The Alliance is a left-wing political party in New Zealand. It was formed at the end of 1991 by the linking of four smaller parties. The Alliance positions itself as a democratic socialist alternative to the centre-left New Zealand Labour Party. It was influential throughout the 1990s, but suffered a major setback after its founder and leader, Jim Anderton, left the party in 2002, taking with him several of its members of parliament (MPs). After the remaining MPs lost their seats in the 2002 general election, some commentators predicted the demise of the party.
The Alliance stood candidates in the 2005 general election but won less than 1% of the party vote. It contested Auckland City Council elections under the City Vision banner, in concert with the New Zealand Labour Party and Green Party. The Alliance ran 15 electorate candidates and a total of 30 candidates on the party list in the 2008 general election, increasing its party vote marginally from that in 2005. It was deregistered at its own request in 2015, though the party never formally dissolved.
On 1 June 2025 the party announced its relaunch to stand a candidate in the 2025 New Zealand local elections. On 21 January 2026 the Alliance announced it will be standing electorate candidates across the country in the 2026 New Zealand general election. It was re-registered in August 2026.
History
Foundation The Alliance was formed at the end of 1991 as an alliance of four parties. The largest of the four was the NewLabour Party (not associated with the later New Labour movement in the UK), established by former Labour Party politician Jim Anderton. The oldest was the Democratic Party (originally known as the Social Credit Political League, and dedicated to Social Credit policies). The others were Mana Motuhake (a Māori party) and the Greens (an environmentalist party).
Until his departure from Labour in 1989, Anderton had been the most vocal Labour MP in his criticism of his party's new direction. Led by Roger Douglas, the Minister of Finance, Labour had adopted radical policies of economic liberalisation, free trade, and privatisation of state assets – sharply in contrast both with the party's background and its campaign promises. This was deeply unpopular both with a section of the public and with ordinary members, but Douglas and his allies, without effective constraint by Prime Minister David Lange, pressed on with the reforms. Anderton, despite heavy pressure from the party authorities, refused to vote in favour of the measures, and eventually quit the party. He contested the 1990 election under the banner of NewLabour, a party he quickly established. He successfully retained his electorate seat, becoming the first MP to leave a party and not lose their position in the next elections.
NewLabour, the Democrats, and Mana Motuhake, all of which opposed the platform set out by Douglas, gradually began to work together to fight their common political opposition. The Greens, who had policies and electoral support, but not party organisation, also took notice. Initially, this co-operation was limited, but expanded after a joint candidate was successful in an Auckland local-body election. In two concurrent by-elections on the Auckland Regional Council (ARC) in November 1991 the parties coalesced around a single candidate in each race; Bruce Jesson of NewLabour in the Panmure Ward and Ruth Norman from the Greens in the Glenfield Ward. Both were successful giving a huge boost in confidence and publicity to the incipient party.
Original Alliance logo
On 1 December 1991, NewLabour, the Greens, the Democrats, and Mana Motuhake formally agreed to establish the Alliance as an official party. This established the three original pillars of Alliance policy – left-wing economics (represented by NewLabour and the Democrats), environmentalism (represented by the Greens), and Māori issues (represented by Mana Motuhake).
Shortly after the official establishment of the Alliance, a small splinter group from the National Party applied to join. This group, known as the Liberal Party (not to be confused with the original Liberal Party), consisted of two former National Party MPs who were disillusioned with the continuation of Douglas's policies by National's Ruth Richardson. The Liberals became the fifth member of the Alliance in June 1992. The addition of the two Liberal MPs (Gilbert Myles and Hamish MacIntyre) together with Anderton gave the party more of a presence in parliament. Later at the Alliance's inaugural party conference in November 1992 Anderton was officially confirmed as party leader and members elected Sandra Lee of Mana Motuhake and Jeanette Fitzsimons from the Greens as co-deputy leaders.
There were also discussions regarding the Alliance's links with Winston Peters, a former National MP who founded the New Zealand First party. Peters was also opposed to the economic reforms being undertaken, was hostile towards big business, and claimed to support ordinary New Zealanders, but was also highly conservative in his social policies. In particular, his views on immigration were incompatible with the Alliance's belief in multiculturalism. There were also problems regarding who would lead any merged entity – both the Alliance's Anderton and New Zealand First's Peters were well regarded for standing up to their old parties, leaving it unclear which of them should be senior. (Some have also claimed that neither Anderton nor Peters would accept being ranked second – both politicians are sometimes accused by their critics of being egotistical and controlling). Regardless of the reason, the Alliance and New Zealand First did not move together. As a result, Myles and several other top figures in the Liberal Party left the Alliance and joined with New Zealand First instead.
