New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government. This means that our head of state is a sovereign (currently King Charles III).
NZ uses a Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting system which makes it unlikely that any one political party (eg National, Labour, Greens) will win a majority of the seats in the House. The party with the most votes usually needs to form a coalition or agreement with another party or parties.
NZ also uses the system of ‘responsible government’. This means government can only be made up of Ministers who are first elected members of the House of Representatives. The government can only stay in power while it has a majority of members in the House of Representatives. This is known as having the confidence of the House.
The system of government works by having 3 separate branches of government. This ‘separation of powers’ makes sure no one part of government has too much power.
