42nd New Zealand Parliament

42nd Parliament of New Zealand
← 41st Parliament 43rd Parliament →
Parliament House, Wellington
Overview
Legislative body	New Zealand Parliament
Term	16 September 1987 – 6 September 1990
Election	1987 New Zealand general election
Government	Fourth Labour Government
House of Representatives
Members	97
Speaker of the House	Kerry Burke
Leader of the House	Jonathan Hunt
Prime Minister	Mike Moore ––Geoffrey Palmer until 3 September 1990 ––David Lange until 8 August 1989
Leader of the Opposition	Jim Bolger
Sovereign
Monarch	HM Elizabeth II
Governor-General	HE The Rt Rev. Sir Paul Reeves
Sessions
1st 16 September 1987 – 12 December 1989 2nd 14 February 1990 – 6 September 1990

The 42nd New Zealand Parliament was a term of the New Zealand Parliament. Its composition was determined by the 1987 election, and it sat until the 1990 election.

The 42nd Parliament was the second (and final) term of the controversial fourth Labour Party government. Initially, the only other party in the 42nd Parliament was the National Party, with the Democratic Party having lost the two seats it held in the 41st Parliament. Later, a dissident Labour MP, Jim Anderton, would found the NewLabour Party in 1989. Due to internal disputes within the Labour Party, there were three Prime Ministers during the 42nd Parliament: David Lange, Geoffrey Palmer, and Mike Moore.

The 42nd Parliament consisted of ninety-seven representatives. At the time, this was the highest number of representatives that Parliament had had, although it would later be exceeded. All of these representatives were chosen by single-member geographical electorates, including four special Māori electorates.

Electoral boundaries for the 42nd Parliament

Overview of seats

The table below shows the number of MPs in each party following the 1987 election and at dissolution:

Affiliation		Members
		At 1987 election	At dissolution
	Labour	57	56
Government total
	National	40	40
	NewLabour	Not yet founded	1
Opposition total		40	41
Total		97	97
Working Government majority		17	15

Notes

• The Working Government majority is calculated as all Government MPs less all other parties.

Changes during term

There were no by-elections held during the term of the 42nd Parliament.

• Jim Anderton, the Labour MP for Sydenham, quit the Labour Party in protest in 1989 over the economic reforms, known as Rogernomics, of Roger Douglas, the Minister of Finance. He established the NewLabour Party.

References

• Gustafson, Barry (1986). The First 50 Years : A History of the New Zealand National Party. Auckland: Reed Methuen. ISBN 0-474-00177-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)