2005 New Zealand general election

The election

The total votes cast in 2005 was 2,304,005 (2,164,595 & 139,510 Māori). Turnout was 80.92% of those on the rolls, or 77.05% of voting age population. Turnout was higher than in the previous 2002 election (72.5% and 76.98% respectively), and the Māori roll turnout at 67.07% was significantly higher than 2002 (57.5%).

In the election 739 candidates stood, and there were 19 registered parties with party lists. Of the candidates, 525 were electorate and list, 72 were electorate only and 142 were list only. All but 37 represented registered parties (on the list or in the electorate or both). Only 35 candidates from registered parties chose to stand as an electorate candidate only. 71% of candidates (523) were male and 29% (216) female; the same percentages as in 2002.

Labour had achieved a third term in office for the first time since 1943.

MPs retiring in 2005

Eight MPs intended to retire at the end of the 47th Parliament.

Detailed results

Parliamentary parties

|- style="text-align:center;" ! colspan=2 rowspan=2 style="width:213px;" | Party ! Colspan=3 | Party vote ! Colspan=3 | Electorate vote ! Colspan=4 | Seats |- style="text-align:center;" ! Votes ! % ! Change (pp) ! Votes ! % ! Change (pp) ! List ! Electorate ! Total ! +/- |- | | 935,319 | 41.10 | 0.16 | 902,072 | 40.35 | 4.34 | 19 | 31 | 50

| | 889,813 | 39.10 | 18.17 | 902,874 | 40.38 | 9.84 | 17 | 31 | 48

| | 130,115 | 5.72 | 4.66 | 78,117 | 3.49 | 0.49 | 7 | 0 | 7

| | 120,521 | 5.30 | 1.70 | 92,164 | 4.12 | 1.23 | 6 | 0 | 6

| | 48,263 | 2.12 | new | 75,076 | 3.36 | new | 0 | 4 | 4

| | 60,860 | 2.67 | 4.02 | 63,486 | 2.84 | 1.52 | 2 | 1 | 3

| | 34,469 | 1.51 | 5.63 | 44,071 | 1.97 | 1.58 | 1 | 1 | 2

| | 26,441 | 1.16 | 0.54 | 36,638 | 1.64 | 0.20 | 0 | 1 | 1

| | 14,210 | 0.62 | new | 17,608 | 0.79 | new | 0 | 0 | 0

| | 5,748 | 0.25 | 0.39 | 2,601 | 0.12 | 0.05 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |- | | 2,821 | 0.12 | 1.23 | 1,296 | 0.06 | 1.99 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |- | | 1,641 | 0.07 | 1.20 | 1,901 | 0.09 | 1.60 | | 0 | 0 | |- | | 1,178 | 0.05 | new | 1,045 | 0.05 | new | 0 | 0 | 0

| | 1,079 | 0.05 | new | 565 | 0.03 | new | 0 | 0 | 0

| | 946 | 0.04 | 0.04 | 781 | 0.03 | | 0 | 0 | 0 | |- | | 782 | 0.03 | new | 1,934 | 0.09 | new | | 0 | 0

| | 601 | 0.03 | new | — | — | — | 0 | 0 | 0

| | 478 | 0.02 | 0.07 | 214 | 0.01 | 0.12 | | 0 | 0 | |- | | 344 | 0.02 | new | 131 | 0.01 | new | 0 | 0 | 0

| |- | | — | — | — | 11,829 | 0.53 | 0.22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |- ! colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" | Valid votes ! 2,275,629 ! 98.77 ! 0.07 ! 2,235,869 ! 97.04 ! 0.05 ! Colspan=4 | |- | 10,561 | 0.46 | 0.04 | 24,801 | 1.08

The election saw an 81% voter turnout.

The results of the election give a Gallagher index of disproportionality of 1.11.

Votes summary

Electorate results

The table below shows the results of the 2005 general election:

Key:

List results

MPs returned via party lists, and unsuccessful candidates, were as follows:

Main article: Party lists in the 2005 New Zealand general election

;Notes:

1. These party list members later entered parliament in the term as other list MPs elected resigned from parliament.
2. These party list members later resigned during the parliamentary term.

Changes during parliamentary term

Party vote by electorate

Analysis of results

Going into the election, Labour had assurances of support from the Greens (six seats in 2005, down three from 2002) and from the Progressives (one seat, down one). This three-party bloc won 57 seats, leaving Clark four seats short of the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 121-seat Parliament (decreased from the expected 122 because the final results gave the Māori Party only one overhang seat, after it appeared to win two overhang seats on election night). On 5 October the Māori Party began a series of hui to decide whom to support. That same day reports emerged that a meeting between Helen Clark and Māori co-leader Tariana Turia on 3 October had already ruled out a formal coalition between Labour and the Māori Party. Māori Party representatives also held discussions with National representatives, but most New Zealanders thought the Māori Party more likely to give confidence-supply support to a Labour-dominated government because its supporters apparently heavily backed Labour in the party vote.

