New Zealand Politics and Law
Unions
The umbrella organization for 27 of the more than 40 individual trade unions is the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi (NZCTU), which was founded in 1987. Despite some successes of the trade union movement, such as B. The abolition of zero-hour contracts, in which no regular working hours are agreed, has markedly decreased confidence in the power of the trade unions in the first two decades of the 21st century. In 2016, only one in five workers was unionized and nearly half of all trade unionists worked in just two sectors: health / social affairs and education. Around three quarters of trade unionists in these sectors were women. Visit themakeupexplorer for Trade Unions in Oceania.
Military
New Zealand Defense Force consists of naval, land and air forces. In 2019, defense spending accounted for 3% of the national budget or just over 1% of gross domestic product. These have steadily decreased over the past 50 years. Due to the isolated location of New Zealand and the good policy of the alliance, the government does not consider higher spending to be necessary. Voluntary service is possible from the age of 17; However, the soldiers may only be deployed at the age of 18. The military personnel amounted to 9,000 in 2019 and the reserve was 2,300.
Administration
New Zealand is administratively divided into 16 regions. 11 of them are each headed by a regional council; five are administered as unitary authorities, in which two administrative levels are merged and are thus administered by only one territorial authority.
Administrative division in New Zealand
| Administrative division (2015) | ||||
| region | Area (in km 2) | Population | Residents(per km 2) | Administrative headquarters |
| Area Outside Region | 1,800 | 610 | 0.3 | – |
| Auckland | 4,938 | 1,570,500 | 318 | Auckland |
| Bay of Plenty | 12 071 | 287 100 | 24 | Whakatane |
| Canterbury | 44 508 | 586 500 | 13th | Christchurch |
| Gisborne | 8 386 | 47 400 | 6th | Gisborne |
| Hawke’s Bay | 14 137 | 160 100 | 11 | Napier |
| Manawatu-Wanganui | 22 220 | 234 500 | 11 | Palmerston North |
| Marlborough | 10 458 | 45 300 | 4th | Blenheim |
| Nelson | 424 | 49 900 | 118 | Nelson |
| Northland | 12 499 | 168 300 | 14th | Whangarei |
| Otago | 31 209 | 215 100 | 7th | Dunedin |
| Southland | 31 195 | 97 300 | 3 | Invercargill |
| Taranaki | 7 254 | 115 800 | 16 | Stratford |
| Tasman | 9 616 | 49 500 | 5 | Richmond |
| Waikato | 23 902 | 439 200 | 18th | Hamilton |
| Wellington | 8 049 | 496 900 | 62 | Wellington |
| West coast | 23 244 | 32 700 | 1 | Greymouth |
Education
New Zealand’s British-style education system distinguishes between three levels of education: pre-school (kindergarten age is usually 2-5 years), primary and secondary education (ages 5 to 19) and further education (vocational and higher education).
Pre-primary education is not compulsory, but over 95% of children use it. Even at this level, all children have various opportunities to deal with the language and culture of the Māori, e. B. In Te Kōhanga Reo (language nest) the Māori language is taught in immersion classes. School attendance is compulsory from 6-16 years of age. Most schools are secular and state funded. Private schools receive state subsidies in addition to the individually determined parental school fees; they do not have to adhere to state curricula. In some schools all or more subjects are taught in Māori. The schools of New Zealand present themselves in close association with tradition and ethics of the Māori. There are special forms of instruction for children with disabilities. All types of school can also be completed by correspondence or home lessons if the conditions are appropriate (remote location, illness, etc.). The German High school diploma is equivalent to the National Certificate of Educational Achievement.
For further education there are German universities of applied sciences similar institutions (Polytechnics, Institutes of Technology), 8 universities and 3 Māori universities.
Media
Press: New Zealand has freedom of the press. Despite the comparatively small population, the media landscape is diverse. However, the majority of the 26 daily newspapers (including three national daily newspapers) are owned by only two publishing groups (market share almost 90%). The daily newspapers with the highest circulation are (in that order) “New Zealand Herald” in Auckland (founded in 1863), “Dominion Post” based in Wellington and “The Press” in Christchurch.
Three high-circulation weeklies are published in Auckland. The vast majority of the journals published in New Zealand are overseas acquisitions.
New Zealand’s largest news agency is the South Pacific News Service (SOPAC; founded 1948; based in Wellington). The New Zealand Press Association (NZPA; founded in 1880) was ousted by the media corporations and closed in 2011. In the same year, an Australian news agency began to expand in New Zealand.
Broadcasting: At the end of the 1980s, the liberalization of the previously state-dominated broadcasting sector began; restrictions on foreign ownership in New Zealand media companies have been lifted. As a result, the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand (BCNZ), which had been responsible for the administration of the country’s public broadcasting stations since 1962, was dissolved and replaced by Radio New Zealand (RNZ; headquarters in Wellington). At the same time, the NZ On Air Broadcasting Commission to finance eligible programs and the Broadcasting Standards Authority were created as an independent control body.
In addition to the two national broadcasters Radio New Zealand (public service) and The Radio Network (private; merged with New Zealand Media and Entertainment / NZME in 2014), there are around 150 local commercial radio stations. Since the first Māori station began broadcasting in Wellington in 1983, the indigenous population has been provided with programs tailored to their needs across the board. The state television broadcaster TVNZ maintains the free-to-air programs TV 1, TV2, TV Duke, TV Ondemand (via the Internet; which also offers children’s programs), TV 1 plus 1 and TV 2 + 1). The state-funded Māori Television has been on the air since 2004. There are also the nationwide private channels TV3 and Bravo (launched in 2016), the pay TV provider Sky and some local channels and regional providers of cable TV.
