List of electoral firsts in New Zealand

List of electoral firsts in New Zealand lists members of the New Zealand Parliament who are notable for age (oldest or youngest) or length of service or by being the “first” for a group e.g. women, Māori, ethnic minorities or LGBT people.

The list is mainly for the House of Representatives rather than the former upper house (the Legislative Council, which was abolished in 1951), and may include the second and third people to attain a position also. Where a source is not given, the source may be the article on the MP.

Members of Parliament are now just referred to as "MPs" or Members of Parliament. Until 1907 members of the House of Representatives were designated "M.H.R." for Members of the House of Representatives. With Dominion status members were designated "M.P." by a Royal Proclamation of 10 September.[1]

Length of service and age

Age when first elected

The youngest MP elected was James Stuart-Wortley, who was 20 years and 258 days when elected in 1853; see Baby of the House for full list. The present "Baby of the House" is Chlöe Swarbrick, 23 when first elected.
In the later 20th-century Marilyn Waring was younger than Mike Moore and Simon Upton; all aged 23 years when they were first elected .

Age when retired or left

  • Walter Nash died as an MP (having retired as party leader) aged 86 years, and was probably the oldest person to be a serving MP when he died.[2]

Longest-serving MPs

  • Rex Mason was probably New Zealand's longest serving MP, 40 years from 1926 to 1966.
  • Keith Holyoake was probably New Zealand's second-longest serving MP and longest serving Prime Minister, 39 years from 1932 to 1938 and 1943 to 1977.
  • Walter Nash was probably New Zealand's third-longest serving MP, 38 years from 1929 to 1968.
  • Annette King was New Zealand's longest serving female MP, 30 years between 1984–90 and 1993–2017.[3]
  • Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan was New Zealand's longest serving female Maori MP, 29 years between 1967 and 1996.

Shortest-serving MP

The MP with the shortest period of service is possibly Henry Jackson who served in 1879 from 2 July to 15 August; from the 1879 by-election to the 1879 general election. Jackson was sworn in on 11 July 1879 and parliament sat until 11 August.[4][5] Another person with a short tenure was William Cutfield King, who won election for the Grey and Bell electorate in the general election held on 27 November 1860. King was killed in the First Taranaki War on 8 February 1861, several months before parliament would next resume. Hence, King was never sworn in.[5][6]

Prime Minister

The longest-serving Prime Minister is Richard Seddon at 13 years and 44 days; see List of Prime Ministers of New Zealand by time in office.
See also: List of Prime Ministers of New Zealand by age and List of Prime Ministers of New Zealand by date of birth.

Father of the House

The current Father of the House (2018) is Nick Smith, first elected in 1990 ; see Father of the House. While Winston Peters first entered parliament in 1979, he was not in Parliament from 1981 to 1984 nor between 2008 and 2011.

New Zealand-born

  • John Sheehan was the first New Zealand-born Member of Parliament elected by a general (rather than a Māori) electorate and he was the first New Zealand-born person to hold cabinet rank. Born in Auckland in 1844, he became an MP in 1872 and a cabinet minister in 1877.
  • Francis Bell was the first New Zealand-born Prime Minister, holding office for only 16 days in a caretaker capacity from 14 to 30 May 1925; from the death of William Massey until the appointment of Gordon Coates (also born in New Zealand).

Women

Māori

Ethnic minorities (other than Māori)

Since the introduction of mixed-member proportional representation (MMP) in 1996, a number of people from ethnic minorities (other than Māori) have been selected by their party for the party list (some came into parliament between elections to replace a retiring list MP).

LGBT people

People with disabilities

See also

Notes

  1. Marilyn Waring and Colleen Dewe, elected for National in 1975, were at the time of their election, only the fourteenth and fifteenth women elected as a Member of Parliament in New Zealand.

References

  1. Scholefield, Guy (1932) [1908]. Who's Who in New Zealand (3 ed.). Wellington: Reed. p. 11.
  2. Freer, Warren (2004). A Lifetime in Politics: the memoirs of Warren Freer. Wellington: Victoria University Press. p. 152. ISBN 0-86473-478-6.
  3. "Labour's Grande Dame Annette King signs out". The New Zealand Herald. 10 August 2017. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  4. "The opening of parliament". Otago Daily Times (5428). 12 July 1879. p. 3. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  5. Scholefield, Guy (1950) [First published in 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1949 (3rd ed.). Wellington: Govt. Printer. p. 68.
  6. "Continuation of journal". Taranaki Herald. IX (445). 9 February 1861. p. 3. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  7. Atkinson, Neill. "Anderson, Mary Patricia". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
  8. Ballara, Angela. "Rātana, Iriaka Matiu". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
  9. "Mothers in Parliament: The women who paved the way for Jacinda Ardern". Newshub. 24 June 2018. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  10. "Interview with Ron Ng-Waishing". National Library of New Zealand. 1994. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  11. Roy, Eleanor (17 October 2017). "Refugee MP Golriz Ghahraman on love, loathing and entering New Zealand politics". The Guardian.
  12. "Georgina Beyer, from prostitution to parliament". Windy City Times.
  13. Taylor, Kerry. "Sidney Wilfred Scott". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 7 April 2019.
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