New Zealand general election, 1972
|
|
25 November 1972 (1972-11-25)
|
|
|
All 87 seats in the New Zealand House of Representatives
44 seats were needed for a majority
|
|
Turnout
|
1,340,168 (88.94%)
|
|
|
First party
|
Second party
|
|
|
|
|
|
Leader
|
Norman Kirk
|
Jack Marshall
|
|
Party
|
Labour
|
National
|
|
Leader since
|
1965
|
1972
|
|
Leader's seat
|
Sydenham
|
Karori
|
|
Last election
|
39 seats, 44.2%
|
45 seats, 45.2%
|
|
Seats won
|
55
|
32
|
|
Seat change
|
 16
|
{{Navbox with collapsible sections
|
name = Religion topics
|
state = autocollapse
|
bodyclass = hlist
|
title = Religion
|
selected =
|
sect1 = Major groups
|
abbr1 = major
|
child
|
group1 = Abrahamic
|
list1 =
|
group2 = Indo-European
|
child |groupstyle=font-weight:normal;
|
group1 = Indo-Iranian
|
list1 =
|
group2 = European
|
list2 =
-
Armenian
-
Baltic
-
[[Caucasian neopaganism|{{Navbox with collapsible sections | name = Religion topics | state = autocollapse | bodyclass = hlist | title = Religion | selected = | sect1 = Major groups | abbr1 = major | list1 = {{Navbox |child
|
group1 = Abrahamic
|
child |groupstyle=font-weight:normal; | group1 = Judaism
|
list1 =
|
group2 = Christianity
|
list2 =
|
|
Popular vote
|
677,669
|
581,422
|
|
Percentage
|
48.4%
|
41.5%
|
|
Swing
|
4.2%
|
{{Navbox with collapsible sections
|
name = Religion topics
|
state = autocollapse
|
bodyclass = hlist
|
title = Religion
|
selected =
|
sect1 = Major groups
|
abbr1 = major
|
child
|
group1 = Abrahamic
|
list1 =
|
group2 = Indo-European
|
child |groupstyle=font-weight:normal;
|
group1 = Indo-Iranian
|
list1 =
|
group2 = European
|
list2 =
-
Armenian
-
Baltic
-
[[Caucasian neopaganism|{{Navbox with collapsible sections | name = Religion topics | state = autocollapse | bodyclass = hlist | title = Religion | selected = | sect1 = Major groups | abbr1 = major | list1 = {{Navbox |child
|
group1 = Abrahamic
|
child |groupstyle=font-weight:normal; | group1 = Judaism
|
list1 =
|
group2 = Christianity
|
list2 =
|
|
|
The New Zealand general election of 1972 was held on 25 November to elect MPs to the 37th session of the New Zealand Parliament. The Labour Party, led by Norman Kirk, defeated the governing National Party.
Contents
-
Background 1
-
1972 electoral redistribution 1.1
-
The election 2
-
Results 3
Background
The National Party had been in office since the 1960 elections, when it had defeated the ruling Labour Party, led by Walter Nash. The Second Labour Government was the shortest-lasting of all New Zealand governments to that day; in contrast, the Second National Government, led for the majority of its tenure by Keith Holyoake, would be re-elected three times. National's policies were focused around stability and a "steady as she goes" approach, but Holyoake's Government was increasingly perceived as tired and worn-out. In February 1972, Holyoake stood aside and was replaced by his deputy, Jack Marshall, who took steps to reinvigorate the party.
Meanwhile, Norman Kirk had been at the helm of Labour since 1965. In this time, he had been modernising and updating the Labour Party, but narrowly lost the 1969 election. Kirk slimmed and dressed to improve his image, and visited several overseas Labour parties to broaden his knowledge. He activated a "spokesman" or shadow cabinet system to spread the responsibility, though it was difficult to avoid one composed largely of Auckland and Christchurch members. Despite these improvements, commentators speculated whether National would pull off another cliff-hanger victory. Economic recession and voter fatigue hurt National at the polls. Labour's solgan was 'Time For A Change-Vote Labour', which expertly captured the national mood.
1972 electoral redistribution
Since the 1969 election, the number of electorates in the South Island was fixed at 25, with continued faster population growth in the North Island leading to an increase in the number of general electorates. Including the four Māori electorates, there had been 80 electorates since the 1902 election. This increased to 84 electorates through the 1969 election. The 1972 electoral redistribution saw three additional general seats created for the North Island, bringing the total number of electorates to 87. Together with increased urbanisation in Christchurch and Nelson, the changes proved very disruptive to existing electorates. Only two South Island electorates were not altered by the redistribution (Clutha and Lyttelton). Only eight of the North Island electorates were not altered (Franklin, Gisborne, Hobson, Island Bay, Miramar, North Shore, Tamaki, and Wairarapa).
In the South Island, three electorates were abolished (Buller, Westland, and Selwyn), and three electorates were newly created (Rakaia, Tasman, and West Coast). In the North Island, five electorates were abolished (Hauraki, Marsden, Otaki, Waimarino, and Waitomo), two electorates were recreated (Coromandel and Otahuhu), and six electorates were newly created (East Coast Bays, Hamilton East, Kapiti, King Country, Ruahine, and Whangarei).
The election
The date for the 1972 elections was 25 November, a Saturday. 1,583,256 people were registered to vote, and there was a turnout of 89.1%. This turnout was slightly higher than the previous election, and considerably higher than the following one. The number of electorates being contested was 87.
Results
The 1972 election saw the
This article was sourced from Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. World Heritage Encyclopedia content is assembled from numerous content providers, Open Access Publishing, and in compliance with The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR), Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Public Library of Science, The Encyclopedia of Life, Open Book Publishers (OBP), PubMed, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and USA.gov, which sources content from all federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government publication portals (.gov, .mil, .edu). Funding for USA.gov and content contributors is made possible from the U.S. Congress, E-Government Act of 2002.
Crowd sourced content that is contributed to World Heritage Encyclopedia is peer reviewed and edited by our editorial staff to ensure quality scholarly research articles.
By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. World Heritage Encyclopedia™ is a registered trademark of the World Public Library Association, a non-profit organization.