The New Zealand National Party (Māori: Rōpū Nāhinara, "National" or "the Nats") is a centre-right New Zealand political party, and one of the two major parties in New Zealand politics. The party was founded in 1936 on the merger of the United and Reform parties, making it the nation's second-oldest political party.
As of April 2012, National has the largest share of seats in the New Zealand House of Representatives, with 59 out of a total of 121. Since November 2008, it has been the incumbent governing party, forming a minority government with support from three minor parties.
Read more about New Zealand National Party: Policies, Support, Organisation, Parliamentary Leaders, Party Presidents
Famous quotes containing the words zealand, national and/or party:
“Teasing is universal. Anthropologists have found the same fundamental patterns of teasing among New Zealand aborigine children and inner-city kids on the playgrounds of Philadelphia.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“...America has enjoyed the doubtful blessing of a single-track mind. We are able to accommodate, at a time, only one national hero; and we demand that that hero shall be uniform and invincible. As a literate people we are preoccupied, neither with the race nor the individual, but with the type. Yesterday, we romanticized the “tough guy;” today, we are romanticizing the underprivileged, tough or tender; tomorrow, we shall begin to romanticize the pure primitive.”
—Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945)
“A party of order or stability, and a party of progress or reform, are both necessary elements of a healthy state of political life.”
—John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)