The Alliance was a
left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
political party in New Zealand
New Zealand national politics have featured a pervasive party system since the early 20th century. Usually, all members of Parliament's unicameral House of Representatives belong to a political party. Independent MPs do not occur often.
While ...
. It was formed at the end of 1991 by the linking of four smaller parties. The Alliance positioned itself as a
democratic socialist
Democratic socialism is a left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within ...
alternative to the
centre-left
Centre-left politics lean to the left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The ...
New Zealand Labour Party. It was influential throughout the 1990s, but suffered a major setback after its founder and leader,
Jim Anderton
James Patrick Anderton (born Byrne; 21 January 1938 – 7 January 2018) was a New Zealand politician who led a succession of left-wing parties after leaving the Labour Party in 1989.
Anderton's political career began when he was elected to th ...
, left the party in 2002, taking with him several of its
members of parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MPs). After the remaining MPs lost their seats in the
2002 general election, some commentators predicted the demise of the party.
The Alliance stood candidates in the
2005 general election but won less than 1% of the party vote. It contested
Auckland City Council
Auckland City Council was the local government authority for Auckland City, New Zealand, from 1871 to 1 November 2010, when it and Auckland's six other city and district councils were amalgamated to form the Auckland Council. It was an elected b ...
elections under the
City Vision banner, in concert with the New Zealand Labour Party and Green Party. The Alliance ran 15 electorate candidates and a total of 30 candidates on the party list in the
2008 general election, increasing its party vote marginally from that in 2005. It was deregistered (can no longer contest for the party vote) at its own request on 26 May 2015.
Policies
A democratic socialist party, the Alliance supported free
education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...
, free
healthcare,
full employment and the maintenance of the
welfare state
A welfare state is a form of government in which the state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equita ...
.
Its policy platform emphasized
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...
,
environmentalism
Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seek ...
, and
Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...
rights. It supported New Zealand's
nuclear-free policy and opposed military interventionism, particularly during the
war in Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to:
*Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC)
* Muslim conquests of Afghanistan (637–709)
*Conquest of Afghanistan by the Mongol Empire (13th century), see al ...
. The Alliance supported
proportional representation
Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
for elections.
The Alliance advocated a
progressive tax
A progressive tax is a tax in which the tax rate increases as the taxable amount increases.Sommerfeld, Ray M., Silvia A. Madeo, Kenneth E. Anderson, Betty R. Jackson (1992), ''Concepts of Taxation'', Dryden Press: Fort Worth, TX The term ''progre ...
, which would mean a higher
tax
A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...
rate for wealthier people and a lower rate for poorer people. It also supported the removal of the
Goods and Services Tax, seeing the tax as unfair because the amount paid does not vary according to the purchaser's ability to afford it; it advocated replacing this with a
financial transaction tax
A financial transaction tax (FTT) is a levy on a specific type of financial transaction for a particular purpose. The tax has been most commonly associated with the financial sector for transactions involving intangible property rather than re ...
, or
Tobin tax
A Tobin tax was originally defined as a tax on all spot conversions of one currency into another. It was suggested by James Tobin, an economist who won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Tobin's tax was originally intended to pen ...
.
History
Foundation
The Alliance was formed at the end of 1991 as an alliance of four parties.
The largest of the four was the
NewLabour Party
The NewLabour Party was a centre-left political party in New Zealand that operated from 1989 to 2000. It was founded by Jim Anderton, an member of parliament (MP) and former president of the New Zealand Labour Party.
NewLabour was established b ...
(not associated with the later
New Labour
New Labour was a period in the history of the British Labour Party from the mid to late 1990s until 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The name dates from a conference slogan first used by the party in 1994, later seen ...
movement in the UK), established by former
Labour Party politician
Jim Anderton
James Patrick Anderton (born Byrne; 21 January 1938 – 7 January 2018) was a New Zealand politician who led a succession of left-wing parties after leaving the Labour Party in 1989.
Anderton's political career began when he was elected to th ...
. The oldest was the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
(originally known as the
Social Credit Political League, and dedicated to
Social Credit
Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he ...
policies). The others were
Mana Motuhake (a Māori party) and the
Greens (an environmentalist party).
