Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives

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The Speaker of the House of Representatives, in New Zealand, refers to the individual who chairs the country's legislative body, technically known as the House of Representatives; but more generally known as Parliament. The Speaker also has a number of significant functions related to parliamentary matters.

The Speaker's most visible role is that of presiding over parliamentary sessions. This consists of overseeing the order in which business is conducted, and determining who should speak at what time. The Speaker is also responsible for granting or declining requests for certain events, such as a snap debate on a particular issue. The Speaker has certain powers available to ensure reasonable behavior by MPs, including the ability to remove disruptive MPs from the debating chamber. Also, the Speaker has a position at the front of Parliament, presiding over all other MPs (including the Prime Minister). The Speaker also makes rulings concerning affairs of parliament as a body (such as many of its dealings with the Governor-General), and administers the parliamentary complex itself.

The Speaker is always a Member of Parliament, and is elected by Parliament at the beginning of a parliamentary term. By convention, the Speaker is elected unopposed - any party able to form a government is presumably able to have its candidate installed as Speaker whether there is opposition or not. Historically, a Speaker lost the right to cast a vote, except when both sides were equally balanced. Now, however, the Speaker votes in the same way that any other MP does. In the past, the Speaker's lack of a vote created problems for a governing party - when the party's majority was small, the loss of the Speaker's vote could be problematic.

The Speaker is expected to conduct the functions of the office in a neutral manner, even though the Speaker is generally a member of the governing party. Only three people have held the office despite not being so. In 1923, Charles Statham (an independent, but formerly a member of the Reform Party) was backed by Reform so as not to endanger the party's slim majority, and later retained his position under the Liberal Party. In 1993, Peter Tapsell (a member of the Labour Party) was backed by the National Party for the same reason. William Barnard, who had been elected Speaker in 1936, resigned from the Labour Party in 1940 but managed to retain his position.

The current Speaker is Jonathan Hunt, a member of the governing Labour Party. There is also a Deputy Speaker (Anne Hartley, Labour) and two Assistant Speakers (Ross Robertson, Labour, and Clem Simich, National).

Twenty-six people have held the office of Speaker since the creation of Parliament. Two people have held the office on more than one separate occasion. A full list of Speakers is below.

	Name	Took Office	Left Office	Speaker's Party	Governing Party
1	Charles Clifford	1856	1860	None	None
2	David Monro	1861	1870	None	None
3	Dillon Bell	1871	1875	None	None
4	William Fitzherbert	1876	1879	None	None
5	George O'Rorke	1879	1890	None	None
6	William Steward	1891	1893	Liberal	Liberal
7	George O'Rorke, 2nd time	1894	1902	Liberal	Liberal
8	Arthur Guinness	1903	1913	Liberal	Liberal
9	Frederick Lang	1913	1922	Reform	Reform
10	Charles Statham	1923	1928	None	Reform
	Charles Statham, continued	1928	1935	None	Liberal
11	William Barnard	1936	1940	Labour	Labour
	William Barnard, continued	1940	1943	None	Labour
12	Frederick Schramm	1944	1946	Labour	Labour
13	Robert McKeen	1947	1950	Labour	Labour
14	Mathew Oram	1950	1957	National	National
15	Robert Macfarlane	1958	1960	Labour	Labour
16	Ronald Algie	1961	1966	National	National
17	Roy Jack	1967	1972	National	National
18	Alfred Allen	1972	1972	National	National
19	Stanley Whitehead	1973	1976	Labour	Labour
	Roy Jack, 2nd time	1976	1977	National	National
20	Richard Harrison	1978	1984	National	National
21	Basil Arthur	1984	1985	Labour	Labour
22	Gerard Wall	1985	1987	Labour	Labour
23	Kerry Burke	1987	1990	Labour	Labour
24	Robin Gray	1990	1993	National	National
25	Peter Tapsell	1993	1996	Labour	National
26	Doug Kidd	1996	1999	National	National
27	Jonathan Hunt	1999	(present)	Labour	Labour