Obtaining a comprehensive list of coalition agreements and support agreements since 1996

The Institute has been conducting research into political party agreements since MMP. Our interest is in those agreements mentioned in the ‘Speech from the Throne’, being the speech the Governor-General makes at the start of the parliamentary term.

Political parties make these agreements with a view to forming government. The formation of government is a political process (managed by the political parties) while the appointment of government is a legal process (managed by the Governor-General). The political process starts with the date of the election and ends with the appointment of government.

This blog has now been updated and is as at 25 September 2020. Thank you to all of you who have helped us find the agreements. Figure 1, directly below, provides an overview of the length of each agreement. A pdf copy of each agreement can be found on the tables below.

List of Tables of Political Party Agreements since 1996

1. Table 1 lists the 5 coalition agreements,
2. Table 2 lists the 13 confidence and supply agreements (# there is one further verbal agreement mentioned in the ‘Speech from the Throne’, but this was never written up),
3. Table 3 lists two co-operation agreements that are mentioned in the ‘Speech from the Throne’ but are neither coalition agreements nor confidence and supply agreements,
4. Table 4 lists one agreement that we could find that was made between a political party in power but outside the formation period.
5. Table 5 lists the agreements made between political parties that were not in power at the time.

Missing:
(a) A good quality pdf of the 10 December 1996 coalition agreement between National and NZ First, ideally signed (see Table 1 below).
(b) A good quality pdf of the 6 December 1999 coalition agreement between Labour and Alliance (see Table 1 below).
(c) None of the agreements we have attached include pen signatures. If you have a copy of an agreement which the parties actually signed, we would appreciate the opportunity to replace it with the copy we have currently uploaded. The only exception was a 2010 update of a confidence and supply agreement, signed by Hon John Key.

Box 1, further below, contains relevant excerpts from the Cabinet Manual 2017.

This data and our analysis of it will form the basis for a series of working papers and a think piece that we are hoping to publish in the next few weeks.

Thank you, from the team at the McGuinness Institute.

Table 1: Coalition Agreements forming Government [5]

Table 2: Confidence and Supply Agreements forming Government [13]

Notes:
# The Green Party supported the Coalition Government on confidence and supply issues but no written agreement was prepared. It is therefore included in the list below but not on the graph above. (Source: Parliamentary Library, Personal Communication).

Table 3: Agreements inside formation/inside Government [3]

Table 4: Agreements outside formation/inside Government [1]

Table 5: Agreements outside formation/outside Government [2]

Box 1: Excerpts from the 2017 Cabinet Manual

Outcome of elections Para 6.18
Under New Zealand’s proportional representation electoral system, it is likely that two or more parties will negotiate coalition or support agreements so that a government can be formed, whether it is a majority or minority government. A coalition agreement provides for a closer relationship between two or more parties than a support agreement, a distinguishing characteristic of coalition agreements being that coalition parties are represented in Cabinet.

Principles and processes of government formation Para 6.42

The process of forming a government is political, and the decision to form a government must be arrived at by politicians.

Para 6.43
Once the political parties have reached an adequate accommodation, and it is possible to form a government, it is expected that the parties will make appropriate public statements of their intentions. Any agreement reached by the parties during their negotiations may need to be confirmed subsequently by the political parties involved, each following its own internal procedures.

Para 6.44
By convention, the role of the Governor-General in the government formation process is to ascertain where the confidence of the House lies, on the basis of the parties’ public statements, so that a government can be appointed. It is not the Governor-General’s role to form the government or to participate in any negotiations (although the Governor General might wish to talk to party leaders if the talks were to have no clear outcome).