New Zealand Politics

A few weeks ago I toured the New Zealand National Government building in Wellington. It is called the Beehive because, well… one of the main buildings looks like a giant beehive. Inside on the top floor is the Prime Minister's office, under that are various other ministry offices, meeting rooms, and the lobby and gift shop. In the building adjacent rests the House of Representatives and other meeting rooms.

The Parliament (Legislative Branch) only has one house, unlike the two in the US and the UK. It originally had two houses, but the Senate was abolished in the 1950s because it had little real power and just waited money and time (limiter to the House of Lords in the UK parliamentary system). Election are coming up in a few months in New Zealand, and the current National Government is expected to hold onto power. The election system in New Zealand uses the mixed-member proportional style, where you vote for members directly in the districts, but also vote for the party, which then chooses more members form party lists. This allows multiple third parties to enter Parliament which would otherwise not have a say in government (such as the Green Party of NZ). There will be a referendum during the November elections allowing the population to potentially change this set up. I was also able to sit in on question time, which only occurs in the Parliamentary system. This is a period of time where the opposition parties can ask the party in power any questions about the policies on the docket and the direction the country is going. The discussion usually starts fairly civil, but turns into a yelling match that is quite funny to witness. The "debate" seems very disorganized, but it allows the government to be much more transparent than the US style. This is also used in the UK and Canada (and I have sat in on Question period in the British Columbia Parliament this year). So that is the New Zealand Government in a nutshell, a very small one at that.