1.
New Zealand Order of Merit
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The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order of chivalry in New Zealands honours system. The number of Knights and Dames Grand Companion is limited to 30 living people, additionally, new appointments are limited to 15 Knight Companions,40 Companions,80 Officers and 140 Members per year. As well as the five grades, there are three types of membership, ordinary membership is limited to citizens of New Zealand or a Commonwealth realm. Additional members, appointed on special occasions, are not counted in the numerical limits, people who are not citizens of a Commonwealth realm are given Honorary membership, if they subsequently adopt citizenship of a Commonwealth realm they are eligible for Additional membership. The Collar, worn only by the Sovereign and Chancellor, comprises links of the medallion of the badge and S-shaped Koru. Hanging from the Coat of Arms is the badge of the Order, the Star is an eight-pointed star with each arm bearing a representation of a fern frond, with the Orders badge superimposed in the centre. Grand Companions wear a star and Knight Companions wear a silver star. The badge for Officers and Members is similar, but in silver-gilt, Grand Companions wear the badge on a sash over the right shoulder, Knight Companions and Companions wear the badge on a neck ribbon or a bow on the left shoulder. Officers and Members wear the badge from a ribbon on the lapel or a bow on the left shoulder. The ribbon and sash are plain red ochre, Knight/Dames Grand Companion and Knight/Dames Companion are entitled to use the style Sir for males and Dame for females. The orders statutes grant heraldic privileges to members of the first and second level, Grand Companions are also entitled to heraldic supporters. The Chancellor is entitled to supporters and a representation of the Collar of the Order around his/her shield, the majority of those affected chose the aforereferenced appellations. A change to non-titular honours was a recommendation contained within the report of the 1995 honours committee which prompted the creation of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Titular honours were incorporated into the new system before its implementation in 1996 after the National Party caucus, there has long been debate in New Zealand regarding the appropriateness of titles. Some feel it is no longer appropriate as New Zealand has not been a colony since 1907, others feel that titles carry both domestic and international recognition, and that awarded on the basis of merit they remain an appropriate recognition of excellence. In April 2000 the then new Labour Prime Minister, Helen Clark, announced that knighthoods and damehoods had been abolished, a National Business Review poll in February 2000 revealed that 54% of New Zealanders thought the titles should be scrapped. The issue of titular honours would appear whenever honours were mentioned, in 2009, Prime Minister John Key restored the honours to their pre-April 2000 state. Principal Companions and Distinguished Companions were given the option to convert their awards into Knighthoods or Damehoods, the restoration was welcomed by Monarchy New Zealand
2.
Companion of the Queen's Service Order
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This order was created after a review of New Zealands honours system in 1974. The Queens Service Order replaced the Imperial Service Order in New Zealand, recipients of this award are entitled to use the post-nominal letters QSO, and are styled companion. Members of the Royal Family can be named extra companions, before 2005, awards were distinguished between those made for public and community service. The ribbon has a traditional Māori Poutama motif of black, white, the insignia is worn on the left lapel of the coat for men or from a ribbon tied in a bow at the left shoulder for women. The Governor-General of New Zealand additionally wears the badge on a gold chain. There is also a related Queens Service Medal, which is a circular medal bearing the effigy of the reigning monarch on the obverse. The ribbon or bow pattern is the same as the Queens Service Order, the medal, before 2005, was also awarded for public and community service. British and Commonwealth orders and decorations New Zealand Honours System Official Site, has images of the various insignia, changes to QSO and QSM Honours affect Gov Gen, New Zealand Government press release. Warrant under the Orders seal reconstiuting the Order
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New Zealand Parliament
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The New Zealand Parliament is the legislative branch of New Zealand, consisting of the Queen of New Zealand and the New Zealand House of Representatives. Before 1951, there was a chamber, the New Zealand Legislative Council. The Parliament was established in 1854 and is one of the oldest continuously functioning parliaments in the world, the House of Representatives is a democratically elected body whose members are known as Members of Parliament. It usually consists of 120 MPs, though sometimes due to overhang seats. 