Anderton Jim: Address to Her Excellency the Governor-General 
Anderton Jim: Address to Her Excellency the Governor-General 
[Volume:617;Page:13190] 
Hon JIM ANDERTON (Leader—Progressive) 
: 
 Today is a proud day in our history one which is cause for considerable celebration. Today the world’s longest established parliamentary democracy turns 150 years old. That description of our political system may surprise some people and it has to be qualified by remarking that for the first 40 years of its existence it was more parliamentary than democratic—a point to which I will return in a moment. However in my view it is a fair description of our parliamentary democracy. The day in 1893 that votes for adult women became a political reality in New Zealand was also a day on which we became the world’s first fully functioning democratic nation. In a contemporary world in which millions of people have yet to enjoy any form of responsible pluralist parliamentary government of any description let alone its democratic form that is truly a record of which we should be proud. 
It is also important to remind ourselves that many of the aspects of government that we now take absolutely for granted like the secret ballot had to be fought for against bitter opposition. Until 1882 the way an elector voted was recorded in a register that anyone could see. That opened the vulnerable to all sorts of pressures which for example unscrupulous employers were not averse to exerting on their workers who insisted on voting “the wrong way” although I am also bound to say that it went with a more colourful form of politics in which the practice of treating—that is buying votes with free drinks—was widespread enough to need legislation outlawing it in 1858. The sorts of things it encouraged such as bands circulating in electorates on the backs of drays which were in the future to be illegal give some sense of the excitement elections could engender in colonial New Zealand. What a staid lot we are by comparison today. There was even a celebrated prosecution for electoral bribery in 1876 in which the electoral agent of one candidate was accused of buying votes with drinks although the prosecution failed when the principal witness a barman true to the spirit of all barmen in all ages claimed to have heard and seen nothing. 
Nor can I let this moment pass without noting some of the larger-than-life figures who have graced these benches. The doyen of these in the 19th century was probably Sir Julius Vogel. Although he deserves his reputation of being one of the most creative and forward-thinking leaders New Zealand has had even in the time in which the line between private and public interest was less clearly drawn than it is today he was notorious for his creative and imaginative skill in thinking up new ways to claim against his expenses. For instance while agent general in London in 1 year he managed to run up reimbursing costs of £6000 which was an enormous sum in those days. Rodney Hide would have had a field day. 
In the 20th century some of the working men and women brought into Parliament by the introduction of universal suffrage also deserve to be remembered. Paddy Webb arrested and jailed during the Blackball strike and subsequently elected to Parliament for the West Coast mining constituency is said to have begun his maiden speech with the words: “Mr Speaker this is not the first of His Majesty’s institutions in which I have been an inmate.” It was his Labour colleague the irrepressible Robert Semple who once coined the deathless dictum: “The Minister is responsible but he is not to blame.” I disagree with him because I believe that ministerial responsibility is a key element of our parliamentary system but sometimes having occupied a similar hot seat I sympathise with his feelings. 
Mostly I want to pay tribute to the generations of parliamentarians who unheralded and unsung have given their energies—and sometimes the better part of their lives—for over a century and a half to making this Parliament work as the primary instrument of government in our country. In my view it is an institution we can be rightfully proud of and it is the contribution of those people that we should be celebrating on this occasion.