Jonathan Hunt (New Zealand politician) (Redirected from Jonathan Lucas Hunt)

Jonathan Hunt
Jonathan Hunt in 2006, in the penthouse in New Zealand House, London
28th High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
In office
April 2005 – March 2008
Prime MinisterHelen Clark
Preceded byRussell Marshall
Succeeded byDerek Leask
26th Speaker of the House of Representatives
In office
20 December 1999 – 3 March 2005
Prime MinisterHelen Clark
Preceded byDoug Kidd
Succeeded byMargaret Wilson
16th Minister of Housing
In office
14 August 1989 – 2 November 1990
Prime MinisterGeoffrey Palmer
Mike Moore
Preceded byHelen Clark
Succeeded byJohn Luxton
27th Minister of Tourism
In office
10 January 1988 – 14 August 1989
Prime MinisterDavid Lange
Geoffrey Palmer
Preceded byHelen Clark
Succeeded byFran Wilde
3rd Leader of the House
In office
24 August 1987 – 2 November 1990
Prime MinisterDavid Lange
Geoffrey Palmer
Mike Moore
Preceded byGeoffrey Palmer
Succeeded byPaul East
50th Postmaster-General
In office
26 July 1984 – 24 August 1987
Prime MinisterDavid Lange
Preceded byRob Talbot
Succeeded byRichard Prebble
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for New Lynn
In office
26 November 1966 – 12 October 1996
Preceded byRex Mason
Succeeded byPhil Goff
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Labour party list
In office
12 October 1996 – 31 March 2005
Succeeded byLesley Soper
Personal details
Born
Jonathan Lucas Hunt

(1938-12-02) 2 December 1938 (age 84)
Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Political partyLabour
ProfessionHigh school teacher

Jonathan Lucas Hunt ONZ PC (born 2 December 1938) is a New Zealand politician, and was New Zealand's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2005 to March 2008. He formerly served as Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives. He is a member of the Labour Party, and was until his retirement in 2005 the longest-serving MP in Parliament. Hunt is a member of the Order of New Zealand, New Zealand's highest civilian honour. Hunt was given the nickname the "Minister for Wine and Cheese" after his well-known liking of the combo.

Early life

Hunt was born in Lower Hutt, but grew up in Palmerston North. He had a twin brother, David, who died four days after they were born. Hunt's father was a child welfare officer, reassigned to the Manawatu in 1942. Hunt was educated at Palmerston North Boys' High School and later Auckland Grammar School; later he enrolled at the University of Auckland, where he gained a BA (Hons) degree in history.

In 1958, Hunt was elected editor of the Auckland University Students' Association's (AUSA) Craccum magazine for the 1959 year. While at University Hunt is also credited with founding the Princes Street Labour branch. He was a 'radio quiz kid' and in 1963 he toured South-East Asia with a Rotary group of Young New Zealanders.

After graduating, Hunt became a History, English and Latin teacher from 1961 to 1966 at Kelston Boys High School in West Auckland where he also coached cricket. He was then a university tutor. Hunt also has a long-standing relationship with the Department of Political Studies at the University, which for many years has collected and archived Hunt's personal and professional papers. Hunt lived in Karekare on Auckland's west coast and he was well known for his passionate interest in the sport of cricket. He was the secretary of the Auckland Secondary Schools' Cricket Association.

Member of Parliament

New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate List Party
1966–1969 35th New Lynn Labour
1969–1972 36th New Lynn Labour
1972–1975 37th New Lynn Labour
1975–1978 38th New Lynn Labour
1978–1981 39th New Lynn Labour
1981–1984 40th New Lynn Labour
1984–1987 41st New Lynn Labour
1987–1990 42nd New Lynn Labour
1990–1993 43rd New Lynn Labour
1993–1996 44th New Lynn Labour
1996–1999 45th List 7 Labour
1999–2002 46th List 6 Labour
2002–2005 47th List 3 Labour

In 1966, Hunt was elected to Parliament in Auckland's New Lynn electorate replacing the retiring Rex Mason, whom Hunt was to later write a biography of in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. He remained MP for New Lynn until 1996, when he became a list MP after losing in Tamaki to National's Clem Simich. Hunt was returned twice more as a list MP; losing Waitakere to National's Brian Neeson in the 1999 election, and as a list-only candidate in the 2002 election.

In mid-January 1970, United States Vice President Spiro Agnew visited Wellington. Hunt along with several other Labour Members of Parliament including Bob Tizard, Arthur Faulkner, and Martyn Finlay boycotted the state dinner to protest American policy in Vietnam. However, other Labour MPs including Opposition Leader Norman Kirk attended the function which dealt with the Nixon Doctrine.

