United Future New Zealand
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United Future New Zealand
Rōpū United Future |
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|---|---|
 |
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| Leader | Peter Dunne |
| Secretary-General | Ron Garrod |
| Deputy Leader | Judy Turner |
| Founded | 2000 |
| Headquarters | Bowen House, Parliament Buildings, Wellington |
| Ideology |
Social liberalism Centrism |
| Political position | Centre |
| International affiliation | Liberal International |
| Colors | Purple and green |
| MPs in the House of Representatives |
1 / 121
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| Website | |
| www.unitedfuture.org.nz | |
United Future New Zealand, usually known as United Future, is a centrist political party in New Zealand. With the formation of the 50th New Zealand Parliament after the 2011 election, it had a single member of the New Zealand Parliament – party leader Peter Dunne, an electorate Member of Parliament (MP) – and it has signed a confidence and supply agreement with the National Party, making it, along with ACT and the Maori Party, a support partner to the minority National government. The result of the 2014 general election was much the same for United Future, with Peter Dunne remaining the only MP from his party. The Party has been in government since 2005 under Labour (2005-2008) and then National (since 2008).
United Future was formed from the merger of liberal centrist party United New Zealand and Christian-dominated conservative Future New Zealand to contest the 2002 election. United, formed as a centrist party by a group of moderate Labour and National MPs, held one seat in parliament—that of Dunne. Future New Zealand, which was not represented in parliament, was a "secularised" evolution of the Christian Democrats, following the same basic principles as the Christian Democrats, but abandoning the explicit religious connection.
United Future's first party president, Inky Tulloch, stated that "United Future isn't a Christian party – it's a political party that has a lot of Christians in it, and a lot of non-Christians." Tulloch said that the "universal principles of family, of common sense, of looking after one another, of compassion, integrity" are equally valuable to both Christians and non-Christians.
Support for United Future, which was already growing in early 2002, was boosted further by Peter Dunne's strong television debating performance and the public response to it. The uplift in United Future support during the last two weeks of the campaign caught many commentators by surprise and drew votes away from National, Labour and the Green parties, who were engaged in a public squabble over genetic engineering.
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