[13] Support for United Future, which was already growing in early 2002, was boosted further by Peter Dunne's strong television debating performance and the public response to it.

The uplift in United Future support during the last two weeks of the campaign caught many commentators by surprise and drew votes away from National, Labour and the Green parties, who were engaged in a public squabble over genetic engineering.

The party faced a minor embarrassment after the election, however, when it was discovered that one of its list MPs, Kelly Chal, was not a New Zealand citizen, and thus ineligible to stand for parliament.

[15] After 2002 United Future in its family law reform proposals took to heart the trauma and adverse impact on children caused by the separation of their parents.

United Future MP Judy Turner made clear that then current government policies were failing in regard to keeping both parents in children's lives, and to this extent made a huge effort in promoting a member's bill on mandatory mediation by means of a national roll-out of the North Shore Family Court "Children in the Middle" pilot programme.

A month before the September 2005 election, list MP Paul Adams quit the party to stand as an independent in the East Coast Bays electorate.

During 2004–2005, the National Party had made renewed efforts to attract social conservative voters, through adoption of anti-abortion and anti-same-sex marriage voting records.

[citation needed] Following the 2005 election, New Zealand First and United Future entered into a confidence and supply agreement with Labour, under which Dunne became Minister of Revenue, outside Cabinet.

Outdoor Recreation acting chairman Phil Hoare said, "We strongly believe in the traditional bedrock values of our nation's heritage but we also affirm the separation of church and state.

From February to April 2007, Peter Dunne exercised his own right to a conscience vote to support Sue Bradford's private members bill against parental corporal punishment of children, while Gordon Copeland vigorously opposed it, as did Judy Turner, but on a more subtle level.

[18] On 16 May 2007, Copeland resigned from the party due to his dissatisfaction with Dunne's support for the aforementioned private members bill, although Turner did not follow suit.

He retained his parliamentary seat of Ohariu-Belmont, but United Future did not poll sufficiently highly to bring additional caucus members into Parliament.

The agreement included provisions barring the sale of Kiwibank or Radio New Zealand, and public consultation on United Future's flexible superannuation policy.

[28] It was subsequently reported that United Future was encountering difficulties over its re-registration, related to the need to acquire printed proof of sufficient membership, although Party President Robin Gunston had supplied the Electoral Commission with copies of traceable economic transactions associated with the influx of new members.

[29] On 16 June 2013 the Electoral Commission noted that United Future had provided the aforementioned spreadsheet record, which contained names and details of putative party members.

This occurred after New Zealand Labour Party MP Trevor Mallard contacted the New Zealand Attorney-General over the current legal status of United Future[31] On 8 July 2013 Dunne stated that his party had now been able to enrol sufficient members to satisfy the Electoral Commission's random sampling techniques, although he also noted that the process of evaluation and re-enrolment would take six to eight weeks.

[12] On 21 August 2017, leader and MP Peter Dunne announced that he was quitting politics at the election, citing recent polling and his perception that there was a mood for change in his seat of Ōhāriu.