New Zealand Political System

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Logo of the New Zealand Parliament

The New Zealand political system is based on a constitutional monarchy modeled on the British Westminster system . In contrast to the political system of Great Britain, however, New Zealand has had no upper house since 1951 , formerly called the Legislative Council of New Zealand , and after a binding referendum in 1993 it introduced the mixed-member proportional electoral system ( MMP ).

Until the end of 1986 New Zealand was still dependent on decisions by the British Parliament, but with the passage of the Constitution Act 1986 it broke its influence. The law, which now transferred legislative power exclusively to the New Zealand parliament , came into force on January 1, 1987. But the head of state of the country remained the Queen Elizabeth II. , Represented by the Governor-General of New Zealand .

In the 2019 Democracy Index, New Zealand achieved a democracy value of 9.26 points. This makes it a complete democracy and ranks fourth out of 167 countries.

The constitution of the country

New Zealand does not have a constitution that is summarized in a single document , comparable to the German Basic Law . The Constitution Act 1986 , which can be translated as a constitutional law, is a kind of declaration of principles only part of a constitution that is distributed over the various laws of the country and in which English laws such as the Magna Carta 1297 and the Bill of Rights 1688 , the Act of Settlement 1700 and the Imperial Laws Application Act 1988 , are constitutionally relevant.

Other constituent elements in New Zealand's laws are the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 , the Electoral Act 1993 , the Legislature Act 1908 , the Official Information Act 1982 , the Ombudsmen Act 1975 , the Public Finance Act 1989 and the State Sector Act 1988 , to find. Basic decisions by the New Zealand courts can also be constitutional.

The Constitution Act 1986 does not currently have the status of a higher law and can be changed by a simple majority in parliament, as can most of the aforementioned New Zealand laws.

Treaty of Waitangi

The Treaty of Waitangi ( Treaty of Waitangi ), concluded on February 6, 1840 between the British Crown and the leading clan chiefs of the Māori tribes, can be seen as the first constitution of New Zealand. The treaty contains three important elements that should not be missing from any constitution:

  1. the sovereignty of the country,
  2. Guarantee residents of their property and cultural rights,
  3. the equality of its citizens before the law.

But the treaty was a point of contention between the Pākehā , the whites, and the Māori from the start . Society, politics and the judiciary have been dealing with different interpretations of the treaty up to the present day. However, it is also a fact that the treaty is an integral part of the New Zealand political and social system and has unmistakably shaped the character of the country.

Desire for a constitutional change

After the National Party's election victory in 2008, the Māori Party offered itself as a coalition partner, provided that the National Government set in motion a national discussion process on the New Zealand Constitution, which also raises the question of the extent to which the Treaty of Waitangi has constituent elements contains.

As a result, the government set up the Constitutional Advisory Panel (advisory group) in August 2011 , which should work out proposals for a New Zealand constitution. In November 2013, the Advisory Panel presented its report with suggestions for discussion. In it, the advisory group suggested three possible bases for discussion:

  1. a Treaty of Waitangi- based constitution in which the treaty becomes a central part of the New Zealand constitution,
  2. to incorporate the Treaty of Waitangi into the Constitution Act 1986 and the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 and thus upgrade it,
  3. to maintain the status quo and to take account of rights and obligations under the treaty through negotiations.
  4. Although the working group recognized that many New Zealanders are skeptical about including or adequately considering the Treaty of Waitangi in the constitution, they recommended "not turning back the clock" and accepting that the Treaty of Waitangi is already an integral part of the constitution Is okay.

However, the report also came to the conclusion that although there would be public support for a constitution summarized in one document, there is no support for placing the constitution above all laws and making it more difficult to amend the constitution through a higher quorum .

There is currently no apparent majority will to change the constitution in politics and the population. Nevertheless, the discussion continues in the country, including the question of whether New Zealand should be a republic and abolish the monarchy .

New Zealand monarchy

With the Constitution Act 1986 , New Zealand clearly stated its will to a constitutional monarchy. New Zealand's head of state is currently Elizabeth II, represented by the Governor General of New Zealand.