Until his departure from Labour in 1989, Anderton had been the most vocal Labour MP in his criticism of his party's new direction. Led by
Roger Douglas
Sir Roger Owen Douglas (born 5 December 1937) is a retired New Zealand politician who served as a minister in two Labour governments. He became arguably best known for his prominent role in New Zealand's radical economic restructuring in the 19 ...
, the
Minister of Finance
A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation.
A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...
, Labour had adopted radical policies of economic liberalisation,
free trade
Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econ ...
, and privatisation of state assets – sharply in contrast both with the party's background and its campaign promises. This was deeply unpopular both with a section of the public and with ordinary members, but Douglas and his allies, without effective constraint by
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 i ...
David Lange
David Russell Lange ( ; 4 August 1942 – 13 August 2005) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 32nd prime minister of New Zealand from 1984 to 1989.
Lange was born and brought up in Otahuhu, the son of a medical doctor. He became ...
, pressed on with the reforms. Anderton, despite heavy pressure from the party authorities, refused to vote in favour of the measures, and eventually quit the party. He contested the
1990 election under the banner of NewLabour, a party he quickly established. He successfully retained his electorate seat, becoming the first MP to leave a party and not lose their position in the next elections.
NewLabour, the Democrats, and Mana Motuhake, all of which opposed the platform set out by Douglas, gradually began to work together to fight their common political opposition. The Greens, who had policies and electoral support, but not party organisation, also took notice. Initially, this co-operation was limited, but expanded after a joint candidate was successful in an
Auckland
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...
local-body election. In two concurrent by-elections on the
Auckland Regional Council (ARC) in November 1991 the parties coalesced around a single candidate in each race;
Bruce Jesson
Bruce Edward Jesson (1944 – 30 April 1999) was a journalist, author and political figure in New Zealand.
Early life
Bruce Edward Jesson was the son of Victor John and Edna Cavell (née Taylor) Jesson and the great-grandson of an immigrant fro ...
of NewLabour in the Panmure Ward and Ruth Norman from the Greens in the Glenfield Ward. Both were successful giving a huge boost in confidence and publicity to the incipient party.
''Original Alliance logo''
On 1 December 1991, NewLabour, the Greens, the Democrats, and Mana Motuhake formally agreed to establish the Alliance as an official party. This established the three original pillars of Alliance policy – left-wing economics (represented by NewLabour and the Democrats), environmentalism (represented by the Greens), and Māori issues (represented by Mana Motuhake).
Shortly after the official establishment of the Alliance, a small splinter group from the
National Party applied to join. This group, known as the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
(not to be confused with the
original Liberal Party), consisted of two former National Party MPs who were disillusioned with the continuation of Douglas's policies by National's
Ruth Richardson
Ruth Margaret Richardson (born 13 December 1950) is a New Zealand retired politician of the National Party who served as Minister of Finance from 1990 to 1993. Her 1991 budget, which she dubbed the "Mother of all Budgets", formed the catalyst ...
.
The Liberals became the fifth member of the Alliance in June 1992. The addition of the two Liberal MPs (
Gilbert Myles
Gilbert Colin Myles (born 18 October 1945) is a former New Zealand politician who entered Parliament for the National Party in 1990, then split from the party in 1991 and sat as an independent, before representing the Liberal Party, the Allianc ...
and
Hamish MacIntyre
Hamish MacIntyre (born 1951) is a former New Zealand politician who at various times represented the National Party, Liberal Party, and the Alliance.
Early life
MacIntyre was born in Waipukurau in 1951. His father was Duncan MacIntyre, who ...
) together with Anderton gave the party more of a presence in parliament. Later at the Alliance's inaugural party conference in November 1992 Anderton was officially confirmed as party leader and members elected
Sandra Lee of Mana Motuhake and
Jeanette Fitzsimons
Jeanette Mary Fitzsimons (née Gaston; 17 January 1945 – 5 March 2020) was a New Zealand politician and environmentalist. She was the co-leader of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand from 1995 to 2009, and was a Member of Parliament from ...
from the Greens as co-deputy leaders.
