The 48th New Zealand Parliament was a term of the

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

of New Zealand. Its composition was determined at a

general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

held on 17 September 2005. The new parliament met for the first time on 7 November 2005. It was dissolved on 3 October 2008. The Labour Party and the Progressive Party, backed by New Zealand First and United Future, established a majority at the beginning the 48th Parliament. The Labour-led administration was in its third term. The National Party and ACT form the formal opposition to the government. Other non-government parties are the Greens (who promised to abstain on confidence and supply votes) and the Māori Party. The 48th Parliament consists of 121 representatives. This represents an overhang of one seat, with the Māori Party having won one more electorate than its share of the vote would otherwise have given it. In total, sixty-nine of the MPs were chosen by geographical electorates, including seven

Māori electorates In Politics of New Zealand, New Zealand politics, Māori electorates, colloquially known as the Māori seats (), are a special category of New Zealand electorates, electorate that give Reserved political positions, reserved positions to repre ...

. The remainder were elected by means of

party-list proportional representation Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a system of proportional representation based on preregistered Political party, political parties, with each party being Apportionment (politics), allocated a certain number of seats Apportionm ...

under the MMP electoral system.

Electorate boundaries for 48th Parliament

Oath of office

All of the Māori Party MPs attempted to alter their

oath of office An oath of office is an oath or affirmation a person takes before assuming the duties of an office, usually a position in government or within a religious body, although such oaths are sometimes required of officers of other organizations. Suc ...

by adding references to the

Treaty of Waitangi The Treaty of Waitangi (), sometimes referred to as ''Te Tiriti'', is a document of central importance to the history of New Zealand, Constitution of New Zealand, its constitution, and its national mythos. It has played a major role in the tr ...

. They were all required to retake their oaths.

Election result

Government: the third and final term of the Fifth Labour Government, in power from

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

until

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

; minority coalition with Progressive Party since

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

Prime Minister:

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 ...

(Labour) from 1999 to 2008
Governor General: Dame Silvia Cartwright to August 2006; Anand Satyanand August 2006–
Deputy Prime Minister: Michael Cullen (Labour) 2002–2008
Leader of the Opposition:

Don Brash Donald Thomas Brash (born 24 September 1940) is a former New Zealand politician who was Leader of the Opposition (New Zealand), Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the New Zealand National Party, leader of the New Zealand National Party from ...

( National Party), to November 2006;

John Key Sir John Phillip Key (born 9 August 1961) is a New Zealand retired politician who served as the 38th prime minister of New Zealand from 2008 to 2016 and as leader of the National Party from 2006 to 2016. Following his father's death when ...

(National) November 2006 –
Speaker : Margaret Wilson (Labour)
Deputy Speaker:

Clem Simich Clement Rudolph "Clem" Simich or Šimić (born 2 June 1939) is a New Zealand politician for the New Zealand National Party, National Party. Early life Simich was born in Te Kōpuru, Northland in 1939. Member of Parliament He was fir ...

( National)
Assistant Speaker: Ross Robertson (Labour) and Ann Hartley (Labour)
Leader of the House: Michael Cullen (Labour)

Overview of seats

The table below shows the number of MPs in each party following the 2005 election and at dissolution: Notes * United Future and NZ First supported the Labour-Progressive coalition on a

confidence and supply In parliamentary system, parliamentary democracies based on the Westminster system, confidence and supply is an arrangement under which a minority government (one which does not control a majority in the legislature) receives the support of one ...

basis. * Both New Zealand First and United Future said they would not support a Labour-led coalition which included Greens in Cabinet posts. However, United Future indicated it could support a government where the Greens gave supply-and-confidence votes. The Working Government majority is calculated as all Government MPs less all other parties.

Members of the 48th Parliament

48th New Zealand Parliament – MPs elected to Parliament List MPs are ordered by allocation as determined by the Chief Electoral Office and the party lists.

Changes during parliamentary term

* Rod Donald, co-leader of the Green Party, died on 6 November 2005 before he was sworn in as a member of the 48th Parliament. He was replaced by the next person on the Green Party's list, former MP Nándor Tánczos, on 16 November. * Jim Sutton, a Labour list MP, retired from politics on 31 July 2006. He was replaced by the next person on the Labour Party's list, Charles Chauvel. *

, a National list MP and former leader of the National Party, retired from Parliament on 7 February 2007. He was replaced by the next person on the National Party's list, Katrina Shanks. * Georgina Beyer, a Labour list MP, announced her retirement on 15 December 2006, and officially resigned from Parliament when it resumed on 13 February 2007. On 20 February she was replaced by the next person on the Labour Party's list, former MP Lesley Soper. * Taito Phillip Field, Labour MP for Mangere, quit the Labour party after being threatened with expulsion on 16 February 2007. He continued to serve as an MP, and formed the

New Zealand Pacific Party The New Zealand Pacific Party was a Christianity, Christian political party that existed in New Zealand from 2008 to 2010. The party was founded as a vehicle for former New Zealand Labour Party, Labour MP Taito Phillip Field, who was subsequent ...

in January 2008. * Gordon Copeland, a United Future list MP, left the party to become an independent MP in May 2007, and contested the 2008 election as a candidate for The Kiwi Party. * Ann Hartley, a Labour list MP, was elected to the

North Shore City North Shore City was a territorial authority unit in the Auckland Region of New Zealand that was governed by the North Shore City Council. It existed from 1989 until November 2010, when the council was incorporated into Auckland Council. It ha ...

Council in the 2007 local body elections. She left Parliament when it resumed in 2008, and was replaced by the next person on the Labour list, Louisa Wall, a former Silver Ferns netballer, on 4 February 2008. * Brian Donnelly, a New Zealand First MP, resigned from Parliament from 12 February 2008, and was replaced by Dail Jones on 15 February 2008. Donnelly was appointed as New Zealand's High Commissioner to the Cook Islands. * Dianne Yates, a Labour list MP, stood unsuccessfully for the

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

City Council in the 2007 local body elections. She resigned as an MP on 29 March 2008 and was replaced by William Sio on 1 April 2008 as the next person on Labour's list. * Nándor Tánczos resigned from Parliament and was replaced by Green Party co-leader

Russel Norman Russel William Norman (born 2 June 1967) is a New Zealand politician and environmentalist. He was a Member of Parliament and co-leader of the Green Party. Norman resigned as an MP in October 2015 to work as Executive Director of Greenpeace A ...

on 27 June 2008.

Seating plan

Start of term

The chamber is in a horseshoe-shape.

End of term