The 1975 New Zealand general election was held on 29 November to elect MPs to the
38th session of the
New Zealand Parliament. It was the first general election in New Zealand where 18- to 20-year-olds[1] and all permanent residents of New Zealand were eligible to vote, although only citizens were able to be elected.
Following the sudden death of Labour leader Kirk, the party was led by
Bill Rowling, a leader who was characterised as being weak and ineffectual by some political commentators. Labour's central campaign was the so-called "
Citizens for Rowling" petition which attacked National leader
Robert Muldoon's forthright leadership style. This campaign was largely seen as having backfired on Labour.
The National Party responded with the formation of "Rob's Mob". As former Minister of Finance in the previous National government, Muldoon focused on the economic impact of Labour's policies; National's campaign advertising suggested that Labour's recently introduced compulsory personal superannuation scheme would result in the government owning the New Zealand economy by using the worker's money, akin to a communist state. Muldoon argued that his New Zealand superannuation scheme could be funded from future taxes rather than an additional tax on current wages.
In July 1974, Muldoon as opposition leader had promised to cut
immigration and to "get tough" on law and order issues. He criticised the Labour government's immigration policies for contributing to the economic recession and a housing shortage which undermined the New Zealand "way of life".
During the 1975 general elections, the National Party had also played an electoral advertisement that was later criticized for stoking negative racial sentiments about Polynesian migrants.[3]
The final results saw
National win 55 seats, and
Labour 32 seats. Thus
Robert Muldoon replaced
Bill Rowling as
Prime Minister, ending the term of the
Third Labour government, and beginning the term of the
Third National government. The party seat numbers were an exact opposite of the
1972 election. No minor parties won seats, though the election saw the best ever result for New Zealand's first
green political party, Values. There were 1,953,050 electors on the roll, with 1,603,733 (82.11%) voting.
While Muldoon would be re-elected twice, this would be the only time between
1969 and
1990 that National polled more votes than Labour.
Gustafson, Barry (1986). The First 50 Years : A History of the New Zealand National Party. Auckland: Reed Methuen.
ISBN0-474-00177-6.
Levine, Stephen; Lodge, Juliet (1976). The New Zealand General Election of 1975. Wellington: Price Milburn for New Zealand University Press.
ISBN0-7055-0624-X.
Norton, Clifford (1988). New Zealand Parliamentary Election Results 1946-1987: Occasional Publications No 1, Department of Political Science. Wellington: Victoria University of Wellington.
ISBN0-475-11200-8.
Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First published in 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer.
OCLC154283103.