70 MPs are elected directly in electorate seats and the remainder are filled by list MPs based on each partys share of the party vote, Māori were represented in Parliament from 1867, and in 1893 women gained the vote. New Zealand does not allow sentenced prisoners to vote, the Parliament is closely linked to the executive branch. The House of Representatives has met in the Parliament Buildings located in Wellington, Parliament funds the broadcast of its proceedings through Parliament TV, AM Network and Parliament Today. It was based on the Westminster model and had a house, called the House of Representatives. The members of the House of Representatives were elected under the first-past-the-post voting system, originally Councillors were appointed for life, but later their terms were fixed at seven years. In 1951, the Council was abolished altogether, making the New Zealand legislature unicameral, under the Constitution Act, legislative power was also conferred on New Zealands provinces, each of which had its own elected Legislative Council. These provincial legislatures were able to legislate for their provinces on most subjects, over a twenty-year period, political power was progressively centralised, and the provinces were abolished altogether in 1876. Four Māori electorates were created in 1867 during the term of the 4th Parliament, originally the New Zealand Parliament remained subordinate to the British Parliament, the supreme legislative authority for the entire British Empire. One historical speciality of the New Zealand Parliament was the country quota, from 1889 on, districts were weighted according to their urban/rural split. The country quota was in effect until it was abolished in 1945 by a mostly urban-elected Labour government, the New Zealand Parliament is sovereign with no institution able to over-ride its decisions. The ability of Parliament to act is, legally, unimpeded, for example, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 is a normal piece of legislation, it is not superior law as codified constitutions are in some other countries. The only thing Parliament is limited in its power are on some entrenched issues relating to elections and these issues require either 75% of all MPs to support the bill or a referendum on the issue. The Queen of New Zealand is one of the components of Parliament—formally called the Queen-in-Parliament and this results from the role of the monarch to sign into law the bills that have been passed by the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives was established as a house and has been the Parliaments sole chamber since 1951
4.
New Zealand general election, 1987
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The 1987 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the 42nd sitting of the New Zealand Parliament. The governing New Zealand Labour Party, led by Prime Minister David Lange, was re-elected for a second term, the election also saw the elimination of the Democratic Party from Parliament, leaving Labour and National as the only parties represented. Before the election, the Labour Party held 56 seats, giving it a majority in Parliament. The National Party held 37 seats, the Democrats, a small party devoted to the principles of Social Credit, held two seats. Of particular importance in the election were the reforms being undertaken by Roger Douglas. These reforms, sometimes known as Rogernomics, involved monetarist approaches to controlling inflation, corporatisation of government departments, all these things were strongly opposed by many traditional Labour supporters, who saw them as a betrayal of the partys left-wing principles. Many commentators believed that anger over Rogernomics could cost the government the election. Another matter of importance, and perhaps one which enabled Labour to survive public dissatisfaction, was the nuclear issue, the National Party intended to revoke the ban, but the New Zealand public were supportive of it. Labours support for the ban is often considered to be an important factor in the partys re-election, National was also bitterly divided, with some supporting the Rogernomics reforms, but MPs such as former Prime Minister Robert Muldoon bitterly opposed. Muldoon had undermined his successor as party leader, Jim McLay, Bolger was more centrist, but National still struggled to be seen as an alternative government. In the South Island, the shift of population to Christchurch had continued, overall, three electorates were newly created, three electorates were recreated, and four electorates were abolished. All of those electorates were in the North Island, changes in the South Island were restricted to boundary changes. The election was held on 15 August, and 2,114,656 people were registered to vote, turnout was 89. 1%, somewhat lower than the 1984 election. The election saw the Labour Party win 57 seats, enough for it to retain its outright majority, Labour held two more seats than after the previous election. The National Party won 40 seats, an increase of three and it was possible for both parties to increase their number of seats partly due to the disappearance of the Democrats and partly due to the increase in the total number of seats. Although Labour emerged from the election with a 17-seat lead over National, labours share of the vote was 48. 0%, while Nationals was 44. 0%. While Labour did retain its lead, the gap between Labour and National closed by a larger extent than the count would indicate. The Democrats, despite winning 5. 7% of the vote, did not win any electorates
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New Zealand general election, 1996
