Third National Government of New Zealand - The 1981 Election

The 1981 Election

A key issue in this election was the 1981 Springbok Tour. The tour of apartheid-era South Africa's rugby union team was opposed by many New Zealanders, who believed that it gave support to apartheid. However it was supported by many others, who believed that politics and sport should be separate. Muldoon had refused to make the New Zealand Rugby Football Union call off the tour, while the Labour opposition had actively opposed it. Muldoon gambled that while the Tour would cost him votes in the cities, these would be mostly in Labour-supporting seats while swinging voters in smaller towns such as Taupo would support his stance. It has recently been argued that had New Zealand been defeated in the Tour, National would have lost the election.

The 1981 election was one which exposed the problems of New Zealand's First Past the Post electoral system. The Social Credit Party received 20.6% of votes cast, but only two seats. Perhaps more damningly, Labour won slightly more votes than National, but four fewer seats. This was the second election in a row in which this had happened, and contributed to New Zealand's switch to the proportional representation electoral system Mixed Member Proportional in the 1990s.

The election left National with a majority of only one seat, a situation which was to cause it major problems in its third term.