New Zealand Legislative Council elections
1919: Liberal [16], Reform [15], Progressive [6], Labour [2]
The Massey Government of 1912-19, which had never had a solid majority, came to an end with the exit of Joseph Ward's Liberals from the wartime coalition. At around the same time, the Reform Party itself split, with frustrated office-seekers creating the Progressive Party to fight for statist aid to farmers (such as the creation of a state-owned shipping line). The Progressives were led by ANZAC General Russell and did rather better in the upper house, which was elected by STV for the first time, than in the lower. Their central position in the political system made them transfer-friendly, while Labour did worse than in the lower house due to the expense of campaigning in such large districts. Ward could have governed with either minor party in the House, but could only do so with the Progressives in the Council, leading to the formation of the Liberal-Progressive coalition which returned the Liberals to their traditional predominance.
Until the 1980s, there were three additional seats reserved for Maori, which were filled by nominees of the Government. The Liberals took two and the Progressives one.
1925: Liberal [21], Reform [11], Progressive [5], Labour [3]
Joseph Ward was at the height of his powers in 1925, having weathered the storm of the post-war depression and benefiting from the positivity of the public mood in winning a majority of both houses of Parliament. However, he remained in coalition with the Progressives, who were now little but a transfer-funnelling service for the Liberals, who had copied all their policies. Notably, however, Ward had failed to follow through on introducing PR for the lower house, as he feared that this would give further momentum to Labour (who had in fact been outmanoeuvred by the Liberals in policy terms and had to make do with paranoiac radical speechmaking. Bill Veitch managed to wean the Federation of Labour away from outright support for Labour, which hamstrung the Party in the long term.
It was in this term that Joseph Ward had to contend with the Massey-Fergusson Affair.
1931: Reform [16], Liberal [10], Labour [8], Progressive [6]
With Ward dead of old age and replaced in the fight against the mounting Depression by the laissez-faire Bill Veitch, it was hardly surprising that Reform's William Downie Stewart would take the victory in 1931. He began with an orthodox policy, strongly opposing devaluation, but was convinced by Labour (whose votes he depended on) and by the facts on the ground to take an interventionist line, which got him castigated as "socialistic" by Liberals and his own allies alike. The Liberals arrogantly refused to form a National Government with Reform, whom they considered to be a temporary aberration in the natural order of things. Downie Stewart was swept out of office by the merged Liberals and Progressives in 1934, but the Council remained as it had been elected in 1931, with the Progressive Liberals relying on Labour votes to overcome the 19 Reform Councillors (including the three Maori) and therefore going for a policy that was equally Socialistic.
1937: Progressive Liberal [24], Reform [10], Labour [5], Real Democracy Movement [1]
The new Progressive Liberal Prime Minister, Harry Atmore, is fondly regarded by New Zealanders, and many houses still have a photograph of him on the walls. He gained control of the Council in 1937, but continued to put in place his social safety net without needing to be badgered by the irrelevant Labour Party.
1943: National Government [31], Labour [8], Communist [1]
The 1940 lower house election was delayed due to the War, which meant that the upper house only lasted one term of the lower, instead of two. By this stage, the Prog Libs had invited the Reformers into coalition, adding people like Gordon Coates, Sidney Holland and Keith Holyoake to the ministry. Frustration with the privations of the Home Front were running high, hence the high vote for the Left.
1949: Progressive Liberal [19], Reform [13], Labour [8]
Harry Atmore having died in 1946, it was up to his successor, Walter Broadfoot, to maintain his cautiously progressive social policy (now wrapped up in the international post-war consensus) and to gain control of the Council. He failed to do this by electoral means, but the three Maori seats in the gift of the Government came in very handy. Broadfoot was conservative by inclination, building little on Atmore's legacy except the expansion of medical insurance. Instead, he tried as much as possible to retrench spending - except on projects that might defeat international Communism, such as the sending of troops to Korea.
