United–Reform coalition Government of New Zealand

The United–Reform coalition government of New Zealand was the ministry that governed New Zealand from 1931 to 1935. It was New Zealand’s first coalition government outside of wartime, when Reform and Liberal had formed a National government in 1915 for that purpose.

The United–Reform Coalition was between two of the three major parties of the time, the United and Reform parties and was formed to deal with the Great Depression which began in 1929. The United Party had formerly been the Liberal Party. Despite having provided confidence support for the United Party in parliament between 1928 and 1931, the Labour Party refused to join the coalition government, as it believed that the only solution to the depression was socialism, which United and Reform did not support. Rather, they attempted to solve the country's economic problems by cutting public spending (austerity). This, the policy of making the unemployed do relief work for the unemployment benefit, and other cost-cutting policies, made the government the most unpopular of its era, and it was defeated in the 1935 election.