There were also discussions regarding the Alliance's links with
Winston Peters
Winston Raymond Peters (born 11 April 1945) is a New Zealand politician serving as the leader of New Zealand First since its foundation in 1993. Peters served as the 13th deputy prime minister of New Zealand from 1996 to 1998 and 2017 to 2020, ...
, a former National MP who founded the
New Zealand First party. Peters was also opposed to the economic reforms being undertaken, was hostile towards big business, and claimed to support ordinary New Zealanders, but was also highly
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
in his social policies. In particular, his views on
immigration
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...
were incompatible with the Alliance's belief in multiculturalism. There were also problems regarding who would lead any merged entity – both the Alliance's Anderton and New Zealand First's Peters were well regarded for standing up to their old parties, leaving it unclear which of them should be senior. (Some have also claimed that neither Anderton nor Peters would accept being ranked second – both politicians are sometimes accused by their critics of being egotistical and controlling). Regardless of the reason, the Alliance and New Zealand First did not move together. As a result, Myles and several other top figures in the Liberal Party left the Alliance and joined with New Zealand First instead.
Early electoral performance
In 1992, the Alliance
contested a by-election in the electorate of
Tamaki. The former stronghold of
Robert Muldoon, a conservative National Party leader, Tamaki was not regarded as an easy run for the Alliance. It was, therefore, surprising when the Alliance went to first place in several polls and its candidate (
Chris Leitch
Chris Leitch (born April 1, 1979 in Pickerington, Ohio) is a retired American soccer player who is currently the general manager and a former head coach for the San Jose Earthquakes.
Career
College
Leitch played college soccer at the Univer ...
of the Democrats) nearly won the seat, finishing a close second and pushing Labour into third place.
In February 1992 the Alliance won a third by-election on the ARC when
Mike Lee
Michael Shumway Lee (born June 4, 1971) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Utah, a seat he has held since 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party.
Lee began his career as a clerk for the U ...
of NewLabour won the Auckland Central Ward giving the party further momentum. Later that year, the Alliance made further gains in the 1992 local-body elections campaigning on a platform of halting the sale of public utilities. After a strong campaign the party gained control of the ARC's services trust and was able to cease sales. These two performances helped establish the Alliance as a significant threat to the major parties.
In the
1993 election, the Alliance gained 18% of the vote. However, the electoral system meant that the party only won two seats – one delivered by Jim Anderton, and the other by
Sandra Lee in Auckland. Occurring at the same time as this election, however, was the referendum which introduced 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) representation electoral system, making it much easier for smaller parties to get representation. The Alliance was a strong supporter of this change.
In 1994, Jim Anderton left the leadership of the Alliance, citing family reasons. Sandra Lee was placed in charge of the party. Later, however, Anderton was persuaded to return, and resumed the leadership.
Under MMP
In the
1996 election, the Alliance gained 10% of the vote. Under the new electoral system, this secured the party thirteen MPs. New Zealand First, however, had obtained seventeen MPs, and held the balance of power between Labour and National. Eventually, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters opted to form a coalition with National, leaving both Labour and the Alliance in opposition.
The Labour Party, now led by
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 ...
, had moved away from the policies of Roger Douglas — both Douglas and his strongest supporter,
Richard Prebble
Richard William Prebble (born 7 February 1948) is a former member of the New Zealand Parliament. Initially a member of the Labour Party, he joined the newly formed ACT New Zealand party under Roger Douglas in 1996, becoming its leader from 19 ...
, had left Labour to found the
ACT party, and Clark's more traditional faction had taken over. This allowed a gradual reconciliation between Labour and the Alliance, a process assisted by the impression that lack of cooperation had cost both parties support. Eventually, this led to an agreement between the two parties, with both sides agreeing to cooperate in forming a government should election results allow it.
In 1997, the Greens decided that they would leave the Alliance at the next election, believing that they could perform better individually. Other developments in the Alliance's makeup included the formal dissolution of both the NewLabour Party and the Liberal Party, with their members becoming members of the Alliance as a whole rather than of any specific constituent party. This left the Democrats and Mana Motuhake as the only parts of the Alliance with distinct identities.
