Aotearoa New Zealand is a small but wealthy country, geographically isolated in the southStudies. His work is funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Pacific, yet strongly interlinked economically, culturally, and militarily to other western settler states as well as to Western Europe. NZ may therefore seem an unlikely host for an electorally successful populist party, known for its disdain of identity politics and “wokeness”, its anti-elitism, and its dog-whistle politics against ethnic and religious minority communities, and more recently, Indigenous Māori. Yet New Zealand First (NZF) has played an important role in the electoral system since 1993, routinely taking a key role in coalition governments. The example of NZF problematizes the relationship between populism and democracy as it is often articulated in populism literature. Jan-Werner Müller in particular has argued that populism is by its nature opposed to pluralism. Yet, electorally successful populist parties can demonstrate their longevity by tactically embodying elements of both populism and pluralism. This chapter is substantially changed since its previous incarnation, as NZF is now in coalition with two other right of centre parties, which has resulted in a repositioning and re-presentation of many of their views and policies