The New Democratic Party of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

was a small political party established in 1972. It was a splinter group from the better-known Social Credit Party.

History

It was founded by former Social Credit leader John O'Brien. O'Brien was considered a powerful and energetic orator, but had a controversial and aggressive leadership style, and alienated many of his followers. After being replaced as leader by

Bruce Beetham Bruce Craig Beetham (16 February 1936 – 3 May 1997) was an academic and politician from New Zealand, whose career spanned the 1970s and early 1980s. A lecturer at Hamilton's University of Waikato and at the Hamilton Teachers' Training Colle ...

, O'Brien quit the Social Credit Party with his deputy Tom Weal and established his own group. The party's Dominion chairman was Patrick McMullan of

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

who, ironically, had stood against O'Brien for the Social Credit leadership in 1970. In the 1972 election, the New Democrats fielded eighty-six candidates (including

Wilfrid Owen Wilfrid Barry Owen (15 June 1898 – 9 August 1984) was a New Zealand politician and the first leader (1953–1958) of New Zealand's Social Credit Party. Biography Early life He was born in Wellington, and educated at Christchurch Boys' High ...

), but did not win any seats. The New Democrats won 0.63% of the vote, compared with 6.65% for Social Credit. O'Brien himself stood in the

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

electorate placing last of five candidates with only 2.97% of the vote. The party was still in existence in 1975 and was considering standing candidates at the 1975 election. However the party did not end up standing any candidates. O'Brien later sued the Social Credit Party in 1980 for defamation regarding a statement of claim against him in an article published in ''

The Nelson Mail ''The Nelson Mail'' is a 4-day a week newspaper in Nelson, New Zealand owned by media business Stuff Ltd. It was founded in 1866 as ''The Nelson Evening Mail''; the first edition was published on 5 March 1866. It absorbed another local paper, '' ...

'' in 1972. A four and a half day trial was held at the Nelson courthouse where the jury found against O'Brien's $50,000 case, determining that the words in the article in question were not published to readers with authority from the party and nor did the paper infer that it was.

Notes

References

* * Defunct political parties in New Zealand Social Credit Party (New Zealand) Political parties established in 1972 1972 establishments in New Zealand Political parties with year of disestablishment missing {{NewZealand-party-stub