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Electoral Act 1993

The House of Representatives - Qualifications of candidates and members

53: Members disqualified from being State servants

You could also call this:

"MPs can't work as State servants at the same time"

Illustration for Electoral Act 1993

If you are a State servant and you get elected as a member of Parliament, you will have to leave your job as a State servant. The term State servant is defined in section 52(1). You will stop being a State servant as soon as you are declared elected.

If someone complains about your election and a court decides you should not have been elected, you might be able to get your old job back as a State servant. You will have to write to your old employer within a month to say you want your job back. If you get your job back, it will be like you never left, but you will not get paid for the time you were not working.

When you get your job back, you might not get the exact same position you had before. Your employer will try to give you a job that is similar to your old one. The time you were not working will still count towards your overall work time and any superannuation scheme you belong to, as long as you pay your contributions.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM308526.

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Government and voting > ElectionsWork and jobs > Worker rights
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Part 3The House of Representatives
Qualifications of candidates and members

53Members disqualified from being State servants

  1. In this section, the term State servant has the meaning given to it by section 52(1).

  2. If any State servant is elected as a member of Parliament, he or she shall forthwith on being declared so elected, be deemed, subject to subsections (3) to (6), to have vacated his or her office as a State servant.

  3. Where a person who has been declared elected as the result of a poll is not the person declared elected on an amended declaration of the result of that poll or where, at the conclusion of the trial of an election petition, the High Court or Court of Appeal determines that the person whose election or return was complained of was not duly elected or returned or that the election at which that person was elected or returned was void, that person,—

  4. if he or she was a State servant when he or she was declared to be elected; and
    1. if by written election, given to his or her former employer within 1 month after the amended declaration or the determination of the High Court or Court of Appeal, he or she elects to be reinstated in his or her former office as a State servant,—
        1. he or she shall, on the date on which his or her election is so given to his or her employer, be deemed, subject to subsections (4) to (6), to have been reinstated in his or her office as a State servant.

      1. Nothing in this section shall entitle any person who is reinstated in office as a State servant to receive any salary or other remuneration as a State servant in respect of the period or any part of the period beginning on the day after the date on which he or she vacated office under subsection (2) and ending with the day before the date on which he or she resumed office under subsection (3).

      2. Where the position that the person held at the date on which he or she vacated office has been filled or where that position no longer exists, that person shall, on his or her reinstatement, be employed, where practicable and at the discretion of his or her employer, in a position that involves duties and responsibilities which are the same or substantially the same as those of the position held at the time of vacation of office.

      3. Subject to subsection (4), where a person is reinstated in office under this section,—

      4. his or her service, for the purpose of any rights and benefits that are conditional on unbroken service, shall not be broken by the period of vacation of office; and
        1. the period of vacation of office shall count—
          1. as time served under his or her contract of employment; and
            1. subject to payment of his or her contributions, as service for the purpose of any superannuation scheme to which he or she belongs in his or her capacity as a State servant.