New Zealand Party - 1984 Election

1984 Election

When Robert Muldoon unexpectedly called an early election, the New Zealand Party was caught by surprise, and had only a month to prepare its campaign. Opinion polls gave a mixed view of the party's strength — some gave it up to twenty percent of the vote, while others gave it only around two or three percent. Perhaps unwisely, the party did not decide to focus on specific seats, but instead spread its efforts equally across the country.

On election day, the New Zealand Party failed to win any seats. New Zealand at the time used the plurality voting system, which made it hard for third parties to gain representation in Parliament. The party gained second place in several electorates, and gained third place in many more, but because its votes were dispersed, rather than concentrated in any one area, it was unable to enter Parliament. In total, the New Zealand Party gained 12.2% of the vote, putting it in third place. The Social Credit Party, although winning only 7.6% of the vote, managed to win two seats, probably as the result of having specifically focused its attention on them since the 1950s.

While its failure to win seats was a major disappointment to the New Zealand Party, it took comfort in the fact that it quite possibly caused the defeat of the government. The opposition Labour Party soundly defeated Muldoon and the National Party, and many commentators believe that the New Zealand Party played a major role in drawing voters away from National. Once in power, the Labour Party (prompted by Finance Minister Roger Douglas) actually adopted many of the New Zealand Party's economic policies, much to the resentment of traditional Labour supporters; indeed, Douglas even wanted a flat tax, but was stymied by the Labour Prime Minister David Lange. Shortly after the election, the National Party dropped Robert Muldoon as leader, and eventually came to embrace free market economics as well.