Parliament Buildings, Wellington, North Island, New Zealand (2024)

Parliament Buildings, Wellington, North Island, New Zealand, photograph # 1 – on Parliament Hill, dating back to the late 1800s, the newest addition to the Parliament Buildings is the “Beehive” (also known as the Executive Wing), an iconic executive office wing that opened in 1977

We had the opportunity to sign up online for a complimentary 70-minute tour of the New Zealand (NZ) Parliament Buildings.  As the photographs below show, we went through the three main buildings and saw the highlights of each building.  One interesting thing to understand about the NZ Parliament (we got a 10 minute introductory movie that explained a lot about the buildings and the process of making new laws in New Zeeland) is that the legislature is unicameral – that is, there is only one legislative body, not two (like the United States Congress with the House of Representatives and the Senate, or the United Kingdom with the House of Commons and the House of Lords).  In the NZ Parliament, there is only one chamber — the House of Representatives (the Lower House) — which, since 1951, is the only representative body in Parliament.  [Note that between 1853 and 1950, the NZ Parliament also had the Legislative Council (the Upper House) – a bicameral system.]  Also, the government works under a parliamentary system, with multiple competing parties; the government is formed by a coalition of the leading parties who then face the “opposition”.

“New Zealand Parliament Buildings (Mãoi: Ngā whare Paremata) house the New Zealand parliament and are on a 45,000 square metre site at the northern end of Lambton Quay, Wellington.  From north to south, they are the Parliamentary Library building (1899); the Edwardian neoclassical-style Parliament House (1922); the executive wing, called “The Beehive” (1977); and Bowen House (in use since 1991).  Currently, an additional building for housing Members of Parliament is under construction, which is expected to be completed in 2026.  Whilst most of the individual buildings are outstanding for different reasons, the overall setting that has been achieved ‘has little aesthetic or architectural coherence’.” — Wikipedia

Parliament Buildings, Wellington, North Island, New Zealand, photograph # 2 – a Select Committee’s (dealing with Mãori affairs) hearing room that was decorated in the Mãori-style – it is the one hearing room so decorated and is quite stunning

Parliament Buildings, Wellington, North Island, New Zealand, photograph # 3 – details of the Select Committee’s hearing room that was decorated in the Mãori-style

Parliament Buildings, Wellington, North Island, New Zealand, photograph # 4 – the oldest of the Parliament Buildings, the Parliamentary Library, standing to the north of Parliament House, was opened in 1899

“The [Parliamentary Library] was designed in Gothic Revival style and was fire resistant, being constructed of masonry.  The third story of the design was not built, to save money.  It had an iron fire-door separating the library from the main entrance section.  This saved the library from the fire of 1907, which destroyed the rest of the timber parliament buildings.   Along with Parliament House, the library was strengthened and refurbished in the 1990s. This included recreating Gothic elements of the roof including ironwork, turrets and finials.  It still houses Parliament’s library.  The building is registered with Heritage New Zealand.” — Wikipedia

Parliament Buildings, Wellington, North Island, New Zealand, photograph # 5 – a staircase in the Gothic Revival-style Parliamentary Library building (1899)

Interesting fact about voting (suffrage): New Zealand was the world’s first self-governing country to allow women to vote, passing legislation (the “Electoral Act”) in 1893 that opened voting to women in the country.  “In most other democracies – including Britain and the United States – women did not win the right to the vote until after the First World War.  New Zealand’s world leadership in women’s suffrage became a central part of our image as a trail-blazing ‘social laboratory’.  That achievement was the result of years of effort by suffrage campaigners, led by Kate Sheppard.  In 1891, 1892 and 1893 they compiled a series of massive petitions calling on Parliament to grant the vote to women.  In recent years Sheppard’s contribution to New Zealand’s history has been acknowledged on the [New Zealand] $10 note.” — https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/womens-suffrage

Parliament Buildings, Wellington, North Island, New Zealand, photograph # 6 – the Members’ reading room in the Gothic Revival-style Parliamentary Library building; the room was rebuilt as part of the refurbishment work in the 1990s

Parliament Buildings, Wellington, North Island, New Zealand, photograph # 7 – the old Parliament House was destroyed by fire in 1907; this newer Neoclassical stone building was still unfinished in 1918 when Parliament moved in; the building was completed in 1922

Parliament Buildings, Wellington, North Island, New Zealand, photograph # 8 – a former outdoor space between sections of the Parliament Building was refurbished as an interior space (through the addition of a glass roof) in the 1990s

Parliament Buildings, Wellington, North Island, New Zealand, photograph # 9 – a “peephole” view of the above new interior space in the Parliament Building [photograph # 7], from a window in the Parliamentary Library

Parliament Buildings, Wellington, North Island, New Zealand, photograph # 10 — the House of Representatives Debating Chamber in Parliament House; the government members sit on the left side of the photograph (to the right of the seated Speaker of the House of Representative, in the center of the chamber), with the opposition seated on the opposite side

Parliament Buildings, Wellington, North Island, New Zealand, photograph # 11 – the center seat for the Speaker of the House of Representative in the House of Representatives Debating Chamber in Parliament House

Parliament Buildings, Wellington, North Island, New Zealand, photograph # 12 – windows and wall decorations in the Banquet Ball of Parliament House

Parliament Buildings, Wellington, North Island, New Zealand, photograph # 13 – the Legislative Council room in Parliament House that was “retired” in 1951 when the NZ Parliament went unicameral and discontinued the Legislative Council

Parliament Buildings, Wellington, North Island, New Zealand, photograph # 14 – architectural details (elevator) in Parliament House

Parliament Buildings, Wellington, North Island, New Zealand, photograph # 15 — architectural details (skylight and stairs) in Parliament House

Legal Notices: All photographs copyright © 2024 by Richard C. Edwards.  All Rights Reserved Worldwide.  Permission to link to this blog post is granted for educational and non-commercial purposes only.