Had Turia and her co-leader Pita Sharples opted to join a Labour-Progressive-Green coalition, Clark would have had sufficient support to govern with support from a grouping of four parties (Labour, Green, Māori and Progressive). Without the Māori Party, Labour needed the support of New Zealand First (seven seats, down six) and United Future (three seats, down five) to form a government. New Zealand First said it would support (or at least abstain from opposing in confidence-motions) the party with the most seats. Clark sought from New Zealand First a positive commitment rather than abstention. United Future, which had supported the previous Labour-Progressive minority government in confidence and supply, said it would talk first to the party with the most seats about support or coalition. Both New Zealand First and United Future said they would not support a Labour-led coalition which included Greens in Cabinet posts. However, United Future indicated it could support a government where the Greens gave supply-and-confidence votes.

Brash had only one possible scenario to become Prime Minister: a centre-right coalition with United Future and ACT (two seats, down seven). Given the election results, however, such a coalition would have required the confidence-and-supply votes of both New Zealand First and the Māori Party. This appeared highly unlikely on several counts. New Zealand First's involvement in such a coalition would have run counter to Peters' promise to deal with the biggest party, and Turia and Sharples would have had difficulty in justifying supporting National after their supporters' overwhelming support for Labour in the party vote. Turia and Sharples probably remembered the severe mauling New Zealand First suffered in the 1999 election. (Many of its supporters in 1996 believed they had voted to get rid of National, only to have Peters go into coalition with National; New Zealand First has never really recovered.) Even without this to consider, National had indicated it would abolish the Maori seats if it won power.

The new government as eventually formed consisted of Labour and Progressive in coalition, while New Zealand First and United Future entered agreements of support on confidence and supply motions. In an unprecedented move, Peters and Dunne became Foreign Affairs Minister and Revenue Minister, respectively, but remained outside cabinet and had no obligatory cabinet collective responsibility on votes outside their respective portfolios.

Possible government setups

Background

The governing Labour Party retained office at 2002 election. However, its junior coalition partner, the Alliance, lost most of its support after internal conflict and disagreement and failed to win parliamentary representation. Labour formed a coalition with the new Progressive Coalition, formed by former Alliance leader Jim Anderton. The Labour-Progressive coalition then obtained an agreement of support ("confidence and supply") from United Future, enabling it to form a stable minority government. The National Party, Labour's main opponents, suffered a major defeat, winning only 21% of the vote (22.5% of the seats), its weakest showing in an election.

The collapse of National's vote led ultimately to the replacement of its Parliamentary party leader Bill English with parliamentary newcomer Don Brash, the former governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, on 28 October 2003. Brash began an aggressive campaign against the Labour-dominated government. A major boost to this campaign came with his "Orewa speech" (27 January 2004), in which he attacked the Labour-dominated government for giving "special treatment" to the Māori population, particularly over the foreshore and seabed controversy. This resulted in a surge of support for the National Party, although most polls indicated that this subsequently subsided. National also announced it would not stand candidates in the Māori electorates, with some smaller parties following suit.

The foreshore-and-seabed controversy also resulted in the establishment of the Māori Party in July 2004. The Māori Party hoped to break Labour's traditional (and then current) dominance in the Māori electorates, just as New Zealand First had done in the 1996 election.

A large number of so-called "minor" parties also contested the election. These included Destiny New Zealand (the political branch of the Destiny Church) and the Direct Democracy Party.

Polls

Main article: Opinion polling for the 2005 New Zealand general election

A series of opinion polls published in June 2005 indicated that the National Party had moved ahead of Labour for the first time since June 2004. Commentators speculated that a prominent billboard campaign may have contributed to this. Some said the National Party had peaked too early. The polls released throughout July showed once more an upward trend for Labour, with Labour polling about 6% above National. The release by the National Party of a series of tax-reform proposals in August 2005 appeared to correlate with an increase in its ratings in the polls.

Direct comparisons between the following polls have no statistical validity:

No single political event can explain the significant differences between most of these polls over the period between them. They show either volatility in the electorate and/or flaws in the methods of polling. In the later polls, the issue of National's knowledge of a series of pamphlets (distributed by members of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church and attacking the Green and Labour parties) appeared not to have reduced National Party support.

Candidates

For lists of candidates in the 2005 election see:

• Candidates grouped by electorate
• Candidates grouped by party list

Major policy platforms

Labour Party

The Labour Party platform included:

• student loans: writing off interest if the recipient stays in New Zealand
• health: a pledge of extra public-hospital operations
• Treaty of Waitangi: accepting no lodgements for Treaty-claims after 1 September 2008
• increasing rates-rebates
• a "KiwiSaver" programme, aimed at getting first homeowners into their own homes
• sponsoring 5,000 new apprenticeships
• increasing community police-force numbers by 250.
• a "Working for Families" tax-relief/benefit programme aimed at lower to middle-income families

National Party

The National Party campaigned on the platform of (National Party Press Release):

