Country in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southeast of Australia, comprising two main islands, North Island and South Island, and other small islands. Government New Zealand is a multiparty liberal democracy with a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary executive. As in the UK, the constitution is the gradual product of legislation, much of it passed by the UK Parliament in London. The governor general represents the British monarch as formal head of state and appoints the prime minister, who chooses the cabinet. All ministers are drawn from and collectively responsible to the single-chamber legislature, the House of Representatives. This has 120 members elected by universal suffrage using, since 1996, a mixed-member proportional representation system, with 64 representing single-member constituencies, 49 from party-list seats, and 7 representing the Maori community. Each voter gets two votes: one for the local candidate and one for a political party (for the list seats). The house…