Shipley regains control in NZ crisis

NEW ZEALAND'S political crisis ended yesterday when six MPs abandoned Winston Peters' NZ First party and pledged support to Prime Minister Jenny Shipley give a working majority of one seat in parliament.

The deal ended a week of turmoil which saw Mrs Shipley sack Mr Peters as Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer and the collapse of the centre- right National Party-NZ First coalition which had ruled since December 1996.

The NZ First defectors said they would back Mrs Shipley's conservative National Party government on votes of confidence and money supply.

Similar promises from other right-wing parties and independents should enable her to govern at least until early next year without calling an election.

NZ First, which was founded by Mr Peters in 1993 and went on to win the balance of power in the general election three years later, was left completely divided. Mr Peters, who precipitated the crisis when he led his NZ First ministers out of a cabinet meeting last Wednesday night, is now supported by only eight of the 16 MP colleagues elected with him in 1996. They will sit on the opposition benches.

Four of his ministers have left the party in the last two days. First to go was Customs Minister Tuariki Delamere, who on Monday urged colleagues to turn their backs on Mr Peters: "Going with Winston is a path of destruction."

Deborah Morris, Minister of Youth Affairs outside cabinet, quit the party and her portfolio early yesterday saying she could no longer live with the "perpetual sense of crisis" that surrounded NZ First and the coalition.

Five other NZ First MPs quit last night as the so-called coalition dispute committee, agreed the coalition had irrevocably broken down.