37th Parliament of New Zealand
← 36th Parliament 38th Parliament →
Parliament House, Wellington
Overview
Legislative body	New Zealand Parliament
Term	14 February 1973 – 10 October 1975
Election	1972 New Zealand general election
Government	Third Labour Government
House of Representatives
Members	87
Speaker of the House	Stanley Whitehead
Prime Minister	Bill Rowling — Hugh Watt (acting) until 6 September 1974 — Norman Kirk until 31 August 1974 †
Leader of the Opposition	Robert Muldoon — Jack Marshall until 9 July 1974
Sovereign
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Governor-General	Denis Blundell

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.

1972 general election

The 1972 general election was held on Saturday, 25 November.^[1] 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.^[2] 1,583,256 voters were enrolled and the official turnout at the election was 89.1%.^[1]

Sessions

The 37th Parliament sat for three sessions, and was prorogued on 10 October 1975.^[3]

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.^[4]

Overview of seats

The table below shows the number of MPs in each party following the 1972 election and at dissolution:

Notes

• The Working Government majority is calculated as all Government MPs less all other parties.

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:

Select committees

For the 37th Parliament, elected from the 1972 general election, there were the following select committees in the House of Representatives, as follows (Ministers of relevant portfolios are in bold):^[17]

By-elections during 37th Parliament

There was one by-election held during the term of the 37th Parliament.