The following lists events that happened during 2006 in New Zealand.
Population Estimated population as of 31 December: 4,209,100 Increase since 31 December 2005: 48,200 (1.16%) Males per 100 Females: 95.8
Incumbents
Regal and viceregal Head of State – Elizabeth II Governor-General – Dame Silvia Cartwright, succeeded by Anand Satyanand
Government The 48th New Zealand Parliament continued. Government was a coalition between Labour and the Progressives, with United Future and New Zealand First supporting supply votes. The leaders of the two support parties are ministers outside Cabinet.
Speaker of the House – Margaret Wilson (Labour) Prime Minister – Helen Clark (Labour) Deputy Prime Minister – Michael Cullen (Labour) Minister of Finance – Michael Cullen (Labour)
Non-Labour ministers Jim Anderton (Progressives) (within Cabinet) Winston Peters (New Zealand First) – Minister of Foreign Affairs, Racing and Associate Minister of Senior Citizens (outside Cabinet) Peter Dunne (United Future), Minister of Revenue and Associate Minister of Health (outside Cabinet)
Parliamentary leaders National (opposition) – Don Brash to 27 November, John Key (Leader of the Opposition) Greens (opposition) – Jeanette Fitzsimons (to 2 June 2006) and Russel Norman Act (opposition) – Rodney Hide New Zealand First – Winston Peters United Future – Peter Dunne Māori Party (opposition) – Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples
Judiciary Chief Justice — Sian Elias
Main centre leaders Mayor of Auckland City – Dick Hubbard Mayor of Tauranga – Stuart Crosby Mayor of Hamilton – Michael Redman Mayor of Wellington – Kerry Prendergast Mayor of Christchurch – Garry Moore Mayor of Dunedin – Peter Chin
Events
January 1 January: Changes to New Zealand citizenship laws mean not all babies born in New Zealand have a right to be citizens. Babies must now have a parent who is a citizen or permanent resident of New Zealand or its dependencies. 2 January: New Zealand's warm sunny New Year weather has come to a sudden end as gale-force winds and rain assault southern New Zealand. (Wikinews) 7 January:The New Zealand Māori Queen, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, is undergoing dialysis treatment, the Tainui Tribe confirmed today. The Queen's condition is not believed to be critical. (Wikinews) 9 January: Electricity generator and retailer TrustPower announces that it is considering a wind farm development at Lake Mahinerangi, south of Dunedin. (Wikinews) 13 January: Winston Peters says there is no travel warning for New Zealanders visiting Fiji, although Australia has issued one, after the Fijian military commander threatened to remove the Government. 14 January:The Government announces a review of liquor advertising amidst concern over teenage binge drinking. The review was to consider regulating sponsorship of sport by alcohol companies. At the time, Lion Nathan said there was no need for change. 15 January: Review of David Lange's documents show that the United States threatened to spy on New Zealand if it did not back down from its 1980s anti-nuclear legislation.
February 1 February: Don Brash, the leader of the New Zealand National Party gave his third state of the nation speech to the Orewa Rotary Club where he focused on the economy. Wikinews 4 February: Two Fairfax-owned newspapers, The Dominion Post and The Christchurch Press, controversially published all 12 cartoons in the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, which have triggered international outrage. 5 February: Hundreds of NZ Muslims march in downtown Auckland in protest to the publication of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. Wikinews 5 February: NZ film director Lee Tamahori is arrested and formally charged with soliciting and unlawfully loitering on Hollywood's Santa Monica Boulevard, while dressed in drag. 6 February: The 166th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand's founding document, in 1840. This year the celebrations were peaceful, in contrast to other years where the day was the focus of protest by Māori activists. Wikinews 11 February: Tokelau began voting in a referendum to determine whether it remains a New Zealand territory, or becomes a state in free association with New Zealand. 12 February: The Royal New Zealand Navy's new 9000-tonne Multi-Role Vessel was launched in Rotterdam. The MRV is the largest of seven new ships ordered as part of "Project Protector". 14 February: Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton announced that a draft agreement had been reached with fishing companies to ban bottom trawling in 30 percent of New Zealand's exclusive economic zone. Anderton promised to support a global ban on bottom trawling if that appeared a practical option. 16 February: New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns, ONZM played his final international cricket match against the West Indies in a Twenty20 at Auckland's Eden Park. 16 February: Tokelau decides to remain a New Zealand territory after a referendum on independence. A 60 percent majority voted in favour of independence, but a two-thirds majority was required for the referendum to succeed. 20 February: Air New Zealand is set to lay off another 507 workers as it outsources its wide-body aircraft maintenance. A union proposal to save some of the jobs failed to win a worker vote. 23 February: Air New Zealand workers accepted a new employment package in a new vote. About 300 wide-body aircraft maintenance jobs will be saved in Auckland, although 200 will still be made redundant. 24 February:Air New Zealand announced that 470 corporate jobs, mostly in Auckland, would be axed over the next year.