Hunt was appointed junior government whip upon Labour's victory in 1972 election. He was later promoted further in 1974 by Prime Minister Bill Rowling to the position of Chairman of Committees. As Chairman of Committees he had the responsibility of deputising for the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the 67 year old Stan Whitehead. Whitehead was in ill-health and Hunt acted on his behalf more than he had expected to. When Whitehead suffered a heart attack in the last parliamentary session of 1975 Hunt was nearly drafted to replace him as Speaker, though Whitehead was to make a recovery.

After the shock defeat of the Rowling government, Hunt was appointed to Rowling's shadow cabinet and designated as Shadow Minister of Health in 1976. He left the shadow cabinet, at his own request, in 1979 with the intention of setting himself up to become Speaker of the House should Labour win the next election. Labour did not win and in the next parliamentary term he was senior whip and Shadow Minister of Broadcasting.

Cabinet Minister

During the Fourth Labour Government he served as Postmaster-General, Minister of Broadcasting, Minister of Tourism and Minister of Housing. He had chaired the caucus committee on restructuring the broadcasting industry in 1973 which was uncompleted. However, on becoming Minister of Broadcasting in 1984 he stated the idea would not be resurrected but reaffirmed his intention to fulfil Labour's manifesto commitments to establish a Maori and Pacific Island radio station, ban commercials on the concert and national radio programmes and aiding the establishment of privately owned television stations. After the 1987 election the cabinet was reshuffled in which he lost the broadcasting and Postmaster-General portfolios and designated Leader of the House. This left him without a department to administer which saw his salary reduced by $19,200 per annum, leading to opposition leader Jim Bolger to label Hunt's position as "sinecure", much to Hunt's displeasure. He eventually was given extra portfolios of tourism, housing and broadcasting during the course of the term.

During the divisions of the Fourth Labour Government's second term Hunt generally supported Prime Minister David Lange over the finance minister Roger Douglas. In 1989, Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer nominated Hunt a member of the Privy Council in recognition of his long service to Parliament.

Upon the retirement of Sir Robert Muldoon, Hunt was the longest-serving member of Parliament between 1991 and 2005, earning him the unofficial title of 'Father of the House'. He assumed the title of 'father' to the delight of colleagues given his status as a lifelong bachelor.

In opposition again from 1990, Hunt was senior opposition whip, Shadow Leader of the House and Shadow Minister of Housing under leader Mike Moore. Hunt supported Helen Clark in her successful leadership bid against Moore, after which he remained senior whip and Shadow Leader of the House.

Speaker of the House of Representatives

He was elected Speaker unopposed when the fifth Labour government came to power in 1999. Hunt had previously served as Chairman of Committees from 1974 to 1975 which had since been rebranded as the Deputy-Speaker. Hunt became the eighth Chairman of Committees to later serve as Speaker. He retained his position following the election in 2002 serving in total as Speaker for six years from 1999–2005.

High Commissioner to the United Kingdom

In December 2004, it was announced that he would retire from politics and replace Russell Marshall as New Zealand High Commissioner in London, a move that had long been anticipated. He was replaced as Speaker by Margaret Wilson on 3 March 2005, and left Parliament on 30 March. As a list MP, his vacant parliamentary seat was filled by the next available candidate on the Labour Party list, Lesley Soper.

Some controversy arose in mid-2005, when recently after he arrived in London, Hunt was told publicly by the New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark that he could not apply for the U.K pension as it was not appropriate given his position of New Zealand High Commissioner and the fact that he was already collecting a New Zealand parliamentary pension.

On 21 November 2007 the New Zealand Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, announced that the next High Commissioner to London would be Derek Leask from March 2008.

Personal life

Hunt (right) and Australian cricket captain Allan Border in 1986.

Hunt is the patron of the University of Auckland Debating Society. He is a lifelong enthusiast for the sport of cricket and was an administrator for the sport for many years.

Honours

In 1977, Hunt was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal, and in 1990 he received the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal. In the 2005 New Year Honours, Hunt was appointed as a Member of the Order of New Zealand.

Documentary

Hunt was also the subject of a documentary, "Father of the House", directed by Simon Burgin and Xavier Forde, which was filmed in Wellington in 2005. The film was a finalist in the DocNZ film festival in the same year. It has also been regularly screened on the Documentary Channel on Sky Television since 2006.


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