The Social Credit-NZ party was a political party in New Zealand which split from the

New Zealand Democratic Party The New Zealand Social Credit Party (sometimes called "Socred") is a political party which served as the country's third party from the 1950s through into the 1980s. The party held a number of seats in the New Zealand House of Representatives, ...

in 1988.

History

In 1986 the Social Credit Party changed its name to the Democratic Party. Many activists in the party were uneasy with the rebranding, fearing that the party would jettison the

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 ...

monetary policies that had always been central to the party since its creation in 1953. In July 1988 former Social Credit Party leader

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 ...

established Social Credit-NZ after coming to the belief that the Democratic Party was no longer a true social credit based party. Beetham and party president Alan Shaw said the new party would offer an alternative to interventionist and free-market policies by resurrecting original social credit economic ideas. At its launch the party said it intended to contest every electorate at the and already had 45 members lined up to contest electorates. Few rated the party as having much chance of electoral success and media were quick to compare it with the New Democratic Party, a previous splinter social credit party in 1972, which quickly vanished. At the 1990 election the party fielded 68 candidates and won 17,897 votes, only 0.98% of the total compared to the Democrats' 30,455 (1.67%). In March 1991 Beetham retired from the leadership of the party. He was replaced by Martin Hine, an Auckland lawyer, who had been a Social Credit candidate in and in and respectively. Beetham remained the party spokesperson on finance. Shaw also resigned as president and was replaced with Heather Maloney. As leader Hine attempted to conciliate with the Democrats, even going as far as to join the Democratic Party to negotiate a merger. His application for membership was treated with suspicion by the Democrats however. Hine resigned as leader after just nine months; he announced his resignation on 13 November 1991, called for reunification with the Democrats and announced he would remain a member only of the Democrats. Beetham resumed the leadership of the party which continued on as more of pressure group organisation dedicated to furthering Social Credit monetary aims and financial principles. Eventually the remaining members of the party ended up as part of a supposedly centrist party known as the New Zealand Coalition after joining together with the remnants of the

New Zealand Party The New Zealand Party operated as a political party in New Zealand from 1983 to 1993. Established by millionaire property tycoon Bob Jones, the party promoted economic liberalisation—it was the first political party to promote free market ref ...

and the United NZ Party. In 2018 the Democratic Party changed its name back to the Social Credit Party.

Electoral results

The party also fielded a candidate at the

1992 Tamaki by-election The Tamaki by-election 1992 was a by-election held in the electorate during the 43rd New Zealand Parliament, on 15 February 1992. It was caused by the resignation of incumbent MP Sir Robert Muldoon and was won by Clem Simich with a majority of ...

, Colin Maloney, who won 34 votes (0.2%). After the 1993 merger, a social crediter, Kieron Daok, was the New Zealand Coalition candidate in the 1994 Selwyn by-election. Daok finished 10th out of 11 candidates with 10 votes (or 0.05% of the vote).

References

{{Social Credit Defunct political parties in New Zealand Social credit parties Political parties established in 1988 Political parties disestablished in 1993 Single-issue political parties in New Zealand

History

Electoral results

See also

References