The first MMP election
- When
- 12 October 1996
- Reach
- Nationwide
The first proportional Parliament took nine weeks of negotiation to produce a government, and looked more like the country than any before it.
Six parties won seats and New Zealand First held the balance, eventually coalescing with National. Māori members rose from six to fifteen, women from twenty-one to thirty-five, and the first Pacific and Asian MPs entered on lists. Coalition and minority government became normal, and the certainty of single-party rule — which had made Rogernomics possible — was gone for good.
Regions affected
Sources
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Related
New Zealand votes for MMP
By 54 to 46 percent, voters replaced first-past-the-post with mixed-member proportional representation — largely as a punishment for a decade of unmandated reform.
The first Labour government
Michael Joseph Savage led Labour to a landslide and built the welfare state: state houses, guaranteed prices, free health care and a 40-hour week.
WellingtonJenny Shipley becomes the first woman Prime Minister
Shipley replaced Jim Bolger in a party-room coup. Two years later Helen Clark won an election outright, and a woman held the office continuously until 2008.
WellingtonHelen Clark elected Prime Minister
Labour returned in coalition, closing the century with the first woman elected to the office rather than appointed to it.
Wellington