In November 2008 New Zealand voted its three-term Labour government out of power, ushering in a new coalition government under the National party. The New Zealand Labour party’s (NZLP’s) loss was largely seen to be a result of their involvement in one of the country’s worst ever recessions, the creation of an oversized public sector bureaucracy, and a widely held sentiment that it was ‘time for change’. The leader of the party resigned with immediate effect, remaining as a backbench MP for their constituency in the relative north of the country. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
The parallels between the British and New Zealand Labour parties are striking, yet perhaps fairly unsurprising. The origins of the NZLP are found predominantly in the British working class movement, and the two parties have retained close ties throughout the last century. As two centre-left parties in OECD countries, it is also somewhat inevitable that their respective policy responses to common socioeconomic issues have been similar. For example, NZLP’s opposition to conscription in the first world war mirrored the sentiment of a large faction of the British Labour party; the creation of our NHS followed a few short years after a comprehensive social welfare system and affordable health care was introduced by a Labour government in New Zealand; and the decriminalisation of homosexuality was introduced by Labour governments in both countries.
Whilst the general trajectory of the two parties has been similar, there is also a likeness between the 1999-2008 Helen Clark government in New Zealand and the 1997-2010 Labour government in the UK. Both saw the introduction of an emissions trading scheme (albeit by EU legislation in the UK) and both have faced significant criticism of troop commitment in Afghanistan, which in New Zealand’s case was serious enough for the Labour party to lose its governing coalition partner. In 2004 both parties passed legislation to permit civil partnerships.
There are nonetheless several ways in which the legislative agenda of the recent New Zealand Labour government took its own direction. In 2003 prime minister Helen Clark renationalised Air New Zealand, with the government taking an 80 per cent share in the company. In 2008 the government also bought the infrastructure of the country’s rail network, renaming it KiwiRail. A government-owned bank, Kiwibank, was also established by Labour as a subsidiary of the state-owned New Zealand Post Office. This has increased competition in terms of access to financial services and quality of financial products, and has also fostered a small sense of national pride, particularly as no other high street bank is New Zealand-owned. The Labour government also developed an innovative response to their aging population and an impending pension crisis. The New Zealand superannuation fund or ‘superfund’, an initiative led by deputy prime minister and finance minister Michael Cullen, ring-fences returns on specific government contributions, setting them aside to pay for the retirement entitlements of future generations of New Zealanders. In addition, the KiwiSaver, designed to encourage individuals to save for their retirement, requires employers to make matched contributions and has been taken up by 1.4 million New Zealanders to date.
There are of course also several political issues for which there are no comparison, and which make both New Zealand and UK politics unique. For instance, several settlements from the Treaty of Waitangi, which agreed rights of sovereignty and ownership between Māori chiefs and representatives of the British Crown, are still being negotiated in New Zealand. Similarly, New Zealand has not faced any internal pressures for devolved government, as is the case in the UK.
Whilst retaining distinct identities, the British and New Zealand Labour parties have a similar history and share much of their policy agenda. They have also had remarkably similar treatment from their electorates over the last few years. NZLP’s new leader, Phil Goff, is by all accounts giving the current National Party-led government a run for their money. Here’s hoping our fortune continues to mirror theirs.