Among commentators and Parliamentarians in both Britain and New Zealand, petitioning has been viewed as an ineffective means of influencing Government. Yet this opinion has never been verified with data on the outcome of petition campaigns. Such data was available to this study for petitions considered in New Zealand between 1969 and 1983. It was analysed and revealed that less than one in twelve petitions were actioned in any way. In addition it was found that none of the petition characteristics tested were significantly associated with the success of petitions. Similarly it was found that a petition's chances of success were not significantly affected by the way it was considered. Few variables changed appreciably over time. These findings are laid out in detail in chapters four and five, and are summarized at the start of the conclusion. The conclusion also contains a discussion of this study's limitations and a tentative exploration of two questions suggested by this study. Specifically, factors which may contribute to petition ineffectiveness, and to the continued popularity of petition organization despite their ineffectiveness, are suggested.

This thesis concerns an investigation of the tripartite arrangements between the government, the nursing and the medical sectors in New Zealand over the period 1984 to 2001 with a particular focus on primary health care. The start point is the commencement of the health reforms instituted by the Fourth New Zealand Labour Government of 1984. The thesis falls within a framework of critical inquiry, specifically, the methodology of depth hermeneutics (Thompson, 1990), a development of critical theory. The effects of political and economic policies and the methodologies of neo-liberal market reform are examined together with the concept of collaboration as an ideological symbolic form, typical of enterprise culture. The limitations of economic models such as public choice theory, agency theory and managerialism are examined from the point of view of government strategies and their effects on the relationships between the nursing and medical professions. The influence of American health care policies and their partial introduction into primary health care in New Zealand is traversed in some detail, together with the experiences of health reform in several other countries. Post election 1999, the thesis considers the effect of change of political direction consequent upon the election of a Labour Coalition government and concludes that the removal of the neo-liberal ethic by Labour may terminate entrepreneurial opportunities in the nursing profession. The thesis considers the effects of a change to Third Way political direction on national health care policy and on the medical and nursing professions. The data is derived from various texts and transcripts of interviews with 12 health professionals and health commentators. The histories and current relationships between the nursing and medical professions are examined in relation to their claims to be scientific discourses and it is argued that the issue of lack of recognition as a scientific discourse is at the root of nursing�s perceived inferiority to medicine. This is further expanded in a discussion at the end of the thesis where the structure of the two professions is compared and critiqued. A conclusion is drawn that a potential for action exists to remedy the deficient structure of nursing. The thesis argues that this is the major issue which maintains nursing in the primary sector in a perceived position of inferiority to medicine. The thesis also concludes that the role of government in this triangular relationship is one of manipulation to bring about necessary fundamental change in the delivery of health services at the lowest possible cost without materially strengthening the autonomy of the nursing or the medical professions.

Recent developments in Internet technology have opened up new doors for political campaigning and related news information with video and social networking applications. These have created new spaces that the voting public can politically participate in. This study explores the extent to which such participation takes place, in order to contribute to the wider question of whether changes in the media can rejuvenate a growing apathetic electorate that has become increasingly isolated from the more traditional methods of political participation (Putnam 2000). There are now many unanswered questions regarding how this new technology will play a role in influencing voter preferences and behaviour compared to other forms of traditional mass media. The exponential growth of Internet technology and its use means that the majority of literature written on the subject becomes time-bound leaving large gaps of research and analysis that needs to be done. This thesis examined the opportunities made available for political campaigning by the Internet and how widening political knowledge can ultimately influence Internet consumers at the voting booth. The research undertaken was a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis using participatory groups in a controlled environment. Participants consumed different forms of mass media and any significant changes in preferences and behaviour was noted. The overall hypothesis of this thesis is that the Internet does have an effect on potential voters by providing a wider and more in-depth look at politics that broadens political knowledge, leading to greater political participation.

