mps

MPs, staff and spectators

Today there are 121 Members of Parliament (MPs) in New Zealand's Parliament, which is a far cry from the 37 who met for the first time in Auckland in 1854. For a start, that first Parliament was all male. Now, women make up about 30% of MPs. Maori MPs, now around 13%, were not part of that first Parliament either.

How the House works

The House of Representatives comprises the elected Members of Parliament (MPs) who represent the people of New Zealand. Until 1951, the House of Representatives was also known as the Lower House. A political party or parties with the majority of votes in the House form a government, which answers to the House for its policies and actions.

Sittings and sessions

Until 1996 the House needed a quorum of members in the debating chamber for the day's business to begin. Getting a quorum could be a problem in the early years: some MPs did not attend sittings because of travel problems; some left before the session had finished for the year; and others failed to turn up at all.

Women in the House

For much of its first century, Parliament was a bastion of male culture. Women could observe it from a discreet distance from the ladies' gallery, and by the 1880s, the odd female reporter had ventured in, but she had only men's activities to report. Women got the vote in 1893, making New Zealand the first country to have full adult suffrage (or voting rights), but women could not stand for Parliament until 1919. It was not until 1933 that the first woman Member of Parliament (MP) took her seat in the House. In the 1950s and 1960s there were still few women MPs, and this did not change until the 1980s. From then, women were appointed to Cabinet in increasing numbers and to senior positions in Parliament, such as whip and Deputy Speaker. From the 1990s women made up about 30% of Members. In 1997 Jenny Shipley became New Zealand's first female prime minister. Then in 1999 Helen Clark led her Labour Party to victory.

The Premier ... used some very bad language about the Moura ... He told me that the vessel dragged down in 15 ½ hours and arrived too late for the funeral and that we ought not to inflict such a brute of a vessel upon the suffering public. I may remark that he, himself, detained the vessel a quarter of an hour, ringing up at the last moment as usual requesting us to keep her for a few minutes for him.

Union Steam Ship Company manager, 1901

This table of Premiers and Prime Ministers is compiled from J.O. Wilson, New Zealand Parliamentary Record 1840-1984, Wellington, 1985 and the Official New Zealand Official Year Book 2006.

Maori in the House

Important leaders of Maori society have represented their people in the House: Maui Pomare, James Carroll, Matiu Rata and, most famously, Apirana Ngata. These and other men – and they were all men until 1949 when Iriaka Ratana was elected – could be lonely Maori voices in a Pakeha-dominated House. It was not until the 1980s and the later introduction of mixed member proportional representation (MMP) in 1996 that more Maori entered the House and represented electorates other than traditional Maori seats.

Pay and conditions

The question of pay arose at the first session of 1854 when the House voted itself an allowance (or honorarium), initially at different rates for Members of Parliament (MPs) who lived in Auckland and those from other areas. One MP argued that it fostered 'the growth of men who lived by politics, hanging on to the skirts of Ministers, and ever ready to snatch the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table'. But others replied that cutting the allowance would mean 'giving over the government of the country into the hands of the monied classes'. In 1871 the House agreed to a flat rate of £105 per session. The rule of deducting money for absent sitting days amused observers who watched 'members wait in the House until the messenger has recorded their presence, and then leave for the rest of the day'.