In the
1999 election, the Alliance gained around 8% of the vote, giving it ten seats. This, combined with Labour's forty-nine seats and some support from the Greens, was enough to form a coalition government. Jim Anderton became
Deputy Prime Minister
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president ...
, and three other Alliance MPs gained positions in
Cabinet
Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to:
Furniture
* Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers
* Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets
* Filing ...
. The Alliance claims to have made a number of significant achievements while in government, citing (among other things) the creation of the
Ministry of Economic Development, the lifting of the
minimum wage, a change in funding systems for schools, and abolition of market rents for
state housing
State housing is a system of public housing in New Zealand, offering low-cost rental housing to residents on low to moderate incomes. Some 69,000 state houses are managed by Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities, most of which are owned by the ...
. The party also claims to have exerted an important general influence over other governmental decisions.
''2003 Alliance logo''
Split
Towards the end of the parliamentary term, however, internal tensions began to grow within the Alliance. This was partly driven by the party's low poll ratings, which were often blamed on perceived "subservience" to Labour. In particular, many members of the party organisation were less willing to support Labour than the party's MPs were, leading to a rift between parliamentary leader Anderton and party president
Matt McCarten
Matthew McCarten (born 11 February 1959) is a New Zealand political organiser and trade unionist, of Ngāpuhi descent. McCarten was active with several trade unions including the Hotel and Hospital Workers' Union, the Unite Union, and the One U ...
.
Eventually, Anderton decided to leave the Alliance and establish a new party. However, rules regarding changes of party allegiance meant that Anderton and his allies could not officially resign from the Alliance without also resigning from parliament, which they were unwilling to do. This led to the awkward situation of Anderton and his allies technically remaining part of the Alliance while actually operating outside of it. The conflict within the Alliance was one of the reasons cited by Helen Clark for her calling the election several months early in 2002.
Anderton, along with three other Alliance MPs, established the Progressive Coalition Party (later just the
Progressive Party Progressive Party may refer to:
Active parties
* Progressive Party, Brazil
* Progressive Party (Chile)
* Progressive Party of Working People, Cyprus
* Dominica Progressive Party
* Progressive Party (Iceland)
* Progressive Party (Sardinia), Ita ...
). Three Alliance MPs, led by
Laila Harré
Laila Jane Harré (born 8 January 1966) is a New Zealand politician and trade unionist. She was the first leader of the Internet Party, and stood for Parliament in the 2014 general election through the Helensville electorate. From 1996 to 200 ...
, chose to remain with the Alliance. The remaining three MPs (two supporting Anderton, one supporting Harré) decided not to stand for parliament again. The Democrats, one of the two Alliance components still having a separate identity, chose to follow Anderton, while Mana Motuhake, the other, chose to stay. Labour was largely successful in avoiding being drawn into the dispute.
Decline
In the
2002 election, the Alliance and the Progressives competed against each other. The Alliance, believing that it would struggle to reach 5% (the threshold for a party being awarded representation proportional to its support), needed to win an electorate seat to gain entry to parliament. It chose to focus on (contested by Harré) and (contested by
Willie Jackson, leader of Mana Motuhake). In both seats, however, the Alliance came second, losing each time to a Labour candidate, and so failed to gain parliamentary representation. In the list vote, the party failed to meet the threshold, gaining only 1.27% of the Party vote.
After the election, Mana Motuhake chose to leave the Alliance. This left the Alliance without any component parties – all members are now simply members of the Alliance as a whole.
Laila Harré stepped down as the party's leader on 30 November 2003, and was replaced by
Matt McCarten
Matthew McCarten (born 11 February 1959) is a New Zealand political organiser and trade unionist, of Ngāpuhi descent. McCarten was active with several trade unions including the Hotel and Hospital Workers' Union, the Unite Union, and the One U ...
, the party president who clashed with Anderton. McCarten advocated a policy which would see the Alliance focus less on electoral activity and more on playing a co-ordinating role—he has been a particularly strong advocate of working with the new
Māori Party
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...