This thesis concerns an investigation of the tripartite arrangements between the government, the nursing and the medical sectors in New Zealand over the period 1984 to 2001 with a particular focus on primary health care. The start point is the commencement of the health reforms instituted by the Fourth New Zealand Labour Government of 1984. The thesis falls within a framework of critical inquiry, specifically, the methodology of depth hermeneutics (Thompson, 1990), a development of critical theory. The effects of political and economic policies and the methodologies of neo-liberal market reform are examined together with the concept of collaboration as an ideological symbolic form, typical of enterprise culture. The limitations of economic models such as public choice theory, agency theory and managerialism are examined from the point of view of government strategies and their effects on the relationships between the nursing and medical professions. The influence of American health care policies and their partial introduction into primary health care in New Zealand is traversed in some detail, together with the experiences of health reform in several other countries. Post election 1999, the thesis considers the effect of change of political direction consequent upon the election of a Labour Coalition government and concludes that the removal of the neo-liberal ethic by Labour may terminate entrepreneurial opportunities in the nursing profession. The thesis considers the effects of a change to Third Way political direction on national health care policy and on the medical and nursing professions. The data is derived from various texts and transcripts of interviews with 12 health professionals and health commentators. The histories and current relationships between the nursing and medical professions are examined in relation to their claims to be scientific discourses and it is argued that the issue of lack of recognition as a scientific discourse is at the root of nursing�s perceived inferiority to medicine. This is further expanded in a discussion at the end of the thesis where the structure of the two professions is compared and critiqued. A conclusion is drawn that a potential for action exists to remedy the deficient structure of nursing. The thesis argues that this is the major issue which maintains nursing in the primary sector in a perceived position of inferiority to medicine. The thesis also concludes that the role of government in this triangular relationship is one of manipulation to bring about necessary fundamental change in the delivery of health services at the lowest possible cost without materially strengthening the autonomy of the nursing or the medical professions.

Throughout the Western democracies since 1945, many Socialist and Labour Parties have apparently emulated organisationally their more conservative and often more successful middle-class rivals and have experienced what L.D. Epstein has termed 'contagion from the right'. This thesis sets out to examine this proposition in relation to what happened between 1949 and 1970 to the New Zealand Labour Party, specifically in the twenty-two electorates which, at the time of the 1969 election, comprised the Auckland Region of the Party. Data was gathered by a variety of methods which included the use of four different questionnaires; interviews; correspondence with all the Labour Members of Parliament in the Region; exhaustive research into Head Office records, which included membership returns, annual financial statements from branches, correspondence files, Conference records, and N.Z. Executive minutes; detailed examination of branch minute books; the utilisation of the records of the Auckland Regional Council, the defunct Auckland Labour Representation Committee, and various electorate organisations; and field and participant observation. A variety of approaches was used also in processing and presenting the data: descriptive, quantitative, comparative, and deductive. Part I describes and analyses the quantitative and qualitative changes in structure, composition and functioning that took place between 1949 and 1970. Part II compares the white-collar with the manual-worker branches, members, and activists in 1969 and 1970, Throughout, there is an attempt to explain what caused the various changes and to suggest what happens to a Labour Party as its membership becomes more white-collar in composition. The Appendices, which are contained in a second volume, include detailed statistical tables and figures and copies of the four questionnaires. Volume II also contains the Bibliography. It was found that, in response to the changing realities of its social, economic, and political environment, the N.Z.L.P. had altered considerably in the period studied. The changes were not mimetic but organic. The society changed dramatically. The composition of the Party - first at the Parliamentary level and later at the primary level - inevitably and at first imperceptibly changed also. The white-collar proportion of the Labour Party's membership in the Region studied rose from 15 per cent in 1949 to 51 per cent in 1970. The Party at the grass-roots level functioned mare and more in ways related exclusively to winning elections and showed a declining concern with ancillary social and solidarity considerations. Membership, branch meeting activity, and fundraising at the branch level, all declined dramatically. Significantly, branch activity increased only in regard to Annual Conference participation. The changes in society, which led to a change in the composition and policies of the Party, in turn altered the ways in which the Party functioned. Subsequently reluctant recognition of those changes resulted in an increasingly conscious attempt to formally restructure the Party in the direction it was being carried. The major conclusion reached in this dissertation is that a political party, if the N.Z.L.P. can be taken as an example of a more general trend, is so inextricably interdependent with its social environment that significant changes in society must inevitably be reflected in the composition of the Party and in the ways in which the Party functions. Those changes in composition and functioning in part constitute and in part impel both attitudinal and organisational changes which amount to a continuing transformation of the Party itself to accord with the new social realities.

