The

New Zealand Labour Party The New Zealand Labour Party ( mi, Rōpū Reipa o Aotearoa), or simply Labour (), is a centre-left political party in New Zealand. The party's platform programme describes its founding principle as democratic socialism, while observers descr ...

's Senior Whip administers the " whipping in" system that tries to ensure that party MPs attend and vote according to the party leadership's wishes. The position is elected by the Labour caucus members. The Senior Whip also acts as an intermediary between the

backbencher In Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no governmental office and is not a frontbench spokesperson in the Opposition, being instead simply a member of the " ...

s and the party leadership. Whenever Labour is in government the senior whip serves as the Chief Government Whip and when out of government serves as Chief Opposition Whip. All Labour whips have been members of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

, with none coming from the Legislative Council before its abolition in 1950. The current senior whip is

Duncan Webb Duncan Alexander Webb (born 1967) is a New Zealand lawyer and politician, currently serving as Chief Government Whip in the House of Representatives since 2022. He has been the Member of Parliament for Christchurch Central since 2017, represent ...

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