• taxation: lowering income-tax rates. The party ran a television advertisement parodying the telethons aired by TVNZ in the 1980s, rewording the telethon theme song "Thank you very much for your kind donation" (itself a cover of the 1967 The Scaffolds song "Thank U Very Much") to "Thank you very much for your high taxation"
• removing references to the Treaty of Waitangi from existing legislation; and resolving all treaty claims amicably by 2010
• by 1 April 2006, make student-loan repayments and $5000 of pre-school childcare costs recoupable to mainstream New Zealanders
• "reworking" the New Zealand Resource Management Act 1991 to make development easier
• "removing excessive bureaucracy" in the education system, in particular by overhauling the NCEA, and by re-introducing "bulk funding" of schools
• abolishing early parole for violent criminals. (As of 2005 most prisoners became eligible for parole after serving one-third of their sentence)
• a return to "market rents" for state-housing tenants, including a system of paying housing-subsidies (for the poorest tenants) directly to private landlords
• increase Nationwide Maths and English standards
• welfare Reform – reduce the waste of having 300,000 working age New Zealand adults on benefits and to ensure all of those on benefits really need the help
• a "work-for-the-dole" scheme
• abolishing the Maori electorates

Voting

Postal voting for New Zealanders abroad began on 31 August. Ballot voting took place on Saturday 17 September, from 9am to 7pm. The Chief Electoral Office released a provisional result at 12:05am on 18 September.

Party funding

New Zealand operates on a system whereby the Electoral Commission allocates funding for advertising on television and on radio. Parties must use their own money for all other forms of advertising, but may not use any of their own money for television or radio advertising.

*Must register for funding

Source: Electoral Commission

Controversies

Main article: 2005 New Zealand election funding controversy

Police investigated six political parties for alleged breaches of election-spending rules relating to the 2005 election, but brought no prosecutions, determining that "there was insufficient evidence to indicate that an offence under s214b of the Electoral Act had been committed."

The Auditor-General has also investigated publicly funded party-advertising for the 2005 election, with a leaked preliminary finding of much of the spending as unlawful. Observers expected the release of a final report in October 2006.

Plymouth Brethren Christian Church involvement

The 2005 general election was marked by controversial third-party campaigning by members of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (at the time known as the Exclusive Brethren), a secretive Christian group. Members of the church funded a campaign aimed at helping the National Party win, which included anonymous pamphlets and the hiring of private investigators.

Pamphlet campaign

Brethren members funded and distributed a series of pamphlets that attacked the incumbent Labour government and, in particular, the Green Party. The pamphlets made claims such as that the Greens' policies were "reminiscent...of communists". The campaign, which was later revealed to have a "war-chest" of $1.2 million, was organised by a group of seven Brethren businessmen who later identified themselves as the "secret seven".

Surveillance and links to Don Brash

The controversy deepened after the election when, in September 2006, it was revealed that Brethren members had hired private investigators to "dig dirt" on Labour MPs. This included the surveillance of Prime Minister Helen Clark and her husband, Peter Davis, which coincided with what Clark called a "smear campaign" of rumours about Davis.

The campaign also raised questions about the National Party's involvement. Party leader Don Brash initially distanced himself from the pamphlets. However, he later admitted to meeting with Brethren members, who told him they planned to issue pamphlets attacking the government, to which Brash replied, "that's tremendous". The full extent of the coordination was later detailed in Nicky Hager's 2006 book, The Hollow Men, which was based on leaked emails from Brash's office. In the wake of the scandal, Brash "cut ties" with the church.

References

References

1. (21 October 2020). "2005 GENERAL ELECTION – OFFICIAL RESULTS AND STATISTICS". Electoral Commission.
2. "General Statistics". Electionresults.govt.nz.
3. "Party Lists of Successful Registered Parties". Electoral Commission.
4. "Party Lists of Unsuccessful Registered Parties". Electoral Commission.
5. Thomson, Ainsley. (19 September 2005). "United's 'Mr Reasonable' makes withering attack on Green Party". [[The New Zealand Herald]].
6. [http://labour.org.nz/Campaign-2005/C05-policies/index.html Labour web site] {{webarchive. link. (31 October 2005)
7. (5 August 2005). "New take on old jingle to push tax message".
8. Ward, Tara. (2021-08-19). "Telethon was a glorious shambles that never slept".
9. Thomson, Ainsley. (18 March 2006). "Labour escapes charges on pledge card but case found". [[The New Zealand Herald]].
10. (2006-03-17). "No prosecutions for electoral complaints". New Zealand Police.
11. Oliver, Paula. (11 September 2006). "Report on election spending almost complete". [[The New Zealand Herald]].
12. NZPA. (25 February 2007). "Election row 'nightmare', Brethren say". The New Zealand Herald.
13. Houlahan, Mike. (7 September 2005). "The secret seven behind anti-Government offensive". The New Zealand Herald.
14. (8 September 2005). "Brash caught lying over Brethren pamphlets". New Zealand Labour Party.
15. NZPA. (7 November 2006). "Exclusive Brethren's side of the story enters record". The New Zealand Herald.
16. Young, Audrey. (22 September 2006). "Brethren dug dirt on Helen Clark says private detective". The New Zealand Herald.
17. Walter, Charis. (30 September 2006). "Brethren spy comes in from the cold". The New Zealand Herald.
18. (4 December 2006). ""I'm not answering any questions on Nicky Hager's book, 'The hollow men'..."".