New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy with a democratic parliament. Queen Elizabeth is officially the Queen of New Zealand and is represented as head of state by the Governor General. The New Zealand Parliament (known as the Beehive) has only one chamber, the House of Representatives, which usually seats 120 Members of Parliament. General elections are held every three years under a form of proportional representation.

The current Prime Minister is John Key, the leader of the National Party. He has just entered his second term in office following a general election in 2011. They formed a minority government with the ACT Party, United Future and the Maori Party. The opposition parties are Labour, the Green Party and the Progressive Party.