Freedom in the World 2001 - New Zealand

2001 Scores

Status: Free
Freedom Rating: 1.0
Civil Liberties: 1
Political Rights: 1

Overview

Helen Clark, the Labor Party prime minister, upset her country's relations with neighbors around the region. Her endorsement of free trade within the region at the APEC summit in November, however, was a surprise considering opposition from the Alliance Party, Labor's coalition partner, and its ally the Green Party. In domestic politics, personal attacks and verbal brawling worsened under the Clark government. Political scandals and controversies delayed the government's implementation of its "Closing the Gap" strategy to improve delivery of government services to the Maori minority. Sex education was finally made a part of the school curriculum, which critics consider long overdue. New Zealand's unplanned pregnancy rate is the second highest among developed countries and the country has a higher rate of sexually transmitted diseases than many other developed countries.

New Zealand achieved full self-government prior to World War II, and gained full independence from the United Kingdom in 1947. Since 1935, political power in this parliamentary democracy has alternated between the mildly conservative National Party and the center-left Labor Party, both of which helped to develop one of the world's most progressive welfare states.

In response to increasing global economic competition, the Labor government began restructuring the economy in 1984 by cutting farm subsidies, trimming tariffs, and privatizing many industries. The harsh effects of the economic reforms and a deep recession contributed to a National Party landslide at the 1990 parliamentary elections. However, Prime Minister Jim Bolger's National Party government pushed the reforms even further by slashing welfare payments, reworking the labor law to discourage collective bargaining, and ending universal free hospital care. An economic upswing helped the National Party to get re-elected in the 1993 elections and voters chose to replace the "first-past-the-post" electoral system with a mixed member proportional system (MMP) in a concurrent referendum. The MMP is designed to increase the representation of smaller parties by combining geographic constituencies with proportional representation balloting.

In the October 1996 elections for an expanded 120-seat parliament, the New Zealand First (NZF) Party entered into a coalition with the National Party. The strains of merging the National Party's fiscal conservatism with NZF's populism led to a policy drift. In October 1997, Transport Minister Jenny Shipley led an intraparty coup that forced Bolger to resign. As prime minister, Shipley announced a cabinet dominated by conservatives favoring further economic deregulation. Public criticisms of the fire service, electricity reform, and public sector accountability quickly eroded Shipley's popularity. The coalition collapsed in August 1998, when the NZF and the National Party clashed over plans to sell government-owned shares of Wellington International Airport, but Shipley managed to hold on to power with a narrow confidence vote a month later.

The Asian financial crisis sent New Zealand into a recession in 1998. Asia is the first destination for 40 percent of New Zealand's exports and the source of 30 percent of its tourists. Public discontent with the Shipley government helped the Labor and Alliance coalition government of Helen Clark to win the elections in November 1999.

Clark's outspoken style did not warm her to neighbors around the region. Tokyo was angered by her comments on Japanese whaling. Sultan Bolkiah of Brunei was insulted by her remarks about the kingdom's leadership of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organization this year. Tonga rebuked Clark for her proposal to aid Tongan democracy groups. Several Pacific Islands leaders did not warm to her remarks about how to bring peace and stability to the region. They also criticized New Zealand of not enforcing laws that would enable the prosecution of child sex tourists from New Zealand. Relations with Australia soured because of her decision to hold steady defense spending and to terminate contracts for F-16 aircraft fighters made by the previous government.

On the domestic front in the year 2000, one cabinet member was dismissed for having an affair with a teenager and allegations of financial impropriety and illicit sexual habits are made openly in the parliament. In August, the controversy that followed the murder of a journalist by a repeated sex offender compelled the government to introduce changes to the legal system, rewriting sentencing laws and mandatory police checks for people who want to work with children.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

New Zealanders can change their government democratically. New Zealand has no written constitution, but fundamental freedoms are respected in practice. The judiciary is independent. The private press is varied and vigorous. The broadcast media are both privately and publicly held and express pluralistic views. Civil society is advanced, and nongovernmental organizations, trade unions, and religion groups are outspoken. Religious freedom is respected. The authorities are responsive to complaints of rape and domestic violence, and a Domestic Violence Act came into effect in July 1997.

Trade unions are independent and engage in collective bargaining. The 1991 Employment Contracts Act (ECA) has weakened unions by banning compulsory membership and other practices that made trade unions the sole, mandatory negotiators on behalf of employees. Contracts are now generally drawn up at the factory, or even individual level; and wages and union membership rolls have fallen. In 1994, the International Labor Organization (ILO) criticized a provision of the ECA prohibiting strikes designed to force an employer to sign on to a multicompany contract.

The Maori minority and the tiny Pacific Islander population face unofficial discrimination in employment and education. The 1983 Equal Employment Opportunities Policy, designed to bring more minorities into the public sector, has been only marginally successful. The Treaty of Waitangi, an agreement reached in the nineteenth century and codified in 1955, leases Maori land in perpetuity to the "settlers." Today, the rents received by the Maori on some 2,500 leases average far lower than those received by commercial landowners. Four parliamentary seats are reserved for Maori representatives. In the 1996 elections, 15 Maori politicians won seats, proportionate to the 13 percent Maori population. Maori activists say that the state-run television network's Maori-language programming is insufficient.

New Zealand has a long history of advancing women's rights. It was the first country in the world to give women the vote, in 1893. Women currently hold the positions of attorney general, chief justice, and governor-general (effectively, head of state).