Throughout the Western democracies since 1945, many Socialist and Labour Parties have apparently emulated organisationally their more conservative and often more successful middle-class rivals and have experienced what L.D. Epstein has termed 'contagion from the right'. This thesis sets out to examine this proposition in relation to what happened between 1949 and 1970 to the New Zealand Labour Party, specifically in the twenty-two electorates which, at the time of the 1969 election, comprised the Auckland Region of the Party. Data was gathered by a variety of methods which included the use of four different questionnaires; interviews; correspondence with all the Labour Members of Parliament in the Region; exhaustive research into Head Office records, which included membership returns, annual financial statements from branches, correspondence files, Conference records, and N.Z. Executive minutes; detailed examination of branch minute books; the utilisation of the records of the Auckland Regional Council, the defunct Auckland Labour Representation Committee, and various electorate organisations; and field and participant observation. A variety of approaches was used also in processing and presenting the data: descriptive, quantitative, comparative, and deductive. Part I describes and analyses the quantitative and qualitative changes in structure, composition and functioning that took place between 1949 and 1970. Part II compares the white-collar with the manual-worker branches, members, and activists in 1969 and 1970, Throughout, there is an attempt to explain what caused the various changes and to suggest what happens to a Labour Party as its membership becomes more white-collar in composition. The Appendices, which are contained in a second volume, include detailed statistical tables and figures and copies of the four questionnaires. Volume II also contains the Bibliography. It was found that, in response to the changing realities of its social, economic, and political environment, the N.Z.L.P. had altered considerably in the period studied. The changes were not mimetic but organic. The society changed dramatically. The composition of the Party - first at the Parliamentary level and later at the primary level - inevitably and at first imperceptibly changed also. The white-collar proportion of the Labour Party's membership in the Region studied rose from 15 per cent in 1949 to 51 per cent in 1970. The Party at the grass-roots level functioned mare and more in ways related exclusively to winning elections and showed a declining concern with ancillary social and solidarity considerations. Membership, branch meeting activity, and fundraising at the branch level, all declined dramatically. Significantly, branch activity increased only in regard to Annual Conference participation. The changes in society, which led to a change in the composition and policies of the Party, in turn altered the ways in which the Party functioned. Subsequently reluctant recognition of those changes resulted in an increasingly conscious attempt to formally restructure the Party in the direction it was being carried. The major conclusion reached in this dissertation is that a political party, if the N.Z.L.P. can be taken as an example of a more general trend, is so inextricably interdependent with its social environment that significant changes in society must inevitably be reflected in the composition of the Party and in the ways in which the Party functions. Those changes in composition and functioning in part constitute and in part impel both attitudinal and organisational changes which amount to a continuing transformation of the Party itself to accord with the new social realities.

