The 46th New Zealand Parliament was a term of the

New Zealand Parliament The New Zealand Parliament ( mi, Pāremata Aotearoa) is the unicameral legislature of New Zealand, consisting of the King of New Zealand ( King-in-Parliament) and the New Zealand House of Representatives. The King is usually represented by h ...

. Its composition was determined by the 1999 election, and it sat until the 2002 election. The 46th Parliament marked a change of government, with a coalition of the Labour Party and the

Alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

taking office.

Helen Clark Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...

replaced

Jenny Shipley Dame Jennifer Mary Shipley (née Robson; born 4 February 1952) is a New Zealand former politician who served as the 36th prime minister of New Zealand from 1997 to 1999. She was the first female prime minister of New Zealand, and the first woma ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

. The National Party, which had formed a

minority government A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and Cabinet (government), cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or Coalition government, coalition of parties do ...

for the last part of the 45th Parliament, became the largest opposition party, eventually emerging under a new leader,

Bill English Sir Simon William English (born 30 December 1961) is a New Zealand former National Party politician who served as the 39th prime minister of New Zealand from 2016 to 2017 and as the 17th deputy prime minister of New Zealand and minister of f ...

. Other parties in Parliament were ACT, the Greens,

New Zealand First New Zealand First ( mi, Aotearoa Tuatahi), commonly abbreviated to NZ First, is a nationalist and populist political party in New Zealand. The party formed in July 1993 following the resignation on 19 March 1993 of its leader and founder, Winst ...

, and

United United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...

. Several parties represented at the end of the previous Parliament, such as

Mauri Pacific Mauri Pacific () was a short-lived political party in New Zealand. It was formed in 1998 by five former members of the New Zealand First party. It has often been described as a Māori party. Officially, Mauri Pacific was a multiculturalist party ...

, were wiped out, failing to retain any of their seats. The 46th Parliament consisted of one hundred and twenty representatives. Sixty-seven of these representatives were chosen by geographical electorates, including six

Māori electorates In New Zealand politics, Māori electorates, colloquially known as the Māori seats, are a special category of electorate that give reserved positions to representatives of Māori in the New Zealand Parliament. Every area in New Zealand is ...

. The remainder were elected by means of

party-list proportional representation Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a subset of proportional representation electoral systems in which multiple candidates are elected (e.g., elections to parliament) through their position on an electoral list. They can also be us ...

under the

Mixed Member Proportional Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP or MMPR) is a mixed electoral system in which votes cast are considered in local elections and also to determine overall party vote tallies, which are used to allocate additional members to produce ...

(MMP) electoral system.

Electoral boundaries for the 46th Parliament

Overview of seats

The table below shows the number of MPs in each party following the 1999 election and at dissolution: Notes *The Working Government majority is calculated as all Government MPs less all other parties. * The Green Party entered a

confidence and supply In a parliamentary democracy based on the Westminster system, confidence and supply are required for a ruling cabinet to retain power in the lower house. A confidence-and-supply agreement is one whereby a party or independent members of parl ...

agreement with the Labour-Alliance coalition

Initial composition of the 46th Parliament

46th New Zealand Parliament - MPs elected to Parliament List MPs are ordered by allocation as determined by the Chief Electoral Office and the

party lists An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can ...

Changes during term

There were no by-elections held during the term of the 46th Parliament. *

Don McKinnon Sir Donald Charles McKinnon (born 27 February 1939) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 12th deputy prime minister of New Zealand and the minister of Foreign Affairs of New Zealand. He was the secretary-general of the Commonwealth of ...

, a National Party list MP, left Parliament in March 2000 to become

Secretary-General of the Commonwealth The Commonwealth secretary-general is the head of the Commonwealth Secretariat, the central body which has served the Commonwealth of Nations since its establishment in 1965, and responsible for representing the Commonwealth publicly. The Commo ...

. He was replaced by

Arthur Anae Arthur Anae (born 1945) is a New Zealand politician who served on the Auckland Council. He was an MP from 1996 to 1999, and again from 2000 to 2002. He was part of the National Party, being its first Pacific Islander MP. Early life Anae, who wa ...

, the next candidate on the National Party list. *

Simon Upton Simon David Upton (born 7 February 1958) is a former New Zealand politician and member of Parliament from 1981 to 2001, representing the National Party, and the current Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. Early life Upton was edu ...

, a National Party list MP, left Parliament in January 2001. He was replaced by

Alec Neill Alexander George Neill (born 22 July 1950 in Dunedin, New Zealand) is a former New Zealand politician. He was a Member of Parliament for the National Party on three non-consecutive occasions between 1990 and 2002 and was later a member of the ...

, the next candidate on the National Party list.

Seating plan

Start of term

The chamber is in a horseshoe-shape.

References

{{Reflist New Zealand parliaments