, which the Alliance had been involved with and practically supported during Tariana Turia's by-election campaign and the Maori Party launch. There was a debate within the Alliance, given the poll ratings of less than 1%, as to whether the Alliance should contest the list vote in the
2005 election, or instead only stand in electorate seats and encourage its supporters to use their list vote to support the
Greens or the Māori Party.
Jill Ovens, a former candidate and the new party president, was critical of McCarten's support of the Māori Party, saying that working both for the Alliance and the Māori Party at the same time represented a conflict of interest and resigned at one stage over the issue (Ovens subsequently joined the Labour Party in 2006). When no agreement could be reached on the electoral strategy McCarten and Harré disassociated themselves from the Alliance. Gerard Hehir, the outgoing General Secretary, informed the Electoral Commission that the Alliance no longer had the five hundred financial members required for registration. In late 2004 McCarten was replaced as leader by two co-leaders, Jill Ovens and
Paul Piesse
Paul Egerton Piesse is a former co-leader of the Alliance, a New Zealand political party, and union activist.
Biography
Piesse has been heavily involved in the union movement, and has held a number of senior organisational roles. He was original ...
and the party's remaining membership voted to contest the list vote. In the 2005 election, the Alliance gained only 0.07% of the Party vote, placing 12th of the parties.
Following its poor showing in the 2005 election, the Alliance continued after their 2005 conference with two co-leaders
Paul Piesse
Paul Egerton Piesse is a former co-leader of the Alliance, a New Zealand political party, and union activist.
Biography
Piesse has been heavily involved in the union movement, and has held a number of senior organisational roles. He was original ...
and Len Richards.
At the 2006 conference held in Wellington, no co-leaders were elected with the party deciding to concentrate on internal reorganisation.
Victor Billot
Victor Billot is a former co-leader and electoral candidate for New Zealand's Alliance party. He is also known as a writer, musician, unionist, past editor of ''Critic'' magazine, and a performer in the bands Alpha Plan, Age of Dog and Das Phaed ...
was elected president. At the 2007 national conference, held in Dunedin, two co-leaders were elected,
Victor Billot
Victor Billot is a former co-leader and electoral candidate for New Zealand's Alliance party. He is also known as a writer, musician, unionist, past editor of ''Critic'' magazine, and a performer in the bands Alpha Plan, Age of Dog and Das Phaed ...
and
Kay Murray, with
Paul Piesse
Paul Egerton Piesse is a former co-leader of the Alliance, a New Zealand political party, and union activist.
Biography
Piesse has been heavily involved in the union movement, and has held a number of senior organisational roles. He was original ...
returning to his former role as Party President. Speakers at the 2007 national conference included political commentator
Chris Trotter
Christopher Marshall Trotter (born 1956) is a political commentator in New Zealand. He is the editor of the occasional '' Political Review'' magazine.
Biography
Chris Trotter has worked for unions and was on the New Zealand Council (the nationa ...
and publisher
Jack Yan
Jack Yan (; born 1972) is a New Zealand publisher, designer and businessman. He is best known as the founder and publisher of '' Lucire''.
He ran for mayor of Wellington in 2010, and again in 2013, but was unsuccessful in both elections.
Backg ...
. The Alliance stated its intention to run a list of candidates and electorate candidates in the 2008 general election. In April 2008 the party had between 500 and 600 members.
During the process of regroupment since the 2005 election the Alliance has reaffirmed its role as a broad left-wing political party committed to contesting both electorate seats and a party list. The party continues to release an annual alternative budget, prepared by the Alliance spokesperson on tax, the academic and intelligence researcher
Jim Flynn. In 2008 the Alliance adopted a new logo designed by Jack Yan & Associates to signal the changes it has undergone and its intention for renewal and rebuilding.
In the
2008 election the Alliance fielded candidates in all major New Zealand centres, contesting 15 electorate seats and running a party list of 30 candidates under the co-leaders Kay Murray and Andrew McKenzie. The party managed to marginally improve its party vote to 1,721, amounting to 0.08 percent of the party vote and placing the Alliance 7th out of 12 extra-parliamentary parties. The Alliance candidate for Dunedin North, Victor Billot, gathered 448 electorate votes, placing him 6th in that electorate.