March 6 March: Child Youth and Family merges with the Ministry of Social Development. Fairfax purchases the New Zealand online auction site Trade Me for NZ$625 million. The Banks Peninsula District merges with the Christchurch City Council. 7 March: The 2006 New Zealand census is held. For the first time, respondents had the option of completing their census form via the internet rather than by a printed form. 15 March: The 2006 Commonwealth Games opens in Melbourne. New Zealand is represented by 255 athletes, its largest team ever to a Commonwealth Games. 17 March: DoC starts an emergency evacuation of Raoul Island after one of the island's volcanoes erupts. One person was missing at the time of the evacuation, whose body was not recovered. 17 March: A report on Auckland traffic congestion suggests charges of $3–$6 for a vehicle to enter the Auckland isthmus, or a $10 surcharge on all parking in the CBD. 20 March: David Parker resigns as Attorney-General after publicity about an incorrect declaration he filed with the Companies Office. The following day he resigned from Cabinet. 25 March: Restaurant Brands, the franchise holder for KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks, have agreed to phase out youth rates. BP agreed to scrap youth rates earlier. 26 March: In the 2006 Commonwealth Games, New Zealand wins 31 medals, which puts it in 9th place. This is New Zealand's worst performance at a Commonwealth Games since 1982. 28 March: Farmers are unhappy with the new law that all dogs first registered after 1 July 2006 must be microchipped. They want farm dogs to be exempt, and have drawn a parallel to the Dog Tax War of 1898. 29 March: New Zealand's first reported case of ATM Card Skimming was found at BNZ New Lynn. 31 March: Assistant police commissioner Clinton Rickards and two former police officers are found not guilty of the alleged rape and sexual abuse of Louise Nicholas in Rotorua in the 1980s.
April 2 April: The Auckland City Council wins a Pigasus Award for granting $2500 to the Foundation For Spiritualist Mediums "to teach people to communicate with the dead". 3 April: It was announced that Judge Anand Satyanand has been appointed to succeed Dame Silvia Cartwright as The Queen's Governor-General of New Zealand. He will take up office on 4 August 2006. 6 April: The New Zealand Parliament passes an act making New Zealand Sign Language an official language of New Zealand. 6 April: Helen Clark and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao meet in Wellington and agree to aim for a Free Trade Agreement between New Zealand and China within two years. 7 April: Following acquittal of three men in the Louise Nicholas rape trial, pamphlets and emails about two of the defendants are widely circulated in defiance of previous court suppression orders. 10 April: Auckland rises to 5th place behind Zürich and Geneva in a survey of the world's top 55 cities for quality of life. Wellington places 12th. 19 April: The New Zealand Government is to send reinforcements to the Solomon Islands to support RAMSI following an outbreak of violence after the election of Snyder Rini as the new Prime Minister yesterday. 26 April: David Parker is cleared of any misconduct by the Companies Office. He was granted an exemption in 1999 from the rules he had fallen foul of. He is likely to be reinstated to the Cabinet next week. 27 April:The Electricity Commission has rejected Transpower's plan to build a line of power pylons from Auckland to Whakamaru. The plan had drawn protests from landowners along the route. 30 April: Following acquittal of three men in the Louise Nicholas rape trial, several hundred people marched up Queen Street, in support of Louise Nicholas.
May 1 May: Troubles continue at TVNZ, with leaked emails from Craig Boyce to Ian Fraser, referring to the Parliamentary select committee as "the bastards are our enemy". 3 May: The New Zealand Government announces that it will require Telecom to unbundle the local loop to provide "access to fast, competitively priced broadband internet". 13 May: The trawler Kotuku sinks in Foveaux Strait on the way back from muttonbirding. Of the nine people on board, including three generations of one family, only three survive. It is New Zealand's worst maritime disaster since the sinking of . 15 May: After 40 days of climbing, New Zealander Mark Inglis became the first double amputee to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world. 16 May: Michael Ryan, a messenger for the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet is named as the government employee who leaked the information to Telecom that the government is planning to "unbundle the local loop". 17 May: An attempt by the Green Party to repeal part of a controversial dog microchipping law was voted down 61–60. 18 May: Finance Minister Michael Cullen delivers the 2006 Budget. 24 May: The week-long festivities celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Māori Queen's coronation have ended. 25 May: The three men acquitted of rape in the Louise Nicholas trial now face a new trial for alleged sexual offences against another woman in the mid-1980s. 27 May: The Write4gold international graffiti art competition is held in New Zealand.
June 3 June: The Green Party elects Russel Norman as its co-leader to replace Rod Donald. 6 June: The trial of Tim Selwyn for sedition begins in Auckland. Selwyn is the first New Zealander in over 80 years to be charged with sedition. 7 June: The Privy Council agrees to hear David Bain's appeal against his conviction for the murder of his family. 8 June: Tim Selwyn is found guilty of sedition. 8 June: New Zealand has won hosting rights for the 2010 World Rowing Championships, which will be held at Lake Karapiro. 10 June: The family of Richard Seddon remember his death 100 years ago. 10 June: A Yemeni man, linked to the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States, has been deported from New Zealand. It is only the second time that section 72 of the Immigration Act has been used to deport someone. Its use requires the consent of the Governor-General, and there is no right of appeal. 12 June: A blackout hits Auckland, lasting for several hours and affecting an estimated 700,000 people. The cause was found to be an earth wire which snapped off in high winds and fell across high-voltage transmission lines at a substation.