1955: Progressive Liberal [18], Reform [15], Labour [7]
Broadfoot's Government began to tire, but still had enough vim in 1955 to win a majority in the lower house - although even the Maori nominees couldn't save him in the Council, and he had to rely on Reform's good nature to respect his mandate. This they did, to their credit, but their election of a new, charismatic leader in John A. Lee was the death knell for Broadfoot. Lee had originally been a Labour member and lost an arm in the First World War, but was courted by the Reformers from the early 20s, and eventually joined them when Labour, scenting an illusory electoral appeal during World War Two, pushed him out. Lee sympathised with Reform's support of rural interests (he had been a swagger in an earlier life) and for banking and monetary reform, as well as their opposition to what he saw as the unwelcome influence of the Catholic Hierarchy. Lee, who became PM in a landslide in 1958, is best remembered for his social welfare spending and his promotion of an independent foreign policy (in which he was ahead of his time), but was hampered in every initiative by his invidious position in the Council, elected in 1955. He also struggled to manage the disparate factions of the Party, and had an unstable personality. However, in providing the Reformers with only their second majority government, he reinvigorated New Zealand democracy.
1961: Progressive Liberal [16], Reform [16], Labour [8]
In 1961, Ralph Hanan took the Prog Libs back into Government House with a minority in both houses, and proceeded to work with Labour to pass progressive social policies, as well as reforms such as the abolition of the death penalty. To this day, both parties bitterly dispute who exactly was responsible for each of his reforms.
1967: Progressive Liberal [19], Reform [11], Labour [10]
After two terms of minority government, Hanan finally won a majority in the House in 1967, and gained an upper house majority with the use of the Maori seats. For those hoping that this would provide an answer as to how progressive Hanan could be on his own, it was a disappointment, though, as he was below par over the next 18 months and died in 1969. He was replaced by Norman Kirk, a much stronger personality who was perhaps New Zealand's most divisive politician.
1973: Progressive Liberal [16], Reform [15], Labour [9]
Kirk's long period in office was a triumph for the Left, although again he depended on Labour support to a greater extent than is perhaps remembered. He increased social spending, regulated the capitalists, and returned to Lee's independent foreign policy - he pulled NZ troops out of Vietnam and went as far as to send frigates to protest French nuclear testing in the Pacific. He was also an opponent of Apartheid South Africa, causing ructions on rugby tours. However, most of his more far-sighted legislation around abortion and homosexuality came from underlings such as Gordon Dryden (the best PM we never had) against Big Norm's judgement. Meanwhile, his tenure was dominated by oil shocks, unemployment and rampant inflation, hardly helped by the quasi-autarkic policies of Finance Minister Muldoon. The scandals involved with the long reign of the Libs were also an occupational hazard by this point.
1979: Reform [18], Progressive Liberal [17], Labour [5]
The 1979 election was won by Reform, who swept Kirk out of office with a promise of fiscal continence and Not Being Corrupt by the telegenic young Reformer Bruce Beetham. Despite coming to power with a promise to implement monetary reform, Reform could not muster a majority in either House and instead presented the Black Budget, which involved increasing taxes on things like alcohol and petrol. Sensing an opportunity, Kirk volubly opposed it. Beetham fell, and Kirk returned to power in the snap election of 1980. However, he had to deal with the strong Reform contingent elected (and appointed) the previous year, and only just managed to pass the New Zealand Bill of Rights with Labour support.
Reform came back to power under Irish Catholic Jim Bolger, who not only pushed for free-market reforms and deregulation, but also sought to reform the NZ constitutional situation. He achieved final legislative independence from the UK and made the Maori seats in the upper house elective, even though Maori traditionally voted Liberal.
1986: Reform [23], Progressive Liberal [11], Labour [9]
Bolger's second term saw him defeat all comers, achieving a free trade agreement with Australia and introducing a GST to defray the costs of his other tax cuts. However, he had to deal with backbench dissention, most notably that of Hobson MP Winston Peters, a populist who opposed the free-market turn of the party of Downie Stewart and Lee, and made hay by publicising the corruption that was endemic in NZ business and politics as a result of the Liberals' decades of graft. However, Bolger was a typical Irish politician and some of the mud inevitably stuck on him in 1992, when he was forced to resign in favour of Marilyn Waring, and Peters was forced out of Reform.
1992: Progressive Liberal [24], Country [7], Labour [5], Reform [4], Young Maori [3]
Waring, an outspoken feminist and liberal, had never been a solid fit in the Reform Party, but they were happy to be led by anyone with a modicum of popular appeal after a gruelling period in office. She was loyally supported by the Social Credit faction, but few others were invested in her success. The Party collapsed in the 1992 despite Waring's best efforts, eviscerated by Winston Peters' new Country Party, which appealed to rural and elderly constituencies with particular popularity in the Auckland region. There was also the Young Maori Party, a Maori rights party led by former Reform Minister Parekura Horomia. This took all the Maori seats on offer in either House, so ready were Maori to embrace the radicals.
