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Politics
Politics
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Government
New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy.
Although it has no codified constitution, the Constitution Act 1986 is the principal formal statement of New Zealand's constitutional structure.
Queen Elizabeth II is the head of state and is titled Queen of New Zealand under the Royal Titles Act 1974.
She is represented by the Governor-General, whom she appoints on the exclusive advice of the Prime Minister.
The current Governor-General is Anand Satyanand.
The Governor-General exercises the Crown's prerogative powers, such as the power to appoint and dismiss ministers and to dissolve Parliament, and in rare situations, the reserve powers.
The Governor-General also chairs the Executive Council, which is a formal committee consisting of all ministers of the Crown.
Members of the Executive Council are required to be Members of Parliament, and most are also in Cabinet.
Cabinet is the most senior policy-making body and is led by the Prime Minister, who is also, by convention, the Parliamentary leader of the governing party or coalition.
The New Zealand Parliament has only one chamber, the House of Representatives, which usually seats 120 Members of Parliament.
Parliamentary general elections are held every three years under a form of proportional representation called Mixed Member Proportional.
The 2008 General Election created an 'overhang' of two extra seats, occupied by the Māori Party, due to that party winning more seats in electorates than the number of seats its proportion of the party vote would have given it.
From October 2005 until November 2008, the Labour-led government was in formal coalition with the Progressive Party, Jim Anderton being its only MP.
In addition, New Zealand First and United Future provided confidence and supply in return for their leaders being ministers outside cabinet.
An arrangement was also made with the Green Party, which gave a commitment not to vote against the government on confidence and supply.
In 2007 Labour also had the proxy vote of Taito Phillip Field, a former Labour MP.
These arrangements assured the government of a majority of seven MPs on confidence votes.
Labour was defeated by the National Party in the general elections of November 8, 2008.
Following the victory, National leader John Key moved quickly to form a government, negotiating coalition agreements with the right-wing ACT party, led by Rodney Hide, the centrist United Future party, albeit with its single seat held by leader Peter Dunne, and the Māori Party, led by Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples.
Each of these leaders are to hold ministerial posts but remain outside of Cabinet.
There are to be three parties in Opposition: the Labour Party, led by Phil Goff; the Greens, co-led by Jeanette Fitzsimons and Russel Norman and the Progressive Party, under Jim Anderton.
The new executive was sworn in on 19 November 2008.
The highest court in New Zealand is the Supreme Court of New Zealand, established in 2004 following the passage of the Supreme Court Act 2003.
The act abolished the option to appeal to the Privy Council in London.
The current Chief Justice is Dame Sian Elias.
New Zealand's judiciary also includes the Court of Appeal; the High Court, which deals with serious criminal offences and civil matters at the trial level and with appeals from lower courts and tribunals; and subordinate courts.
New Zealand is the only country in the world in which all the highest offices in the land have been occupied simultaneously by women: Queen Elizabeth II, Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright, Prime Minister Helen Clark, Speaker of the House of Representatives Margaret Wilson and Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias were all in office between March 2005 and August 2006.
New Zealand's largest listed company, Telecom New Zealand, had a woman - Theresa Gattung - as its CEO at the time.
Foreign relations and the military
New Zealand maintains a strong profile on environmental protection, human rights and free trade, particularly in agriculture.
New Zealand is a member of APEC, East Asia Summit, Commonwealth of Nations, OECD and the United Nations.
New Zealand is party to a number of free trade agreements, of which the most important are the China-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement and Closer Economic Relations with Australia.
For its first hundred years, New Zealand followed the United Kingdom's lead on foreign policy.
In declaring war on Germany on 3 September 1939, Prime Minister Michael Savage proclaimed, "Where she goes, we go; where she stands, we stand".
After the war the United States exerted an increased influence on culture and the New Zealand people gained a clearer sense of national identity.
New Zealand joined Australia and the United States in the ANZUS security treaty in 1951, and later fought alongside the United States in both the Korean and the Vietnam Wars.
In contrast, the United Kingdom became increasingly focused on its European interests following the Suez Crisis, and New Zealand was forced to develop new markets after the UK joined the EEC in 1973.
New Zealand has traditionally worked closely with Australia, whose foreign policy followed a similar historical trend.
In turn, many Pacific Islands such as Western Samoa have looked to New Zealand's lead.
The American influence on New Zealand was weakened by the disappointment with the Vietnam War, the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior by France, and by disagreements over environmental and agricultural trade issues and New Zealand's nuclear-free policy.
While the ANZUS treaty was once fully mutual between Australia, New Zealand and the United States, this is no longer the case.
In February 1985, New Zealand refused nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships access to its ports.
New Zealand became a Nuclear-free zone in June 1987, the first Western-allied state to do so.
In 1986 the United States announced that it was suspending its treaty security obligations to New Zealand pending the restoration of port access.
The New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987 prohibits the stationing of nuclear weapons on the territory of New Zealand and the entry into New Zealand waters of nuclear armed or propelled ships.
This legislation remains a source of contention and the basis for the United States' continued suspension of treaty obligations to New Zealand.
Within New Zealand, there have been various wars between iwi, and between the British settlers and iwi.
New Zealand has fought in the Second Boer War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency (and committed troops, fighters and bombers to the subsequent confrontation with Indonesia), the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and the Afghanistan War.
It has also sent a unit of army engineers to help rebuild Iraqi infrastructure for one year during the Iraq War.
In 2008 New Zealand forces are still active in Afghanistan.
The New Zealand Defence Force has three branches: the New Zealand Army, the Royal New Zealand Navy and the Royal New Zealand Air Force.
New Zealand considers its own national defence needs to be modest; it dismantled its air combat capability in 2001.
New Zealand has contributed forces to recent regional and global peacekeeping missions, including those in Cyprus, Somalia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Sinai, Angola, Cambodia, the Iran/Iraq border, Bougainville, East Timor, and the Solomon Islands.
Local government and external territories
The early European settlers divided New Zealand into provinces.
These were abolished in 1876 so that government could be centralised, for financial reasons.
As a result, New Zealand has no separately represented subnational entities such as provinces, states or territories, apart from local government.
However the spirit of the provinces lives on, and there is fierce rivalry exhibited in sporting and cultural events.
Since 1876, local government has administered the various regions of New Zealand.
In 1989, the government completely reorganised local government, implementing the current two-tier structure of regional councils and territorial authorities constituted under the Local Government Act 2002.
In 1991, the Resource Management Act 1991 replaced the Town and Country Planning Act as the main planning legislation for local government.
New Zealand has 12 regional councils for the administration of regional environmental and transport matters and 73 territorial authorities that administer roading, sewerage, building consents, and other local matters.
The territorial authorities are 16 city councils, 57 district councils, and the Chatham Islands County Council.
Four of the territorial councils (one city and three districts) and the Chatham Islands County Council also perform the functions of a regional council and are known as unitary authorities.
Territorial authority districts are not subdivisions of regional council districts, and a few of them straddle regional council boundaries.
The regions are (asterisks denote unitary authorities): Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne*, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, Manawatu-Wanganui, Wellington, Marlborough*, Nelson*, Tasman*, West Coast, Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands*.
As a major South Pacific nation, New Zealand has a close working relationship with many Pacific Island nations, and continues a political association with the Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau.
New Zealand operates Scott Base in its Antarctic territory, the Ross Dependency.
Other countries also use Christchurch to support their Antarctic bases and the city is sometimes known as the "Gateway to Antarctica".
Source: CIA Factbook, Wikipedia
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