New Zealand is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy. The British monarch Queen ElizabethⅡis the Head of State of New Zealand, and her representative is the Governor-General.
The single chamber of Parliament is the House of Representatives based on the Westminster system whom mainly in charge of passing laws and approving the raising and spending of money by the government.
There are 120 elected Members of Parliament, which include six Maori MPs representing Maori voters only. Besides, citizens of Maori heritage can register on either the Maori or the General roll of electors. Every citizen or permanent resident from the age of 18 must enroll to vote, and has the right to vote in the election held every three years.
There are two main parties in the House of Representatives that are the Labor Party and the National Party. The Prime Minister is the head of government.
The previous voting structure was that each voter had only one vote for the Member of Parliament. After a national referendum in 1993, there was a change that under MMPR each voter has two votes, an electorate vote, and a party vote. The second vote helps decide how many seats each party gets in parliament. The party held a majority of seats forms the government. Moreover, some other parties like the Green Party and the Maori Party have the opportunity to gain seats. Since 1996, the government has been a coalition of both the National Party and the Labor Party.
Cabinet is formed by ministers who are chosen by the Prime Minister to make policy decisions. Furthermore, public servants remain in their positions whenever Ministers change.
The great reform of Government affairs has made the development more efficient. In addition, the government privatized several activities, such as the national airline, the railways, and banking companies. Also, trading departments and corporations became state-owned enterprises.
To fund their activities, local authorities have the power to collect rates. Three levels of local government, which are regional councils, territorial authorities, and community boards, have their own detailed tasks to do in daily life.
In New Zealand, children between the ages of 6 and 16 must receive education. At primary and secondary school levels, there are state school, private school, and home school to choose from.
Crèches and kindergartens take babies and children from a few weeks old to four years old. Besides, kohanga reo take Maori children and encourage them to speak Maori language.
Children usually start primary school from the age of five or six. In some places, children between 11 and 13 attend an intermediate school as a preparation for secondary school.
Afterwards, children should enter high school. Some are boarding school; some are co-educational, or single-sex. Since 2002 the National Certificate of Educational Achievement has begun to work.
The Correspondence School is the largest school in New Zealand where students live very far away. Teachers may visit families if it is possible.
Private schools are often religious and single-sex. The biggest difference between private schools and states schools is students in private school should pay tuition for their education.
Disabled students can attend regular and special schools. The Correspondence School also takes this kind of students.
The nine universities throughout New Zealand have a number of subjects covering a variety of fields, like architecture, engineering, and horticulture. Although a citizen or a permanent resident who is over 20 doesn’t pass the exams, he can still attend university.
Additionally, there are 23 polytechnics that are rich in their diversity of subjects. Especially, the Open Polytechnic is the largest among them, in which students can choose different ways to study.
New Zealand is considered the world’s largest farm, which is mainly due to the hard work of the farmers, scientists, and exporters, but not the good geographical conditions, because all the plants, crops, and farmed animals are introduced from other countries.
The farmer plays a vital part in New Zealand’s economy, and New Zealand is now the leading role in agriculture research and advisory services all over the world. The farming lands are about 173 hectares, and on average two people operate a farm. The pastoral farming is the main land use. However, various fruit and crops are planted for export.
Forestry and fishing industries are developing rapidly. Forest products can make profit for overseas funds, while the seafood industry produces about five percentages of export earnings.
New Zealand is able to self-supporting in energy. Electricity is provided by fast-flowing rivers, geothermal stream from the volcanic area, natural gas, and windmills. Particularly, the solar powered houses are very popular. Nevertheless, New Zealand imports some refined petrol from other countries.
Being accepted by the world’s market, New Zealand has been endeavoring to meet the demands of high quality and competitiveness.
More than half of the export earnings are produced by farming industry. Apart from this, their focusing on the environmental and quality standard promotes the trade. Moreover, some other natural resource industries, like the forestry and fishing industry, and the horticulture industry are growing fast. Recently, the manufacturing is more competitive. Further, New Zealand gradually becomes an international provider of services. Also, tourism contributes a lot in earnings.
Nowadays, New Zealand has four major markets that are Australia, the European Union, Japan, and the United States.
The government supports the independence on trade, and the Ministry helps business by developing international trade rules and connections.