Early electoral performance In 1992, the Alliance contested a by-election in the electorate of Tamaki. The former stronghold of Robert Muldoon, a former National Party prime minister, Tamaki was not regarded as an easy run for the Alliance. It was, therefore, surprising when the Alliance nearly took the seat off National after going to first place in several polls. The Alliance candidate, Chris Leitch of the Democrats, finished a close second behind National's Clem Simich, pushing Labour into third place.
In February 1992 the Alliance won a third by-election on the ARC when Mike Lee of NewLabour won the Auckland Central Ward giving the party further momentum. Later that year, the Alliance made further gains in the 1992 local-body elections campaigning on a platform of halting the sale of public utilities. After a strong campaign the party gained control of the ARC's services trust and was able to cease sales. These two performances helped establish the Alliance as a significant threat to the major parties.
In the 1993 election, the Alliance gained 18% of the vote. However, the electoral system meant that the party only won two seats – one delivered by Jim Anderton, and the other by Sandra Lee in Auckland. Occurring at the same time as this election, however, was the referendum which introduced the mixed-member proportional (MMP) representation electoral system, making it much easier for smaller parties to get representation. The Alliance was a strong supporter of this change.
In 1994, Jim Anderton left the leadership of the Alliance, citing family reasons. Sandra Lee was placed in charge of the party. Later, however, Anderton was persuaded to return, and resumed the leadership.
Under MMP In the 1996 election, the Alliance gained 10% of the vote. Under the new electoral system, this secured the party thirteen MPs. New Zealand First, however, had obtained seventeen MPs, and held the balance of power between Labour and National. Eventually, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters opted to form a coalition with National, leaving both Labour and the Alliance in opposition.
The Labour Party, now led by Helen Clark, had moved away from the policies of Roger Douglas — both Douglas and his strongest supporter, Richard Prebble, had left Labour to found the ACT party, and Clark's more traditional faction had taken over. This allowed a gradual reconciliation between Labour and the Alliance, a process assisted by the impression that lack of cooperation had cost both parties support. Eventually, this led to an agreement between the two parties in 1998, with both sides agreeing to cooperate in forming a government should election results allow it.
In 1997, the Greens decided that they would leave the Alliance at the next election, believing that they could perform better individually. However, MP Philida Bunkle left the Greens to remain with the Alliance. Other developments in the Alliance's makeup included the formal dissolution of both the NewLabour Party and the Liberal Party, with their members becoming members of the Alliance as a whole rather than of any specific constituent party. This left the Democrats and Mana Motuhake as the only parts of the Alliance with distinct identities.
In the 1999 election, the Alliance gained around 8% of the vote, giving it ten seats. This, combined with Labour's forty-nine seats and some support from the Greens, was enough to form a coalition government. Jim Anderton became Deputy Prime Minister, and three other Alliance MPs gained positions in Cabinet. The Alliance claims to have made a number of significant achievements while in government, citing (among other things) the creation of the Ministry of Economic Development, the lifting of the minimum wage, a change in funding systems for schools, and abolition of market rents for state housing. The party also claims to have exerted an important general influence over other governmental decisions. 2003 Alliance logo
Split Towards the end of the parliamentary term, however, internal tensions began to grow within the Alliance. This was partly driven by the party's low poll ratings, which were often blamed on perceived "subservience" to Labour. In particular, many members of the party organisation were less willing to support Labour than the party's MPs were, leading to a rift between parliamentary leader Anderton and party president Matt McCarten.
On 3 April 2002, Anderton and Lee announced they would not stand for the Alliance in the next general election. However, rules regarding changes of party allegiance meant that Anderton and his allies could not officially resign from the Alliance without also resigning from parliament, leading to the awkward situation of Anderton and his allies technically remaining part of the Alliance while actually operating outside of it.
Anderton, along with the Democrats (with MPs Grant Gillon and John Wright) and Matt Robson (formerly of NewLabour), established the Progressive Coalition Party (later just the Progressive Party). Laila Harré became the leader of the remaining Alliance, supported by MPs Willie Jackson and Liz Gordon. The rest of Mana Motuhake also stayed with the Alliance. The remaining three MPs (Bunkle and Lee supporting Anderton and Kevin Campbell supporting Harré) decided not to stand for parliament again. Labour was largely successful in avoiding being drawn into the dispute. The conflict within the Alliance was one of the reasons cited by Helen Clark for her calling the election several months early in 2002.
Decline