen
Fundamental Principles"; the first being "To put New
Zealand and New Zealanders First".
They largely echo the policies that Winston Peters, the
party's founder, has advocated during his career.
NZ First seeks to "promote and protect the customs,
traditions and values of all New Zealanders". Commentators
have described the party, and Peters himself, as nationalist.
Rather than defining the party's precise position on the left–
right political spectrum, political commentators simply label
New Zealand First as populist.
The party has long advocated direct democracy in the form
of "binding citizen initiated referenda", to create "a
democracy that is of the people and for the people", while
forcing government "to accept the will of the people".
Peters has also used anti-establishment and anti-elite
rhetoric, such as criticising what he regards as the
"intellectually arrogant elite in government and bureaucratic
circles".

4.

History
In June 1992, National Party Member of Parliament for Tauranga,
Winston Peters, was told that he would not be allowed to run under
National's banner in the 1993 election.
A former Minister of Māori Affairs, Peters had previously been
dismissed from the Cabinet in 1991, after he publicly criticised
National Party policy.
On 19 March 1993, shortly before the writs were issued for the general
election, Peters resigned from the then governing National Party.
He resigned from Parliament, triggering a by-election in his electorate
on 17 April 1993 in which he stood as an independent, winning with
90.8% of votes.
On 18 July 1993, shortly before that year's general election, Peters
formed New Zealand First as a political grouping.
At the time of its formation, New Zealand First's policy platform was
broadly conservative—Peters claimed to be reviving National policies
from which the Bolger government had departed.

5.

With the switch to the mixed-member proportional (MMP)
electoral system for the 1996 election, smaller parties could
gain a share of seats proportional to their share of the vote.
This enabled New Zealand First to win 13% of the vote and
17 seats, including all five Māori seats.
New Zealand First's five Māori MPs—Henare (the party's
deputy leader), Tuku Morgan, Rana Waitai, Tu Wyllie and
Tuariki Delamere—became known as the "Tight Five".
The election result put New Zealand First in a powerful
position just three years after its formation. Neither of the
two traditional major parties (National and Labour) had
enough seats to govern alone, and only New Zealand First
had enough seats to become a realistic coalition partner for
either.
This placed the relatively new party in a position where it
could effectively choose the next prime minister.
New Zealand First entered into negotiations with both major
parties. Before the election, most people (including many
New Zealand First voters) had expected Peters to enter into
coalition with Labour. In fact, he harshly attacked his former
National colleagues during the campaign, and appeared to
promise that he would not even consider going into coalition
with them.

6.

On 14 August 1998, Shipley sacked Peters from Cabinet.
This occurred after an ongoing dispute about the sale of
the government's stake in Wellington International
Airport.
Peters immediately broke off the coalition with National.
However, several other MPs, unwilling to follow Peters
out of government, tried to replace Peters with Henare.
This caucus-room coup failed, and most of these MPs
joined Henare in forming a new party, Mauri Pacific,
while others established themselves as independents.
Many of these MPs had come under public scrutiny for
their behaviour. Until 1999, however, they provided
National with enough support to continue without New
Zealand First.
In the 1999 election New Zealand First lost much of its
support, receiving only 4% of the party vote. Some
voters had apparently not forgiven Peters for forming a
coalition with National after being led to believe that a
vote for him would help get rid of National.
Under New Zealand's MMP rules, a party must either
win an electorate seat or 5% of the vote to have seats in
parliament. Peters held his Tauranga seat by a mere 63
votes, and New Zealand First received five seats in total.

7.

In the months before the 2008 general election, New
Zealand First became embroiled in a dispute over
donations to the party from Owen Glenn, the Vela
family and Bob Jones. This resulted in an investigation
into party finances by the Serious Fraud Office on 28
August 2008 and an investigation into Peters by the
Privileges Committee.
On 29 August 2008 Peters stood down from his
ministerial roles while the investigations were ongoing.
Although the Serious Fraud Office and the police found
that Peters was not guilty of any wrongdoing, the
episode harmed Peters and the party in the lead-up to
the election.
On election night it was clear that Peters had not
regained Tauranga and that the party had not met the
5% threshold needed for parties to be elected without
an electorate seat.
In what some journalists described as a 'gracious'
concession speech, Peters said that 'it's not over yet.
We'll reorganise ourselves in the next few months. And
we'll see what 2011 might hold for all us.'
At a post-election meeting held to discuss the party's
future in February 2009, Deputy Leader Peter Brown
stepped down.

8.

In late 2019, New Zealand First won a parliamentary
vote to hold a euthanasia referendum, as the party
threatened to vote down the legislation if it did not
go to a referendum.
The decision to go to a referendum passed 63–57.
In mid-February 2020, the Serious Fraud Office
announced that it was investigating the NZ First
Foundation in response to allegations that the party
had created a slush fund. Between 2017 and 2019,
New Zealand First party officials had allegedly
channeled half a million dollars of donations into the
NZ First Foundation's bank account to cover various
party-related expenses such as the party's
headquarters, graphic design, an MP's legal advice,
and even a $5000 day at the Wellington races.
The amount of donations deposited into the
foundation and used by the party was at odds with
its official annual returns.
Party leader Peters has denied any wrongdoing while
fellow MP Shane Jones the Minister for Infrastructure
has condemned the conspiracy theories surrounding
the party.

9.

Relations with Maori
Winston Peters is part-Māori; the party once held all Māori
electorates and it continues to receive significant support from
voters registered in Māori electorates. However, New Zealand First
no longer supports the retention of the Māori electorates and has
declared that it will not stand candidates in the Māori electorates in
the future.
New Zealand First is further characterised by its strong stance on the
Treaty of Waitangi. The party refers to the Treaty as a "source of
national pride" but does not support it becoming a part of
constitutional law.
Peters has criticised what he refers to as a Treaty "Grievance
Industry"—which profits from making frivolous claims of violations
of the Treaty—and the cost of Treaty negotiations and settlement
payments.
The party has called for an end to "special treatment" of Māori.
Following the 2017 general election, Peters indicated that he would
be willing to consider dropping his call for a referendum on
abolishing the Māori seats during coalition-forming negotiations
with Labour leader Jacinda Ardern.
On 19 July 2017, Peters promised that a New Zealand First
government would hold two binding referendums on whether Maori
electorates should be abolished and whether the number of MPs
should be reduced to 100.