Throughout the Western democracies since 1945, many Socialist and Labour Parties have apparently emulated organisationally their more conservative and often more successful middle-class rivals and have experienced what L.D. Epstein has termed 'contagion from the right'. This thesis sets out to examine this proposition in relation to what happened between 1949 and 1970 to the New Zealand Labour Party, specifically in the twenty-two electorates which, at the time of the 1969 election, comprised the Auckland Region of the Party. Data was gathered by a variety of methods which included the use of four different questionnaires; interviews; correspondence with all the Labour Members of Parliament in the Region; exhaustive research into Head Office records, which included membership returns, annual financial statements from branches, correspondence files, Conference records, and N.Z. Executive minutes; detailed examination of branch minute books; the utilisation of the records of the Auckland Regional Council, the defunct Auckland Labour Representation Committee, and various electorate organisations; and field and participant observation. A variety of approaches was used also in processing and presenting the data: descriptive, quantitative, comparative, and deductive. Part I describes and analyses the quantitative and qualitative changes in structure, composition and functioning that took place between 1949 and 1970. Part II compares the white-collar with the manual-worker branches, members, and activists in 1969 and 1970, Throughout, there is an attempt to explain what caused the various changes and to suggest what happens to a Labour Party as its membership becomes more white-collar in composition. The Appendices, which are contained in a second volume, include detailed statistical tables and figures and copies of the four questionnaires. Volume II also contains the Bibliography. It was found that, in response to the changing realities of its social, economic, and political environment, the N.Z.L.P. had altered considerably in the period studied. The changes were not mimetic but organic. The society changed dramatically. The composition of the Party - first at the Parliamentary level and later at the primary level - inevitably and at first imperceptibly changed also. The white-collar proportion of the Labour Party's membership in the Region studied rose from 15 per cent in 1949 to 51 per cent in 1970. The Party at the grass-roots level functioned mare and more in ways related exclusively to winning elections and showed a declining concern with ancillary social and solidarity considerations. Membership, branch meeting activity, and fundraising at the branch level, all declined dramatically. Significantly, branch activity increased only in regard to Annual Conference participation. The changes in society, which led to a change in the composition and policies of the Party, in turn altered the ways in which the Party functioned. Subsequently reluctant recognition of those changes resulted in an increasingly conscious attempt to formally restructure the Party in the direction it was being carried. The major conclusion reached in this dissertation is that a political party, if the N.Z.L.P. can be taken as an example of a more general trend, is so inextricably interdependent with its social environment that significant changes in society must inevitably be reflected in the composition of the Party and in the ways in which the Party functions. Those changes in composition and functioning in part constitute and in part impel both attitudinal and organisational changes which amount to a continuing transformation of the Party itself to accord with the new social realities.

Throughout the Western democracies since 1945, many Socialist and Labour Parties have apparently emulated organisationally their more conservative and often more successful middle-class rivals and have experienced what L.D. Epstein has termed 'contagion from the right'. This thesis sets out to examine this proposition in relation to what happened between 1949 and 1970 to the New Zealand Labour Party, specifically in the twenty-two electorates which, at the time of the 1969 election, comprised the Auckland Region of the Party. Data was gathered by a variety of methods which included the use of four different questionnaires; interviews; correspondence with all the Labour Members of Parliament in the Region; exhaustive research into Head Office records, which included membership returns, annual financial statements from branches, correspondence files, Conference records, and N.Z. Executive minutes; detailed examination of branch minute books; the utilisation of the records of the Auckland Regional Council, the defunct Auckland Labour Representation Committee, and various electorate organisations; and field and participant observation. A variety of approaches was used also in processing and presenting the data: descriptive, quantitative, comparative, and deductive. Part I describes and analyses the quantitative and qualitative changes in structure, composition and functioning that took place between 1949 and 1970. Part II compares the white-collar with the manual-worker branches, members, and activists in 1969 and 1970, Throughout, there is an attempt to explain what caused the various changes and to suggest what happens to a Labour Party as its membership becomes more white-collar in composition. The Appendices, which are contained in a second volume, include detailed statistical tables and figures and copies of the four questionnaires. Volume II also contains the Bibliography. It was found that, in response to the changing realities of its social, economic, and political environment, the N.Z.L.P. had altered considerably in the period studied. The changes were not mimetic but organic. The society changed dramatically. The composition of the Party - first at the Parliamentary level and later at the primary level - inevitably and at first imperceptibly changed also. The white-collar proportion of the Labour Party's membership in the Region studied rose from 15 per cent in 1949 to 51 per cent in 1970. The Party at the grass-roots level functioned mare and more in ways related exclusively to winning elections and showed a declining concern with ancillary social and solidarity considerations. Membership, branch meeting activity, and fundraising at the branch level, all declined dramatically. Significantly, branch activity increased only in regard to Annual Conference participation. The changes in society, which led to a change in the composition and policies of the Party, in turn altered the ways in which the Party functioned. Subsequently reluctant recognition of those changes resulted in an increasingly conscious attempt to formally restructure the Party in the direction it was being carried. The major conclusion reached in this dissertation is that a political party, if the N.Z.L.P. can be taken as an example of a more general trend, is so inextricably interdependent with its social environment that significant changes in society must inevitably be reflected in the composition of the Party and in the ways in which the Party functions. Those changes in composition and functioning in part constitute and in part impel both attitudinal and organisational changes which amount to a continuing transformation of the Party itself to accord with the new social realities.

