Reform Party (New Zealand)

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The Reform Party was a conservative party in New Zealand that was founded in 1909 and merged with the United Party into the National Party in 1936 . The party's full name was the New Zealand Political Reform League .

history

Right-wing organizations emerged from around 1887 with the Political Reform Associations , the National Association in 1891 and the Auckland Electoral League in 1902. In 1905 the Political Reform League was founded in Christchurch , which supported William Massey in the 1905 general election . This group in Christchurch exuded a stronger charisma than had previously been the case with other conservative movements, and it soon found supporters across the country. For the parliamentary election in 1908, the conservative bloc had already won 26 seats.

Inspired by this election result, Massey worked harder to be an alternative to the existing Liberal government and to build a serious alternative to the Liberal Party , which had been in government responsibility since 1891. Together with EF Hemingway of Patea , who is considered the chief architect of the founding of the party, they formed the Reform Party in February 1909 . For the election in 1911 there were already amalgamations of various reform groups with the party at the local level. After winning the election in 1911, in which the party formed the strongest parliamentary group with 34.6% of the vote and 37 seats , and Massey was its first prime minister , the party's actually constitutive meeting at the national level took place in August 1912. However, an attempt to rename the party the NZ Democratic League failed.

With Massey as a leader, the Reform Party was in government for a total of thirteen years. When he died, Francis Bell took over the post of Prime Minister temporarily for 16 days, followed by Gordon Coates , who won the internal election against William Nosworthy . After Massey's death , Albert Ernest Davy , businessman and political organizer, organized a campaign that earned Coates a comfortable 46.5%, 55 seats and the highest support in the party's history.

In the following three years of reign, however, the party lost more and more approval, as Gordon Coates was accused of lacking vision for New Zealand and his interventions in the economy found no acceptance among business people. A political conference organized by the businessmen in November 1927 heralded the decline of Coates and his party. In addition, Davy fell out with Coates and organized a campaign for the United Party .

The Reform Party , which had more of its political base in the rural regions, lost its approval there and, above all, also in the cities, and in the following election in 1928 finally did not get more than 27 seats. Government power therefore went to the United Party , which on the one hand was able to pool the liberal forces again after the dissolution of the Liberal Party and received support from the Labor Party camp and some independents.

After the change in leadership from Joseph Ward to George Forbes , who was more part of the right wing of the Liberals and temporarily appeared as a national , influential members of the Reform Party formed a coalition with the United Party under Forbes to take the growing power of Labor into elections To be able to confront in 1931. The coalition was widely approved with 55.4% of the vote and 51 seats and formed a government under Forbes . Four years later, the coalition was unable to prevail against Labor in the 1935 election and dramatically lost its approval.

As a result of this defeat and the appearance of the New Zealand Democrat Party under Davy as organizer, there was pressure to unite, especially since both parties had already come closer to each other through the coalition. At a congress that took place in Wellington from May 13-14, 1936 , the merger was finally decided and the National Party was founded as a new party.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c News & Media - The Chief Electoral Officer has declared the official results for the 2008 General Election . Elections Electoral Commission , November 22, 2008, accessed December 30, 2015 .
  2. ^ History of the National Party . New Zealand National Party , archived from the original on April 16, 2014 ; accessed on May 29, 2016 (English, original website no longer available).