Editing New Zealand Labour Party (section)

==== General and special branches ====
Party membership is tied into geographically-based branches in each [[New Zealand electorates|parliamentary electorate]]. General branches must consist of at least 10 members aged 15 or over.<ref name="constitution2016">{{cite web|title=Constitution and Rules|url=http://www.elections.org.nz/sites/default/files/parties/rules/labour_party_constitution_2015.pdf|publisher=New Zealand Labour Party|access-date=13 June 2017|date=July 2016}}</ref> Members may also form special branches where they have a special community of interest (such as university students and academics, young people, women, Māori people, Pasifika, multicultural groups, people with disabilities, the [[Rainbow Labour|LGBT community]], and industrial workers).<ref name="constitution2016"/> Influential branches include [[Princes Street Labour]] (this Auckland university branch is described as the "ideological powerhouse of the party",<ref>{{cite web|title=Princes Street|url=http://www.younglabour.org.nz/princes_street|publisher=New Zealand Young Labour|access-date=13 June 2017|language=en}}</ref> and has contributed many prominent Labour politicians) and [[Vic Labour]] (the [[Victoria University of Wellington]] branch).<ref>{{cite web|title=VicLabour|url=http://www.younglabour.org.nz/viclabour|publisher=New Zealand Young Labour|access-date=13 June 2017|language=en}}</ref>

[[File:New Zealand Labour Party membership.png|thumb|upright=1.25|As this graph (compiled from multiple sources spanning 1917 to 2002) shows, the party's membership has fluctuated greatly, broadly in line with the terms of office of Labour governments]]
Membership figures are rarely released to the public. Full (non-affiliate) membership is known to have peaked at 55,000 in 1976. During the 1980s and 1990s, party membership plummeted to levels not seen since before the First Labour Government. This decline might be attributed to disillusionment on the part of some members with the economic policies of the Fourth Labour Government ("[[Rogernomics]]"). Membership figures began to recover under Helen Clark's leadership, with 14,000 members recorded in 2002.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last1=Peter|first1=Aimer|title=Labour Party – Ideology and the role of unions: Labour Party membership, 1917–2002|url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/graph/34047/labour-party-membership-1917-2002|encyclopedia=[[Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand]]|access-date=13 June 2017}}</ref>