David William Parker (born 1960) is a New Zealand lawyer, businessman and politician who has been a Labour Party Member of Parliament since 2002.
David Parker | |
---|---|
32nd Attorney-General of New Zealand | |
In office 26 October 2017 – 27 November 2023 | |
Prime Minister | Jacinda Ardern Chris Hipkins |
Preceded by | Chris Finlayson |
Succeeded by | Judith Collins |
In office 19 October 2005 – 20 March 2006 | |
Prime Minister | Helen Clark |
Preceded by | Michael Cullen |
Succeeded by | Michael Cullen |
16th Minister for the Environment | |
In office 26 October 2017 – 27 November 2023 | |
Prime Minister | Jacinda Ardern Chris Hipkins |
Preceded by | Nick Smith |
Succeeded by | Penny Simmonds |
12th Minister for Trade and Export Growth | |
In office 26 October 2017 – 6 November 2020 | |
Prime Minister | Jacinda Ardern |
Preceded by | Todd McClay |
Succeeded by | Damien O'Connor |
7th Minister for Economic Development | |
In office 26 October 2017 – 27 June 2019 | |
Prime Minister | Jacinda Ardern |
Preceded by | Simon Bridges |
Succeeded by | Phil Twyford |
Deputy Leader of the Opposition | |
In office 15 September 2013 – 30 September 2014 | |
Leader | David Cunliffe |
Preceded by | Grant Robertson |
Succeeded by | Annette King |
16th Deputy Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party | |
In office 15 September 2013 – 30 September 2014 | |
Leader | David Cunliffe |
Preceded by | Grant Robertson |
Succeeded by | Annette King |
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Labour Party list | |
Assumed office 17 September 2005 | |
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Otago | |
In office 27 July 2002 – 17 September 2005 | |
Preceded by | Gavan Herlihy |
Succeeded by | Jacqui Dean |
Personal details | |
Born | 1960 (age 63–64) Roxburgh, New Zealand |
Political party | Labour |
Children | 3[1] |
Alma mater | University of Otago |
Occupation | Lawyer |
Website | davidparker |
After a career in law and business, Parker entered Parliament by winning the marginal Otago electorate. He was Attorney-General of New Zealand and a senior Cabinet minister in the Sixth Labour Government, holding the posts of Minister for the Environment, Minister of Transport, Minister for Trade and Export Growth, Minister for Economic Development and Associate Minister of Finance between 2017 and 2023. Parker was also a Cabinet minister in the Fifth Labour Government and a senior figure in the Labour Party opposition between 2008 and 2017, including as deputy leader and interim leader between 2013 and 2014.
David Parker was born in Roxburgh to parents Joan (née Pinfold) and Francis Parker.[2][3][4] He is the second of four children and grew up in Dunedin, where he attended Otago Boys' High School.[5] He studied law and business at the University of Otago, graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws.[6] While still a student, he co-founded the Dunedin Community Law Centre.[7][8][9]
Parker has three children with his ex-wife, the poet Sue Wootton.[10] Since 2011, he has had a relationship with Barbara Ward, a sculptor and Labour Party activist.[11][12] He lives in Auckland and has a holiday home in Karitane.[13]
Before entering politics, Parker had a career in law and business. He was admitted as a barrister at the High Court in Dunedin on 1 December 1982.[14] His legal career began with general law followed by some time working as a duty solicitor and working in family and environmental law. He was then a resource management law specialist for the firm Anderson Lloyd, based in Queenstown, and a civil litigation specialist and managing partner for the same firm, based in Dunedin.[7]
Parker's business career began with a Dunedin café, the Percolator, which he co-owned and ran with his wife.[7][15] His Labour MP colleague Pete Hodgson said Parker's decision to leave legal practice and pursue other activities was because the high charges associated with civil litigation work conflicted with Parker's values.[15] Business ventures with Dunedin property developer Russell Hyslop in the late 1990s were unsuccessful and led to Hyslop's bankruptcy.[16] Parker was also involved in the unsuccessful restoration of Dunedin's St James Theatre.[7]
