Skip to main content

Story: Political values

The Values Party

Two people in a city digging with shovels and a sack containing young trees on the ground beside them

Politics is usually considered to involve conflict over ‘interests’ – frequently linked to people’s economic position. However, the Values Party, founded in 1972, shortly before the November election, sought to shift voters’ attention towards ‘values’, offering an alternative, post-materialist and environmentalist approach. This was highlighted when two Values Party members attempted to plant a tree on empty land on an inner-city Wellington street.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Dominion Post Collection (PA-Group-00685)

Reference: EP/1977/2282

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page

Stephen Levine, Political values – Values and political change, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/36610/the-values-party (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Stephen Levine, published 29 May 2012.

Comments

Graeme Oliver
11 May 2017
Values Party please come back - Will some influential person please tell the current idiots in the National party that an extra 70K immigrants each year is not sustainable, not in NZ's long term interests and needs to stop immediately to preserve the way of life that Kiwis have now, before the values we love are destroyed by unsustainable growth.
Barry Thomas
10 May 2017
The people in this photograph are Terry McDavit and Judy Reinken. I think it was taken in late 1977 because I was partly inspired by it to create the work of art Vacant Lot of Cabbages in January 1978.
Tracie
20 August 2012
Location of this picture is the corner of Willis and Manners Streets, Wellington, where Duke's Arcade is now. The art deco building in the background is the Hotel St George - most famous for being where the Beatles stayed when they visited NZ in 1964 (http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/beatles/wellington ). You can also see St Mary of the Angels catholic church. A lovely iconic picture of Wellington.