As of Thursday, New Zealand will not have a Parliament. It will get another one.
Parliament adjourned last week, and the final official step before an election can be held is dissolution, which is done entirely by order of the governor-general. Only the King of New Zealand or his representative can dissolve it.
Before every election, on the advice of the prime minister, the governor-general signs a proclamation ending the current Parliament. The governor-general also holds reserve powers that include dismissing a prime minister or forcing a dissolution at any time, though these have never been invoked in New Zealand.
What follows is an elaborate setpiece of old-fashioned ceremony, typically staged on the steps of Parliament. An official party gathers to hear the proclamation read by the Herald of Arms Extraordinary to the King, Phillip O'Shea, who has held the role since 1978 and is the only person ever to have held it.
"There's a bit of pomp and ceremony, which we don't do very often in New Zealand," said Clerk of the House of Parliament David Wilson.
Once the proclamation is read it is certified by three witnesses. One must be the Clerk of the House of Representatives; traditionally the other two are senior clerks. Karanga and waiata are also performed, first added to the ceremony in 2014.
Dissolution is followed by Writ Day on 4 October, when Governor-General Cindy Kiro issues formal direction to the Electoral Commission to hold the election on 7 November.
Members of Parliament remain members of Parliament through all of this, and Christopher Luxon remains prime minister. The government can still conduct business, though some decisions are held back, particularly significant appointments to public offices intended to last for years.
"Doing that now when there's a bit of uncertainty about the results of the election is something governments generally don't do," Wilson said. Kiro's own term was due to expire on 21 October and has been extended until March 2027 so as not to clash with the election.
The government does not formally become a caretaker government until after election day. The caretaker convention, now encoded in the Cabinet Manual, took shape after a constitutional clash in 1984 and sets out how power ought to be managed between administrations.
Pending bills lapse. "All of business lapses because the Parliament's come to an end," Wilson said. The next Parliament generally reinstates everything and decides later what to do with it.
Asked what happens if Parliament runs past its full three-year term, which is measured from the date fixed for the return of the writs, Wilson was candid. "That's never happened, and honestly, I'm not quite sure how we deal with that because the Parliament, you know, can't exist any longer. There's got to be an election."
It is worth being exact about what dissolution removes, because the list is shorter than the word suggests. The members are not dissolved. The prime minister is not dissolved. The Clerk is not dissolved, and indeed is required to certify the document. The building is not dissolved. The three senior clerks who witness the proclamation continue to be senior clerks of the thing the proclamation has just ended.
Wilson put the position with unusual clarity. "There's always a government. There's always a House of Representatives. It's just that it's not meeting as a Parliament for a while."
This newspaper accepts that account in full and draws the obvious conclusion from it. Every component of the institution survives the ceremony. Only the meeting does not. What is dissolved, therefore, is not Parliament but Parliament's diary.
The ceremony itself confirms this. A proclamation ending Parliament is read aloud on the steps of Parliament, certified by three officers of Parliament, and witnessed by members of Parliament, none of whom stop being any of those things at any point in the proceedings.
The Department of Unnecessary Research has therefore put a single question to the Office of the Clerk: whether a body whose membership, officers, premises and unfinished business all continue uninterrupted, and which is expected to reinstate that business when it returns, has in fact been dissolved, or has simply been asked to wait outside.