Independent (politician) - New Zealand

New Zealand

Originally, all members of the New Zealand parliament were officially non-partisan, although loose groupings did exist informally (initially between supporters of central government versus provincial governments, and later between liberals and conservatives). The foundation of formal political parties around the beginning of the 20th Century considerably diminished the number of unaffiliated politicians, although a smaller number of independent candidates continued to be elected up until the 1940s. Since then, however, there have been relatively few independent politicians in Parliament, none of whom gained their seats in general elections — all either won by-elections or became independents after having been elected as a member of a party.

The last person to be directly elected to Parliament as an independent in New Zealand was Winston Peters (originally elected as a National MP), who won the 1993 by-election in Tauranga electorate. By the time of the next general election, he had formed his own party (New Zealand First), and thus was no longer standing as an independent. Since that time, all independents in Parliament have been those originally elected under a party banner. Some, like Peters, have gone on to found or co-found their own parties, with varying levels of success — examples include Peter Dunne, Taito Phillip Field, Gordon Copeland, Tau Henare, and Alamein Kopu. Others have joined parties which were then outside Parliament, such as Frank Grover and Tuariki Delamere.

There were two independent MPs in the last Parliament; Chris Carter and Hone Harawira. Carter became an independent after his criticisms of the Labour Party's leadership resulted in his being expelled from the Labour caucus, while Harawira resigned from the Māori Party and, after a short period as an independent, also resigned as an MP in order to force the 2011 by-election when he was re-elected as representative of his new political party, Mana. There are also two parties other which have only a single MP United Future with Peter Dunne and ACT with John Banks. Neither Dunne nor Banks are classed as independents — Dunne's presence in Parliament is due to personal votes in his home electorate, and Banks' presence is as the sole elected MP of ACT due to a collapse in their support in the 2011 election.