1998: Progressive Liberal [23], Country [7], Labour [6], Reform [5], Young Maori [2]
During the period when the Right was split between Country and Reform, the Progressive Liberals returned to power under the odd-looking working class battler Mike Moore, who went further than Bolger towards the new free-market consensus. His Finance Minister, Roger Douglas, filed balanced budgets and surpluses at the expense of the disadvantaged, while Moore hauled in the public support - which, of course, had nowhere else to go. Two successive majorities on the Council delivered near-unchecked support for Moore, and he was able to renegotiate New Zealand's independent foreign policy as far as intervening in Afghanistan, although he opposed the Iraq War. Towards the end of his term, though, the Country and Reform parties merged, and the Prog Libs were hit by a major corruption scandal, involving the redirection of Maori Affairs subsidies to the Party coffers. An embattled Moore retired, to be replaced by Roger Douglas.
2004: Progressive Liberal [19], Conservative [14], Labour [8], Young Maori [2]
Douglas was, if anything, even more extreme in support of the free market than Moore (who had vetoed his flat tax proposal). His popularity as Finance Minister fell through the floor when the electorate realised what kind of guy he actually was, and he was ejected from office in 2007, having relied on Young Maori and Conservative sympathy votes in the Council for most of his premiership. Douglas' main contribution was to reorganise the Progressive Liberal Party into essentially being a pyramid scheme, but for raffle tickets.
The new Prime Minister, Bill English, was regarded as scarily right-wing, but was in fact fairly moderate. Despite his political and religious views, he didn't backtrack on social issues, and even engaged in a bit of stimulus spending. He was, however, hamstrung by his Legislative Council for his first three years, making a mockery of his characterisation of his ministry as 'The New New Zealand Government'.
2010: Conservative [21], Progressive Liberal [10], Labour [9], Young Maori [2], Green [1]
English didn't quite get his upper house majority in 2010 due to having about as much personality as a potato, and had to govern with the support of the Young Maori Party, which had quickly become a mere means of distributing patronage - ironically, much like the original Young Maori Party for which it was named. The Conservatives continued in Government until 2016, when the electorate grew tired of their knee-jerk conservatism on subjects such as house-building, welfare, mandatory minimums and anti-terror legislation. The Labour Party surged in 2013 and started appearing at the top of the polls for the first time.
2016: Progressive Liberal [23], Conservative [12], Labour [5], Green [2], Young Maori [1]
But amid a short-campaign wave of support for untried Prog Lib leader Jo Luxton, a relative of Norman Kirk, the traditional party of Government came back once more. But the hopeful masses who voted for her have been disappointed by her lack of action on electoral reform and climate change, while the Liberal scandal-factory keeps on churning out ever more fodder for our thriving newspapers.
As a side note, some wags online are in the habit of noting that NZ's political history is very similar to that of another British settler colony: Australia.
Prime Ministers of New Zealand
1919-1926: Sir Joseph Ward (Liberal-Progressive coalition)
1926: Jack Massey (Reform)
1926-1930: Sir Joseph Ward (Liberal-Progressive coalition)
1930-1931: Bill Veitch (Liberal-Progressive coalition)
1931-1934: William Downie Stewart (Reform)
1934-1946: Harry Atmore (Progressive Liberal)
1946-1958: Sir Walter Broadfoot (Progressive Liberal)
1958-1961: John A. Lee (Reform)
1961-1969: Sir Ralph Hanan (Progressive Liberal)
1969-1979: Norman Kirk (Progressive Liberal)
1979-1980: Bruce Beetham (Reform)
1980-1983: Norman Kirk (Progressive Liberal)
1983-1992: Jim Bolger (Reform)
1992: Marilyn Waring (Reform)
1992-2003: Mike Moore (Progressive Liberal)
2003-2007: Sir Roger Douglas (Progressive Liberal)
2007-2016: Sir Bill English (Conservative)
2016-: Jo Luxton (Progressive Liberal)