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There are seven parliamentary parties in the 49th Parliament, elected in 2008, which are; ACT New Zealand, Green Party, Labour Party, Maori Party, National Party, Progressive, and United Future. The next election will be held in November 2011.
The Maori Electorate ensures positions in parliament for representatives of Maori decent in the New Zealand Parliament. Only New Zealand Maori are eligible to take part in the Maori Electoral Option.The Electoral Act defines Maori as “a person of the Maori race of New Zealand; and includes any descendant of such a person“. Maori can decide whether to be on the Maori or General electoral roll. But once enrolled, they cant change again. The Maori Electoral Option is held generally once every five years over a four month period.
The Executive Wing of the parliamentary complex is known as the 'Beehive' because of the building’s shape. Sir Basil Spence, a British architect, designed the Beehive in 1964. The idea behind the round shape was that the rooms and offices should radiate from a central core. This concept was developed by the Government Architect of the Ministry of Works. This is where the Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers have their offices, and where the Cabinet meets. The National Crisis Management Centre is held in the Beehives basement, it is the Government’s command centre in the event of a major emergency or security threat. The Centre includes kitchens, bunkrooms, and other facilities so that people can live and work here for extended periods of time.
Parliament house was built out of Coromandel granite at the base and Takaka marble on the upper storeys. Some important rooms in parliament house are; The Chamber, which is where bills are debated by members of Parliament, The M?ori Affairs Committee Room and the Pacific room, which was established to recognise the contribution made by pacific people in New Zealand.
The third building in the parliament grounds is the Parliamentary Library. It is a working library that provides research services for members of Parliament and parliamentary staff. There is also a public reading room for customers of the Library’s International Documents Service and the Parliamentary Information Service. It was built in 1883 in a Victorian gothic style, but has been refurbished many times due to fire damage.
New Zealand’s head of State is the Sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II of New Zealand. The Governor-General is the Queen’s representative in New Zealand.
Our Government is formed from a democratically elected House of Representatives. The Government advises the Sovereign (our head of State). By convention, the Sovereign, the source of all executive legal authority in New Zealand, acts on the advice of the Government in all but the most exceptional circumstances. This system is known as a constitutional monarchy.
New Zealand was the first country to have its top three positions of power held simultaneously by women. (Prime Minister, Governor General and Chief of Justice.
New Zealand was largely a Maori world in the 1830s. There were perhaps 100,000 Maori, divided into major iwi or tribes. Relations between groups could be tense, and conflict was common. Maori traditions and social structures prevailed, but more Europeans arrived in New Zealand through the decade. There were about 200 in the North Island in the early 1830s. By 1839, there may have been 2000 throughout the country (including around 1400 in the North Island), attracted by trade and settlement.
Bibles, industry and trade
Many Maori welcomed the new experiences that contact with Europeans brought. Missionaries had arrived in the 1810s, bringing new ideas and concepts drawn from both the Bible and the wider world. They introduced Maori to literacy, in Maori, with the translation of parts of the Bible. Maori visited New South Wales and England, enlarging their experience of commerce, the role of monarchy, alternative systems of law and government, and the treatment of indigenous peoples.
Up to the late 1830s, Europeans mainly came to exploit the country's natural resources – seals in the far south and whales, then timber, flax and fisheries. From around the early 1820s, British and American sperm whalers used northern harbours to refit and refresh. By 1830 Kororareka (Russell), located at the Bay of Islands in the territory of the Ngapuhi people, was a well-established trading and whaling port. Sometimes a dozen or more ships might be at anchor, with several hundred men ashore. New Zealand trade, in terms of both exports and imports, grew rapidly and became increasingly important to the merchants and capitalists of New South Wales.
New Zealand was a rough place, with the mixed population and riff-raff typical of all 19th-century frontiers. The whaling trade brought men of many nationalities to New Zealand, not only British but also French and American. Many Maori became involved, working on the ships and supplying vessels with pork, potatoes and other goods and services.
New firepower
Muskets added a new edge to traditional conflict between Maori. From 1818 northern Maori war parties, increasingly armed with muskets, attacked tribes further south. Some tribes migrated, while others resettled. A kind of arms race developed as all groups competed to obtain the new firepower introduced by Europeans.
The period of major population shifts ended in the mid-1830s. The conquest and settlement of the Chatham Islands by Ngati Mutunga and Ngati Tama was the last instance, although warfare continued until 1840 and beyond. It is likely that a form of military equilibrium was reached once all tribes had access to the coveted muskets.
Published by the New Zealand Immigration Service - a service of the Department of Labour
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| "Migrants who
make this country home are important to New Zealand's heritage, culture
and economy"Dept. of
Labour 2006 |
Government Buildings
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