Social Credit entered New Zealand’s parliament as a concept, a new approach to solving economic problems. English immigrant Harold Rushworth, MP for the Bay of Islands (1928-38), brought those new ideas with him from the UK. In 1935 the Social Credit Association helped the first Labour Government get elected. After 13 years of contesting elections in it’s own name, the Social Credit Party candidate Vern Cracknell won Northland’s Hobson seat (1966).
Party leader Bruce Beetham became the MP for Rangitiki in 1978, holding that seat for 6 years.
Social Credit won 20% of the votes in 1984 — but Gary Knapp and Neill Morrison were our only seats in Parliament! Eventually outrage at that injustice, plus Social Credit’s advocating, led to adopting MMP replacing First-Past-the-Post as the election system. (1993).
Policies well ahead of their time: We began advocating for proportional voting in 1972, it was finally adopted 21 years later.
Our 1978 call for an Nuclear-Free New Zealand was answered 9 years later by the Lange Labour government.
1973 saw our publication of YOU AND YOUR ENVIRONMENT, a green paper detailing how and why we needed to protect the environment. 17 years later The Green Party turned many of those ideas into their manifesto.
INDUSTRY AND PEOPLE was also published that year. It offered industry strategies to protect workers’ jobs while embracing technology. Those ideas are still waiting.
Under the name Democrats, we joined with New Labour, the Greens, Mana Motuhake and the Liberal Party as the ALLIANCE in 1991, opposing the neo-liberal policies of National and Labour. It was the first MMP election. Our members John Wright and Grant Gillion went to Parliament on the Alliance list, 1996-2002.
Candidates for Social Credit NZ (or Democrats for Social Credit) have presented Social Credit policies in every election up to 2023.
Members were students, young mothers, farmers, tradesmen, doctors, teachers, union members, musicians. “Social Crediters are rebels and radicals, intensely interested in questions of freedom, justice, peace, conservation, social welfare, job satisfaction and business ethics. They defined immorality as tyranny, exploitation, poverty, pollution and war.”* Some became MPs but most worked locally to make New Zealand a better place.
In 2023 we began a transition to a simpler structure and a new name – CoOperativeNZ – focused on inviting new generations of rebels and radicals to join us.
*A Commentary on Social Credit Financial Policy, Patricia Wojcik, 1975
