'World's oldest democracy' marks 150 years of Parliament

1.00pm

Speaker Jonathan Hunt today described New Zealand as the world's oldest democracy as he attended a ceremony to mark 150 years since the first meeting of Parliament.

The first session was in central Auckland on May 24, 1854, on premises at the corner of Parliament St and Anzac Ave, behind the present High Court building.

In front of about 150 people, including present and former MPs, Mr Hunt and Auckland Mayor John Banks, a former cabinet minister, unveiled a plaque to mark the occasion.

Mr Hunt described as entirely appropriate the celebration of "the world's oldest democracy", words he said he chose deliberately.

He said New Zealand in 1893 became the first country to give women the vote, having given its indigenous people representation in Parliament 23 years earlier.

"And when we first established our Parliament in 1854, we had a remarkably generous franchise," he said.

"Indeed we moved to universal franchise well ahead of other countries.

"It is not known by many that, in the United Kingdom, they didn't have universal male and female franchise until the 1950 general election."

Parliament sat for only a decade in Auckland and Mr Hunt said the move to Wellington was inevitable, but he hoped the anniversary would be marked every 50 years.

He said there had been plans at one stage to hold today's sitting in Auckland, but that would have needed a law change.

"Unfortunately, there is an act of Parliament that says every sitting of Parliament has to be Wellington, so we would have had to change the act.

Meanwhile, Mr Banks said the first meeting of "a group of colonial gentlemen" 150 years ago was recorded by history as having been "all chaos".

He noted that, at the centenary celebrations 50 years ago, many of the MPs who attended were visiting Auckland for the first time.

"Times have indeed changed, but the significance of this site and of May 24, 1854, remains."

- NZPA