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The 37th New Zealand Parliament was a term of the New Zealand Parliament. It was elected at the 1972 general election on 25 November of that year.
Contents
1972 general election
The 1972 general election was held on Saturday, 25 November. A total of 87 MPs were elected; 58 represented North Island electorates, 25 represented South Island electorates, and the remaining four represented Māori electorates; this was an increase in the number of MPs by three since the 1969 election, and the gain was all for the North Island. 1,583,256 voters were enrolled and the official turnout at the election was 89.1%.
Sessions
The 37th Parliament sat for three sessions, and was prorogued on 10 October 1975.
Ministries
The National Party, which had come to power at the 1960 election, was defeated by the Labour Party at the 1972 election. Norman Kirk formed the third Labour Government and led the Kirk Ministry until his sudden death on 31 August 1974. After Hugh Watt had been acting Prime Minister for the first few days of September 1974, Kirk was succeeded by Bill Rowling on 6 September. The Rowling Ministry lasted until the end of the parliamentary term, when the Labour Government was defeated by National in the 1975 election.
Initial composition of the 37th Parliament
The table below shows the results of the 1972 general election:
Key
National Labour Social Credit Independent
Table footnotes:
By-elections during 37th Parliament
There was one by-election held during the term of the 37th Parliament.