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The 1996 New Zealand general election was held on 12 October 1996 to determine the composition of the 45th New Zealand Parliament. It was notable for being the first election to be held under the new proportional electoral system. It saw the National Party, led by Jim Bolger, retain its position in government, New Zealand Firsts position as kingmaker, able to place either of the two major parties into government, was a significant election outcome. In the 1993 election, the National Party and the Labour Party had won 50 and 45 seats, the Alliance and the New Zealand First party had each won two seats. In the approach to MMP, however, there had been considerable rearrangement in parliament, as such, the situation just before the 1996 election was markedly different from the situation that had been established at the 1993 election. The 1996 election was notable for the significant change of electorate boundaries, because of the introduction of the MMP electoral system, the number of electorates had to be reduced, leading to significant changes. Many electorates were abolished, with their territories being incorporated into completely new electoral districts, more than half of the electorates contested in 1996 were newly constituted, and most of the remainder had seen significant boundary changes. In total,73 electorates were abolished,29 electorates were newly created, South Island Since the 1967 electoral redistribution, the South Island had its number of general electorates fixed at 25. For the 1996 election and onwards, the number of South Island electorates is fixed at 16. The number of electors on the roll of the South Island divided by 16 gives the target size for North Island and Māori electorates. North Island Based on the described above, the target size for North Island electorates resulted in 44 of them being required. Māori electorates All four existing Māori electorates were abolished, the calculation described above resulted in five Māori electorates being required, these were Te Puku O Te Whenua, Te Tai Hauauru, Te Tai Rawhiti, Te Tai Tokerau, and Te Tai Tonga. List seats The House of Representatives was to have 120 seats and this left 55 list seats to be filled. An outcome of the election was that no overhang seats were required, of the 2,418,587 people registered to vote,88. 3% turned out to vote. The turnout was an improvement on the previous two elections, but still slightly lower than what would have been expected during the 1980s. While the number of general electorates decreased from 95 to 60, in the election 842 candidates stood, and there were 21 registered parties with party lists. Of the candidates,459 were electorate and list,152 were electorate only, 73% of candidates were male and 27% female. The 1996 election eventually saw a victory for the governing National Party, the opposition Labour Party won slightly less
6.
New Zealand general election, 1999
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The 1999 New Zealand general election was held on 27 November 1999 to determine the composition of the 46th New Zealand Parliament. The governing National Party, led by Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, was defeated, being replaced by a coalition of Helen Clarks Labour Party, before the election, the National Party had an unstable hold on power. After the 1996 election National had formed a coalition with the populist New Zealand First party and its controversial leader, NZ Firsts support crashed, though this was also partly caused by scandals and by mid-1997, NZ First was polling at as low as 2%. National also polled badly, and Jim Bolger was replaced as Prime Minister with Jenny Shipley, gradually, however, the relationship between the two parties deteriorated, and Peters took his party out of the coalition. A number of New Zealand First MPs deserted Peters, establishing themselves as independents or as members of established parties. By forming agreements with these MPs, National was able to keep itself in office, the polls were still initially close, but without NZ First support, Nationals chances of forming a government were slim. Eventually, Labour Party gained a lead over National. The Labour Party, which had been in Opposition since losing the 1990 election, presented a strong challenge, the two had not previously enjoyed good relations, primarily due to the presence of the NewLabour Party as one of the Alliances key members. NewLabour had been established by Jim Anderton, a former Labour MP who quit the party in protest over the reforms of Roger Douglas. This agreement was deemed a necessary step towards building an alternative to the National Party. This election was the first in New Zealands history where both parties were led by women. The election took place on 27 November, less than 84. 1% of the 2,509,365 people registered to vote turned out for the election. This was the lowest turnout for some time, although it would drop further in the 2002 elections, a total of 679 candidates stood for electorate seats, representing 36 parties. Party lists comprised 760 candidates from 22 parties, the new government was sworn in on 10 December. In the election 965 candidates stood, and there were 22 registered parties with party lists, of the candidates,482 were electorate and list,197 were electorate only, and 286 were list only. 67% of candidates were male and 33% female, Labour Party won 49 seats in parliament. When combined with the ten seats won by the Alliance, the coalition was two short of an absolute majority. It was able to form a new government with support from the Green Party, Helen Clark openly encouraged Labour supporters in the Coromandel to give their constituency vote to Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons and their party vote to Labour
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