Editing Talk:New Zealand Parliament (section)

== Merge proposal ==

I'd like to suggest that the content of [[New Zealand House of Representatives]] be merged into [[New Zealand Parliament]]. It's unusual for unicameral parliaments to have one page for the chamber and a separate one for the Parliament (i.e. [[Folketing]], [[Althing]], [[Seimas]], [[Saeima]], etc.), and I think it's redundant for both to still exist. The infoboxes are practically identical and there is some overlapping content as well. A lot of the content on each page that isn't duplicated across both articles is actually relevant to both articles, such as the HoR page talking about the eligibility criteria to be an MP or the Parliament page's [[New Zealand Parliament#Term of Parliament|#Term of Parliament]] section. I don't see any reason why combining the content of the two pages would be an issue, and there are multiple issues with the current situation. <span style="text-shadow:5px 5px 25px Black;font-family:Courier;font-weight:bold;font-size:110%">[[User:GlowstoneUnknown|<span style="color:#f44">– GlowstoneUnknown</span>]] [[User talk:GlowstoneUnknown|<span style="color:#f9f">(Talk)</span>]]</span> 01:17, 11 March 2026 (UTC)

: '''Oppose''' - as the article notes, parliament is not just the HoR, and it was not always unicameral. Seperate articles allow material to be properly seperated, and some of it would simply be out of place on the HoR article.--[[User:IdiotSavant|IdiotSavant]] ([[User talk:IdiotSavant|talk]]) 01:35, 11 March 2026 (UTC)
::I'd like to point out that the [[Grand National Assembly of Turkey]], the [[Hellenic Parliament]], the [[Folketing]], and many more were also previously bicameral, but only one article exists in these instances, because the former lower house more or less became the sole chamber. Also, the article itself points out that "parliament" in New Zealand is often used to refer to solely the HoR (a potential argument that "Parliament" is the [[WP:COMMONNAME]]), and the only meaningful difference between the [[Parliament of New Zealand]] and the [[New Zealand House of Representatives]] is that the former also ''technically'' includes the monarch, but it also notes that the monarch doesn't participate in the legislative process in any way except for signing a bill into law, which makes the distinction very slight, and I don't see a reason why that couldn't theoretically be included on the HoR's page. Another point I've noticed is that both articles include a link to the same website as the "official website" for the body ([https://www.parliament.nz/ parliament.nz]). <span style="text-shadow:5px 5px 25px Black;font-family:Courier;font-weight:bold;font-size:110%">[[User:GlowstoneUnknown|<span style="color:#f44">– GlowstoneUnknown</span>]] [[User talk:GlowstoneUnknown|<span style="color:#f9f">(Talk)</span>]]</span> 01:54, 11 March 2026 (UTC)
:::Are you two discussing a merger to [[New Zealand Parliament]] or a merger to [[New Zealand House of Representatives]]? [[User:Nurg|Nurg]] ([[User talk:Nurg|talk]]) 08:23, 11 March 2026 (UTC)
::::The suggestion was to merge into [[New Zealand Parliament]], but i'm open to going either way, I just figured that NZP is a semanticly broader article name, so it makes more sense to merge the content into there. <span style="text-shadow:5px 5px 25px Black;font-family:Courier;font-weight:bold;font-size:110%">[[User:GlowstoneUnknown|<span style="color:#f44">– GlowstoneUnknown</span>]] [[User talk:GlowstoneUnknown|<span style="color:#f9f">(Talk)</span>]]</span> 08:26, 11 March 2026 (UTC)
:::::'''Support''' - If the content is merged into the [[New Zealand Parliament]] page, I am fully on board with that. For all intents and purposes, the Parliament solely refers to the House, and there is little reason to separate the content to a page for a unicameral chamber that ''used'' to not be analogous for the Parliament as a whole. The [[New Zealand Legislative Council|Legislative Council]] has its own page, which should be more than enough to document the existence of this formerly bicameral legislature which stopped being so almost a whole lifetime ago. [[User:Vereted|Vereted]] ([[User talk:Vereted|talk]]) 23:44, 12 March 2026 (UTC)
:'''Support''', as nominator, as Vereted said, there's already a page for the [[Legislative Council of New Zealand]], and common usage of the term "New Zealand Parliament" refers to the House alone, not the combined entity of the unicameral chamber and the monarch. I think it's pretty clear this falls under either [[WP:DUPLICATE]] or [[WP:OVERLAP]], as the scope of the two articles is almost identical, I don't understand the argument that because the chamber was previously bicameral that a separate article for the now-unicameral chamber should remain. <span style="text-shadow:5px 5px 25px Black;font-family:Courier;font-weight:bold;font-size:110%">[[User:GlowstoneUnknown|<span style="color:#f44">– GlowstoneUnknown</span>]] [[User talk:GlowstoneUnknown|<span style="color:#f9f">(Talk)</span>]]</span> 11:43, 16 March 2026 (UTC)
:'''Oppose'''. GlowstoneUnknown is right about some content being duplicated in both articles and that this is problematic. This is especially evident with NZHR content in the infobox for [[New Zealand Parliament]]. Work needs to be done on this aspect. However, I don't accept the argument that because the parliament is currently unicameral the articles should be merged. It has been unicameral for 75 years and was bicameral for about 96 years. To merge on the basis of its current status seems like a type of [[Wikipedia:Recentism|recentism]] to me. Besides, reintroducing a 2nd house is a current topic of discussion, e.g. [https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360963430/tentative-support-reviving-parliaments-upper-house-poll-finds], [https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/360967105/sir-geoffrey-palmer-constitutional-perils-new-upper-house]. The scope of the two articles is not identical and they are not duplicates. They do have overlap, but there is a degree of overlap in many cases of a higher-level topic and a subsidiary topic. It is true that "Parliament" is used with several different meanings – these include the debating chamber, and the whole Parliament House – but I don't see that as a reason to necessarily merge. The articles are about constitutional matters, and I feel that the constitutional distinction is important enough for there to be two articles, regardless of (or as a corrective to) the ambiguity that often occurs in the popular press. I am open to changing my mind, but I am not persuaded by the arguments presented so far. [[User:Nurg|Nurg]] ([[User talk:Nurg|talk]]) 11:24, 18 March 2026 (UTC)