Insider’s guide to NZ government (online course)
Session 2: Resources
Now that you’ve completed session 2, on this page you can find:
(1) contact details for the session slides
(2) the page showing the Executive-Parliament relationship
(3) The Labour/New Zealand First and Labour/Greens agreements
(4) Some further reading
(5) FAQs (regularly updated)
(1) Session 2 slides
If you would like a copy of the slides for session 2 just pop us an email and we’ll get them through to you ASAP.
(2) The Executive-Parliament relationship
Here is the latest version of the one-page document showing the Executive-Parliament relationship (ministers and backbench MPs).
(4) Further reading
New Zealand Government and Politics, 6th ed, ed. Janine Hayward
This book gives a very readable overview of all aspects of New Zealand’s government and political systems. The chapter from Stephen Church on government formation delves further into the process of how parties come together to form governments that can win confidence votes in Parliament.
Rebalancing the Constitution, Ryan Malone
This book outlines the Executive and Parliament relationship under the old FPP electoral system and the current MMP electoral system. The book goes into further details about the mechanics of how government’s get their laws passed by Parliament. A number of libraries have copies of the book. If you do have trouble locating it, VUW has a freely available journal with a condensed version of the book as the first article.
‘Free and Frank’ policy advice speech, Andrew Kibblewhite, DPMC
In 2018 Andrew Kibblewhite, then Chief Executive of DPMC, gave a speech addressing the free and frank policy advice issue. He noted the concerns expressed by a number of people around a lack of rigour around free and frank advice in the New Zealand public service. Kibblewhite pushes back and argues that public servants do still speak ‘truth to power’ (i.e. the ministers). He argues that we don’t get to see much of the free and frank advice because it is given to ministers verbally by officials rather than in writing (in large part out of concern that that these candid conversations will not be protected under the Official Information Act 1982). You can read the speech here.
(5) FAQs
What happens if some of the polices agreed to in the coalition agreements are not done? Does the government end?
No it doesn’t. These agreements are a bit like a ‘gentleman’s agreement’, i.e. they are the governing parties agreeing amongst themselves that they will try and do these things as best they can. Remember that the agreements are put together quite quickly after an election, so some of the policies are ‘aspirational’ in nature rather than strict binding commitments. Nor do the parties know what will happen in the next 3 years as this will impact on the government’s actual policy programme (e.g. think COVID-19). But where specific police commitments have been made the opposition will justifiably pursue the government on an actual or perceived failure to deliver the policy - here is a good example (RNZ website).
‘The party or parties that can together win 61 or more seats can win confidence votes and be the government’. Ok, but who decides how many seats each party gets in the first place?
We do when we vote at a general election. The MMP electoral system can be a little complicated, but the main point is that the number of seats each party gets will be determined by its share of the ‘party vote’ across the country. If Party ‘A’ gets 20% of the nationwide party vote, it gets 20% of the seats in the 120MP Parliament, i.e. 24 seats. Here is a nice 2-minute video form the Electoral Commission that helps explains the basics.
What is a ‘whip’?
Each party in Parliament usually has a ‘whip’. A whip is one of the MPs in the caucus - although some parties have a two whips, the ‘senior whip’ and the ‘junior whip’. They organise which MPs will speak on bills and budgets being debated in Parliament, and ensure MPs are present for voting and other procedural matters.
Also in the government parties, the whips can act as an important link between the frontbenchers (i.e. the ministers) and the backbenchers (i.e. the ordinary MPs who are not ministers) by lobbying/negotiating with the backbenchers in the party to vote in favour of all the ministers’ bills. This is certainly true in British-style Parliaments overseas where backbench MPs are typically permitted to make up their own minds whether to vote in favour of a government bill. But as discussed in session 2, government MPs in New Zealand are already very disciplined and getting their support for government bills agreed to at Cabinet is not considered difficult.
Why do we even both having Parliament look at the budget and government bills if they just say ‘yes’ anyway?
True, our system is set up in a way that ministers inevitably get their bills and spending plans passed by Parliament.
But that doesn’t mean the Parliamentary process is waste of time. While government bills as a whole will get passed, there are often significant changes made to the clauses of the bill (i.e. what’s inside the bill). Usually this happens at the select committee stage where the public, NGOs, and companies have suggested improvements to draft laws. Plus there is something to be said for ministers having to defend their policies from probing questions asked by opposition MPs. Debates in the House also allow the opposition parties to propose alternative policies for the public to consider.
Likewise with Parliament scrutinising the government’s tax and spend proposals. Even though Parliament never actually changes the proposed tax rates of spending allocations in the budget, ministers are always accountable back to Parliament and so they must explain and justify their tax and spend choices in a very public forum.