Parker was hired by entrepreneur Howard Paterson as a business manager for his agri-biotechnology ventures. Parker said one of his early roles was to identify commercial opportunities emerging out of universities and Crown Research Institutes and develop corporate structures for them.[7] Companies Parker was involved with, including as inaugural chief executive, included A2 Corporation, Blis Technologies, Botryzen and Pharmazen.[15][17][18][19]
Years | Term | Electorate | List | Party | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2002–2005 | 47th | Otago | 47 | Labour | |
2005–2008 | 48th | List | 37 | Labour | |
2008–2011 | 49th | List | 17 | Labour | |
2011–2014 | 50th | List | 4 | Labour | |
2014–2017 | 51st | List | 2 | Labour | |
2017–2020 | 52nd | List | 10 | Labour | |
2020–2023 | 53rd | List | 9 | Labour | |
2023–present | 53rd | List | 13 | Labour |
From about 1999, and spurred by his opposition to then government's energy reforms,[7] Parker began planning a political career and joined the Labour Party. He was chair of the Dunedin North electorate from 2001 and was selected as Labour candidate in Otago for the 2002 general election. Otago had previously been regarded as a safe National Party seat but was downgraded to marginal when National's support dropped ahead of the election.[20] Ranked an unwinnable 47th place on the party list, and himself not expecting to make it into Parliament, Parker won an upset victory over the incumbent, Gavan Herlihy, by 648 votes.[11][21] While he was unsuccessful in holding Otago against Jacqui Dean in 2005, it was said that Parker lost by a lesser margin than was expected.[15] He was defeated by Dean in the new Waitaki electorate in 2008.[22][23] After the breakdown of his marriage in 2010, Parker moved to Auckland where he has twice unsuccessfully contested the Epsom electorate, in 2011 and 2017.[24] Despite these electorate losses, Parker has been returned as a list MP in every election since 2005.[25][26][27][28][29][30]
Parker gave his maiden statement to Parliament on 3 September 2002. In his speech, he addressed infrastructure inaffordability in Queenstown and gave his support to the proposed ability of Queenstown-Lakes District Council to collect a visitor level to fund infrastructure improvements.[31] More than 20 years later, the levy remained only a proposal.[32] Parker's speech also outlined his early views on the economy. He said he supported waste minimisation efforts and suggested that energy consumption and resource depletion should be added to indicators of economic performance, in addition to gross domestic product (GDP). He criticised the governance of the Reserve Bank by Don Brash, saying that the late 1990s "marked the greatest mismanagement of the New Zealand economy" since the days of Sir Robert Muldoon. He further set out his views that the sale of rural land to non-residents should be controlled "very strict[ly]" and that overtime rates should be reintroduced as an incentive for employers to increase employment and decrease the size of the average working week for workers.[31]
Parker's parliamentary roles have centred around economic, environmental, and legal portfolios. In his first term, Parker sat on the finance and expenditure committee, the commerce committee, and the regulations review committee. He was promoted in March 2003 to be deputy chair of the local government and environment committee and in February 2005 to be deputy chair of the constitutional arrangements committee.[33][34] In his second term, he was transport, energy, and climate change minister, and briefly Attorney-General in Helen Clark's Fifth Labour Government (see § Minister in the Fifth Labour Government).
Labour was in Opposition from 2008 to 2017; Parker was a senior figure during the first six of those years. He was ranked fourth in caucus by leader Phil Goff, third by David Shearer, and second as deputy leader to David Cunliffe. He was shadow attorney-general under Goff, finance spokesperson under Shearer, and held both of those roles under Cunliffe. Parker was briefly interim leader after Labour's 2014 general election defeat.[35] He unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Labour Party leadership election and was demoted by incoming leader Andrew Little after refusing the finance portfolio,[36][37] but continued as shadow attorney-general and eventually became environment and foreign affairs spokesperson.