The New Zealand monarchy differs from the British monarchy in that the British crown has been accepted as head of state since May 28, 1953 with the proclamation of the Royal Titles Act 1953 and subsequently with the Royal Titles Act 1974 , but its title only in connection with New Zealand is allowed to use. In essence, this means that the respective incumbents of the British crown are also king or queen of New Zealand.

In practice, however, the tasks of the monarchy are taken over by a governor-general who represents the crown and is appointed by the British crown by letters patent on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of New Zealand .

legislative branch

The New Zealand Parliament is the supreme legislative power in the country and is composed of the Sovereign , which is formed by the British Crown and represented by the Governor General of New Zealand, and the House of Representatives , in which the elected representatives of the people sit. Parliament controls the government and passes laws after three readings.

The original bicameral system (lower house and upper house) adopted by Great Britain was abolished in 1951 with the Legislative Council Abolition Act 1950 .

The session of an elected parliament is 3 years and can only be changed by a majority of 75% of the members of parliament or by referendum in accordance with the 1993 Electoral Act . The members of parliament, also called MPs for short, were elected for the first time in 1996 according to the Mixed Member Proportional Election System ( MMP ), a mixture of personality and proportional representation. Each MP is elected either directly in a constituency or indirectly via a party list (by voting for the party). Some seats are specially reserved for Māori MPs. At the same time, Māori can also run for normal seats.

The House of Representatives normally has 120 seats, but since the introduction of the MMP electoral system in 1993, overhang seats, i.e. additional seats in the House of Representatives, can arise through direct seats won that do not correspond to the voting ratio of a party . This happened for the first time at the General Election in 2005.

All New Zealand citizens and so-called ' permanent residents ' (permanent residents = foreigners with the status of being able to live permanently in New Zealand) who have reached the age of 18 and have registered for the election are entitled to vote .

executive

The executive of New Zealand is divided into the political and administrative executive, as in other democratic systems of government. The political executive includes the prime minister , all government ministers and the country's governor general. They form the Executive Council , which is the highest formal body in government and is constituted by letters patent .

The administrative executive consists of the large number of so-called government officials , who are also viewed as permanent executives, as they are an integral part of the government apparatus and are not elected or voted out of parliament as ministers and appointed or dismissed by the head of government can.

In addition, there are the Crown Entities (state-owned companies), which, depending on the provision and legal definition, have to directly or indirectly carry out government policy and ministerial orders.

Judiciary

The New Zealand jurisdiction is hierarchically structured from the Supreme Court (Supreme Court), the Court of Appeal (Appeal Court), the High Court (High Court) and at the lowest level the District Courts (district courts ), with the Family Court (family court), the Youth Court and the Environment Court .

In parallel, there is the Māori Appellate Court ( Court of Appeal for Māori ) below the Court of Appeal and the Māori Land Court (court specifically for land questions relating to Māori property or claims). The Employment Court is also located below the Court of Appeal . For legal disputes that can be resolved through moderation, there are the Community Magistrates , the Dispute Tribunals and, in labor law, the Employment Relations Authority below the courts .

Although the jurisdiction is hierarchical, there is no comparable hierarchy in New Zealand law. Even the Constitution Act 1986 is not above the other laws and can be changed at any time with a simple majority in parliament. The lack of hierarchy and "equivalence" of the laws places special demands on the New Zealand judiciary and its judges, because they often have to decide on a case-by-case basis what New Zealand law is, which laws are to be weighed against each other and which have priority in individual cases.

public sector

As a public sector ( Public Sector ) in New Zealand u. a. denotes the area performing public service functions as described in the State Sector Act 1988 . In New Zealand there are 29 public service departments in the core area as of 2015 . Their number varies from government to government and from year to year, depending on the idea of ​​providing and organizing public services. Accordingly, the number of employees in this state-organized area fluctuates very strongly. While there were around 72,000 employees in public services in 1987, this number was reduced to around 30,000 employees by the year 2000 and then increased again to 44,500 service providers by mid-2013.

The two areas of the so-called State Service and State Sector also belong to the public sector. The State Service with over 2800 includes a large number of Crown entities , of which more than 2400 boards of trustees ( trustees are) and 20 District Health Boards are (health organizations at the district level). The State Service also includes four non-public service departments and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand .

