WIN Party
political party
The WIN Party was a small political party in New Zealand.
It was founded by a group of publicans and bar-owners who objected to the government's ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, introduced in December 2004. WIN's slogan was "Freedom of Choice", and the party said that it was fighting a growing trend in which "the average Kiwi ... is being told more and more what they can and can't do". According to the party's leaders, opposition to the smoking ban was the party's primary campaign plank, but other related issues were also given attention.
WIN's leader was John van Buren, a publican from the Banks Peninsula area. Geoff Mulvihill, a publican from Timaru, was the deputy leader. Both van Buren and Mulvihill have been accused by the Ministry of Health of not enforcing the smoking ban, as required by law. Mulvihill is known for supporting freedom of choice for his patrons, having once lost his liquor licence for operating around the clock prior to the legislation of 24-hour trading. The party had been given official registration, but chose not to field candidates in the 2005 elections.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7950815. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2004 and 2005.
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This entry incorporates text from “WIN Party” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.