After the election of the fifth National government on 8 November 2008, the Alliance pledged to "play a leading role in resisting the attacks against public services, workers, beneficiaries and students that will be a feature of the new National Government."
The party unsuccessfully contested the
2011 election, gaining just 1,069 party votes, the lowest of any registered party.
It did not nominate a list for the
2014 election, and nominated only a single electorate candidate: Mary O'Neill in
Napier in which she came fifth with 59 votes.
The party was formally deregistered with the
Electoral Commission
An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...
at its own request on 26 May 2015.
Without registration, the party cannot contest the party vote. , the party's website remains online with an active blog. The website describes a conference planned for August 2016 but it is unclear if this went ahead.
In 2020, the former Alliance MP
Phillida Bunkle
Phillida Bunkle (born 1944) is a former New Zealand politician. She represented the Alliance in Parliament from to 2002, when she retired. Bunkle was for many years a lecturer at Victoria University.
Early life
Bunkle was born in Sussex, En ...
wrote an essay for
Newsroom about her time in the party, in which she made allegations of a culture of bullying and misuse of funds, and of disruptive power-play by an internal grouping she called "the Faction."
Electoral results (1993–2014)
People
Leaders
*
Jim Anderton
James Patrick Anderton (born Byrne; 21 January 1938 – 7 January 2018) was a New Zealand politician who led a succession of left-wing parties after leaving the Labour Party in 1989.
Anderton's political career began when he was elected to th ...
(1991–1994)
*
Sandra Lee (1994–1995)
*Jim Anderton (1995–2002)
*
Laila Harré
Laila Jane Harré (born 8 January 1966) is a New Zealand politician and trade unionist. She was the first leader of the Internet Party, and stood for Parliament in the 2014 general election through the Helensville electorate. From 1996 to 200 ...
(2002–2003)
*
Matt McCarten
Matthew McCarten (born 11 February 1959) is a New Zealand political organiser and trade unionist, of Ngāpuhi descent. McCarten was active with several trade unions including the Hotel and Hospital Workers' Union, the Unite Union, and the One U ...
(2003–2004)
*
Jill Ovens and
Paul Piesse
Paul Egerton Piesse is a former co-leader of the Alliance, a New Zealand political party, and union activist.
Biography
Piesse has been heavily involved in the union movement, and has held a number of senior organisational roles. He was original ...
(2005–2006)
*Len Richards and
Paul Piesse
Paul Egerton Piesse is a former co-leader of the Alliance, a New Zealand political party, and union activist.
Biography
Piesse has been heavily involved in the union movement, and has held a number of senior organisational roles. He was original ...
(2006)
* Party President and spokesperson
Victor Billot
Victor Billot is a former co-leader and electoral candidate for New Zealand's Alliance party. He is also known as a writer, musician, unionist, past editor of ''Critic'' magazine, and a performer in the bands Alpha Plan, Age of Dog and Das Phaed ...
(2006–2007)
*
Victor Billot
Victor Billot is a former co-leader and electoral candidate for New Zealand's Alliance party. He is also known as a writer, musician, unionist, past editor of ''Critic'' magazine, and a performer in the bands Alpha Plan, Age of Dog and Das Phaed ...
and Kay Murray (2007–2008)
*Andrew McKenzie and Kay Murray (2008–2012)
*Kay Murray and
Kevin Campbell (2012–2015)
MPs
See also
*
:Alliance (New Zealand political party) politicians
*
New Zealand Green Party
*
Socialism in New Zealand
Socialism in New Zealand had little traction in early colonial New Zealand but developed as a political movement around the beginning of the 20th century. Much of socialism's early growth was found in the labour movement.
The extent to which s ...
*
Politics of New Zealand
References
Further reading
*
External links
Alliance
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alliance
1991 establishments in New Zealand
2015 disestablishments in New Zealand
Defunct political parties in New Zealand
Political parties disestablished in 2015
Political parties established in 1991
Socialist parties in New Zealand