The Australian and New Zealand Labour Parties Compared

Abstract

This paper makes an historical comparison between the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and the Labour Party of New Zealand since their foundations. The ALP not only has a longer history than its New Zealand counterpart, but prominent Australian settlers in New Zealand contributed to the establishment of the Labour Party in New Zealand. The ALP had two golden eras from 1941 to 1949 under John Curtin and Ben Chifley and from 1983 to 1996 under Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. The New Zealand Labour Party had three golden eras from 1935 to 1949 under Michael Savage and Peter Fraser, from 1983 to 1990 under David Lange, Geoffrey Palmer, and Mike Moore, and from 1999 to 2008 under Helen Clark. The New Zealand Labour Party has fared better electorally than the ALP, because of less intraparty frictions, the favourable electoral systems, and the absence of the intractable upper chamber.