Events
- 27 January: National Party leader Don Brash delivers a speech at Orewa highly critical of the government's policy towards Māori.
- 8 April: New Zealand First party announces it would give its support to the government's foreshore legislation.
- 30 April: Tariana Turia announces she will vote against the Government's foreshore and seabed legislation.
- 5 May: A hikoi against the foreshore and seabed legislation arrives in Wellington.
- 7 May: The government's foreshore and seabed Bill passes its first vote in Parliament.
- 11 May: The Criminal Records (Clean Slate) Act is passed. The Act allows people who have not reoffended for seven years to not declare minor criminal convictions in most circumstances.
- 30 June: Statistics New Zealand estimates for this date put the Cities of Lower Hutt and Tauranga at over 100,000 residents for the first time and Waimakariri District at over 40,000
- 1 July: First sitting of the new Supreme Court.
- 10 July: Te Tai Hauauru by-election won by Tariana Turia for the new Māori Party.
- 15 July: 2004 Israel-New Zealand spy scandal: New Zealand imposes diplomatic sanctions against Israel after two Israeli citizens are convicted of passport fraud.
- 2 August: Around 7,500 Destiny Church members march on Parliament in black shirts to protest liberal social policies.
- 15 August: Tornado in Waitara. Two fatalities when a farmhouse is destroyed.
- 19 August: Cereal maker Dick Hubbard announces he is running for the position of Mayor of Auckland.
- 6 October: Waikato Hospital doctors complete a 22 hour surgery to separate a pair of conjoined twins.
- 9 October: 2004 local body and health board elections completed, but not all of the counting; and some results need to wait for special votes. All three West Coast mayors unseated, along with several in more populous centres such as Auckland.
- 1 November: A reciprocal working holiday agreement between New Zealand and Belgium comes into effect.
- 18 November: Legislation passed vesting ownership of all land up to the high tide mark in New Zealand with the Crown.
- 29 November: The Criminal Records (Clean Slate) Act comes into force.
- 9 December: The Supreme Court of New Zealand granted Ahmed Zaoui bail. He will reside in the Dominican Friary in Auckland. He will have to report to the Police twice a week and must spent each night in the Friary.
- 9 December: The Civil Unions Act is passed. The Act establishes the new institution of civil union, available to same-sex and de facto couples.
- 10 December: Smoking is banned in workplaces or licensed premises.
Read more about this topic: 2004 In New Zealand
Famous quotes containing the word events:
“Genius is present in every age, but the men carrying it within them remain benumbed unless extraordinary events occur to heat up and melt the mass so that it flows forth.”
—Denis Diderot (1713–1784)
“If I have renounced the search of truth, if I have come into the port of some pretending dogmatism, some new church, some Schelling or Cousin, I have died to all use of these new events that are born out of prolific time into multitude of life every hour. I am as bankrupt to whom brilliant opportunities offer in vain. He has just foreclosed his freedom, tied his hands, locked himself up and given the key to another to keep.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The prime lesson the social sciences can learn from the natural sciences is just this: that it is necessary to press on to find the positive conditions under which desired events take place, and that these can be just as scientifically investigated as can instances of negative correlation. This problem is beyond relativity.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)