The New Zealand Representative Party was a political party in New Zealand. The party's leader was Reg Turner, a former candidate for the ACT Party as well as a former independent candidate.[1]
The party claimed to have no policies and to oppose traditional left-right politics.[2] Despite these claims, it also promoted populist referendums, deregulation, compulsory military service, "stopping the culture for young unmarried women to have babies", and restricting the welfare state.[2]
The NZRP believed that list MPs in New Zealand's mixed member proportional electoral system are not properly accountable to voters. As a result, it would run only electorate candidates, and promised to support the party chosen by the majority of the electorate.[2]
The party applied to register its logo with the Electoral Commission,[1] but the application was refused as the logo could confuse voters.[3]
The party ran only a single candidate, Turner in the 2008 election. Turner ran in the West Coast-Tasman electorate and received 62 votes (0.18%).
By 2010, the party's website was defunct. It did not run any candidates in the 2011 election. Turner continued to be involved in politics; in 2015 he was removed from Tasman District Council chambers by police and served a trespass notice after refusing to limit a submission to three minutes and refusing to leave,[4] and he stood for Tasman District Council in 2016 without success.[5]