Along with the harbour, Te Papa and the hills, Parliament Buildings are one of Wellington's best-known landmarks. Standing at the north-west corner of the central business district, the parliamentary complex dominates this part of New Zealand's capital city.
New Zealand's Parliament dates back to 1854, just 14 years after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and the beginning of the European settlement of the country. For most of its history as a nation state, New Zealand has had some form of elected government.
Parliament has two parts. One is the head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, who is represented in Parliament by the Governor-General.
The other part is the House of Representatives. This comprises Members of Parliament (MPs) who are elected by people aged 18 and over. Elections are held every three years, and New Zealand has a mixed member proportional (MMP) electoral system.
A political party or parties with the support of the majority of votes in the House form a government that administers the country. The government answers to Parliament for its policies and actions, which are debated in the House and examined in select committees.
Auckland was a bustling place in 1854 when Parliament met there for the first time. The buildings were located in paddocks on what was then the edge of town, Constitution Hill, between Official Bay and Mechanics Bay, close to the present-day University of Auckland.
In 1907 fire destroyed all the buildings at Parliament, except for the library. Deciding what to do next was a difficult task, made harder by the fact that the House had to go about its business in the cramped old Government House, located across Sydney Street.
John Campbell of the Public Works Department prepared proposals for the rebuilding of Parliament for either side of Sydney Street. A joint select committee of the House and Legislative Council in 1908 considered the proposals and recommended that the surviving library building be remodelled and greatly extended to provide for departmental offices that would replace the wooden departmental building on Lambton Quay. The committee suggested the demolition of the departmental building – regarded as a fire risk and too small to house Wellington's burgeoning army of civil servants – to make its valuable site available for commercial use; an arcade of shops and offices had been proposed for the site. Fortunately, the wooden building survived, and since the 1990s it has been used as the Law Faculty of Victoria University of Wellington.
Today there are two parts to Parliament – the House of Representatives (or the Lower House) and the Governor-General, but between 1854 and 1951 there was a third part, the Legislative Council (or the Upper House).
The Legislative Council was made up of members who were appointed rather than elected. Its major role was to amend or revise the legislation passed in the House of Representatives.
The council was meant to be New Zealand's equivalent of the British House of Lords and play an independent and influential role. This did not happen, and the council never had too much to do. Once governments could appoint its members – a role they soon took from the governor, although he still approved the nominees – the council's independence weakened, especially when governments stacked it to suit their own purposes.
The new Parliament House of the early 20th century was dogged by problems of cost, design and supply of materials and labour. Around 1917 the top floor had been added and the grounds had been levelled, but everything was behind schedule.
Members of Parliament (MPs) were so desperate to get out of the run-down old Government House that Parliament moved into the incomplete buildings in 1918. Construction continued around them until work petered out in 1922, leaving the southern wall incomplete. Parliament House had to wait until 1995 for an official opening, when Queen Elizabeth II did the honours.