This thesis provides a narrative account of the development of the sector-neutral financial reporting standard FRS-37: Consolidating Investments in Subsidiaries, applicable to both government and the private sector in the New Zealand institutional setting. The protracted promulgation of this accounting standard over eight years is the research event of interest. New Zealand's overhauled Public Finance Act 1989 introduced a requirement for the Crown to produce accrual consolidated accounts prepared in accordance with GAAP. Consolidation GAAP was vague however and a preferential modified equity accounting method was used throughout the development period of FRS-37. This seemed contradictory to the sector-neutral GAAP stance since the method was not allowed in the private sector. After FRS-37 was approved the Crown was required to present financial reports incorporating its interests in State Owned Enterprises and Crown entities on a fully consolidated basis. Subsequently international developments in government accounting put the viability of so-called NZ GAAP into question. The research objective was to better understand what happened. The historical method of Porter (1981) is used to trace the changes shaping the event. This involved consideration of antecedent and subsequent conditions around the event as well as its internal development. The event of FRS-37 commenced in September 1993 following the establishment of the Accounting Standards Review Board by the Financial Reporting Act 1993 which necessitated the development of a sector-neutral consolidation standard for approval, and concluded around October 2001 when FRS-37 was approved. The comparative antecedent period commencing around 1985 indicated the contextual conditions leading into the event, and the subsequent period to 2006 following FRS-37's implementation showed changed conditions that confirmed the event's conclusion. The contribution of this thesis is that it documents the defined event and explains what happened, offering understanding of the issues around consolidation accounting, sector-neutral GAAP and public sector financial management.

This study began with the premise that looking at leadership in a different setting might generate new understanding of how leadership works. Only four women mayors had held office in New Zealand before the 1980s but when their numbers grew over the next two decades, there were signs of a difference in their approach to leadership. Although the amount of scholarly work published on leadership is vast, the body of academic literature on local government leadership is slender. The possibility of finding new knowledge about leadership by studying women mayors made them an intriguing area to research. The research sought answers to two questions: how do women mayors perceive exemplary mayoral leadership and explain their own leadership practice; and how do women mayors' views of leadership compare with leadership theory? The information gathered to assist in answering the research questions included: interviews with three mayoral candidates in the 1998 elections, interviews with 18 of the 19 female mayors in office during the 1998-2001 term, and a case study of Jill White, mayor of Palmerston North from 1998-2001. The case study comprised a series of interviews with Jill White during the three year term, a selection of newspaper stories about the mayor and council gathered during 1998-2001 and interviews with four key informants about Jill White's leadership after she lost the election in 2001. The findings of the research were that the research participants saw leadership as a process that took place working with the community to achieve mutually desired leadership goals. Leadership was not generated by a single person's abilities, nor was it automatically linked to a position such as being mayor, although being mayor gave a lot of opportunities to participate in and encourage leadership. Four areas participants considered to be requirements of exemplary mayoral leadership were: being at the centre of webs of people rather than at the top of a hierarchy having less concern for ego than for working towards change being committed to making a difference in the community and/or the council being prepared to sacrifice their own interests for the good of the community Comparing participants' views of leadership with leadership theory showed that their descriptions and examples of leadership were closely related to transforming leadership (Burns, 1979), whereas transactional leadership in the sense of acting in your own self-interest or trading favours with others, met with strong disapproval. The heroic paradigm of leadership that has been prevalent in the literature, with its focus on the leader, was absent from the participants' accounts. Their achievements came from working with others and they saw the ability to involve others in the leadership process as the strength of their leadership. The implication of these findings is that the focus in much of the literature on individual attributes of people in leadership positions, as if they had to 'do' all the leadership themselves, is misplaced. Being concerned to make a difference with and through others is at the core of leadership.