The State Sector includes State-Owned Enterprises ( SOEs ), currently three offices of Parliament ( Controller and Auditor-general , Ombudsmen and the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (as of 2015)) and tertiary educational institutions such as universities.

literature

  • Janine Hayward (Ed.): New Zealand Government and Politics . 6th edition. Oxford University Press , Melbourne 2015, ISBN 978-0-19-558525-4 (English).
    • John E. Martin : 3.3 Parliament . In: New Zealand Government and Politics . 2015, p. 141-152 .
    • Ryan Malone : 3.4 The Executive . In: New Zealand Government and Politics . 2015, p. 153-164 .
    • Andrew Geddis : 3.5 The Judiciary . In: New Zealand Government and Politics . 2015, p. 165-176 .
    • Richard Shaw : 3.6 The Public Sector . In: New Zealand Government and Politics . 2015, p. 177-189 .
    • Christine Cheyne : 3.7 Local Government . In: New Zealand Government and Politics . 2015, p. 190-201 .
  • New Zealand's Constitution . A report on a conversation . In: Ministry of Justice (ed.): Constitutional Advisory Panel . Wellington 2013, ISBN 978-0-478-32424-2 (English, online [PDF; 4.7 MB ; accessed on June 10, 2015]).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Therese Arseneau, Nigel S. Roberts : 5.1 The MMP Electoral System . In: New Zealand Government and Politics . 2015, p.  275 .
  2. ↑ Democracy-Index 2019 Overview chart with comparative values ​​to previous years , on economist.com
  3. ^ A b Kenneth Keith : On the Constitution of New Zealand: An Introduction to the Foundations of the Current Form of Government . Cabinet Office , 2008, accessed June 10, 2015 .
  4. ↑ a b Malcolm Mulholland : 3.1 The Treaty of Waitangi . In: New Zealand Government and Politics . 2015, p.  120 .
  5. ↑ Malcolm Mulholland : 3.1 The Treaty of Waitangi . In: New Zealand Government and Politics . 2015, p.  122 .
  6. ^ Ministry of Justice (Ed.): New Zealand's Constitution . 2013, p.  9 ff .
  7. ^ Ministry of Justice (Ed.): New Zealand's Constitution . 2013, p.  34-35 .
  8. ↑ Janine Hayward : 3.2 The Constitution . In: New Zealand Government and Politics . 2015, p.  138 .
  9. ↑ Janine Hayward : 3.2 The Constitution . In: New Zealand Government and Politics . 2015, p.  139 .
  10. ^ Royal Titles Act 1974 . New Zealand Legislation , accessed June 10, 2015 .
  11. ^ A b John E. Martin : 3.3 Parliament . In: New Zealand Government and Politics . 2015, p.  144 f .
  12. ^ Legislative Council Abolition Act 1950 . New Zealand Legislation , accessed June 11, 2015 .
  13. ^ Electoral Act 1993 . New Zealand Legislation , accessed June 11, 2015 .
  14. ^ Vote in elections . New Zealand Parliament , February 13, 2015, accessed May 30, 2015 .
  15. ↑ General Elections 1853-2014 - Dates and Turnout . Electoral Commission New Zealand , October 21, 2014, accessed June 11, 2015 .
  16. ^ John Wilson : Nation and government - The electoral system . Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand , February 3, 2015, accessed June 11, 2015 .
  17. ↑ Ryan Malone : 3.4 The Executive . In: New Zealand Government and Politics . 2015, p.  156 .
  18. ↑ Ryan Malone : 3.4 The Executive . In: New Zealand Government and Politics . 2015, p.  154 .
  19. ↑ Andrew Geddis : 3.5 The Judiciary . In: New Zealand Government and Politics . 2015, p.  170 .
  20. ↑ Andrew Geddis : 3.5 The Judiciary . In: New Zealand Government and Politics . 2015, p.  166 .
  21. ^ State Sector Act 1988 . New Zealand Legislation , accessed June 11, 2015 .
  22. ^ A b c Richard Shaw : 3.6 The Public Sector . In: New Zealand Government and Politics . 2015, p.  178 .