In opposition, Parker chaired the government administration committee from 2008 to 2011 and sat on the justice and electoral committee (2008–2011), finance and expenditure committee (2011–2014), regulations review committee (2014–2017; chair in 2017), local government and environment committee (2015–2017) and foreign affairs, defence and trade committee (2017). He was also a member of the parliamentary privileges committee from 2009 to 2023, including as deputy chair (2012–2017) and chair (2018–2023).[33]
In the Sixth Labour Government, Parker was reappointed as Attorney-General. Through the government's six years he was also Minister for the Environment and Associate Minister of Finance. He also held the offices of Minister for Economic Development and Minister for Trade and Export Growth in the government's first term and Minister for Oceans and Fisheries, Minister of Revenue, and Minister of Transport in the government's second term. After the government's defeat at the 2023 general election, he was reappointed chair of the regulations review committee and became Labour's shadow attorney-general and spokesperson on foreign affairs and electoral reform in the Shadow Cabinet of Chris Hipkins.[38]
Parker joined the Clark ministry in its third and final term. He was appointed Attorney-General, Minister of Transport, Minister of Energy, and Minister Responsible for Climate Change Issues on 19 October 2005. Parker's appointment as Attorney-General and "a de facto Minister of Infrastructure" in his second term, despite his Otago election defeat, was criticised by the National Party due to his apparent inexperience.[39]
Parker was Attorney-General for only 152 days, the shortest tenure of any Attorney-General since the 1920s. In his term, he elevated Noel Anderson to the Supreme Court and appointed William Young president of the Court of Appeal.[40][41]
In March 2006, Investigate magazine published allegations by Russell Hyslop that Parker had filed an incorrect declaration with the Companies Office regarding the property company Queens Park Mews Limited, the directors of which were Parker, Hyslop, and Parker's father.[16][42] Parker resigned as Attorney-General on 20 March and resigned from Cabinet the next day.[43] Hyslop's charge was that Parker had failed to consult him over the filing as required by law. An inquiry by the Companies Office cleared him of the charge of filing false returns, due to the fact that Hyslop had previously waived that requirement before declaring bankruptcy in 1997.[44] Clark described Parker as having pleaded guilty to something he was innocent of and reappointed him to Cabinet with the energy, climate change, and land information portfolios on 2 May 2006.[45] In July 2007 Clark appointed Parker as the acting Minister for the Environment following the resignation of David Benson-Pope.[18] Parker was promoted to Minister of State Services, and thirteenth in the Cabinet, on 5 November 2007.
As energy minister, Parker's priorities were energy supply and competition.[46] He reiterated New Zealand's commitment to being nuclear free.[47]
As climate change minister, Parker announced the cancellation of a proposed carbon tax, pursuant to a coalition agreement between Labour and New Zealand First.[48]
Following Labour's defeat in the 2008 general election, Parker became the Opposition spokesperson on Conservation, ACC and Shadow Attorney-General. On 15 June 2010, Opposition Leader Phil Goff appointed Parker to be Portfolio Spokesperson for Economic Development, a position formerly held by Shane Jones, and shifted the portfolio of Conservation to Chris Carter.[18]
Following the 2011 general election, Parker ran for the party leadership in 2011,[49] but withdrew part-way through the contest to support David Shearer's bid.[50] Parker then became the Labour spokesperson for Finance and the shadow Attorney-General (from February 2013).[18] From 17 September 2013, Parker was the deputy leader of the Labour Party. He retained his finance portfolio.[18]
Following the poor performance of the Labour Party in the 2014 general election, and the eventual resignation of David Cunliffe as leader, Parker was appointed interim leader of the Labour Party. He then unsuccessfully ran in the 2014 Labour Party leadership election and he came third in the leadership election behind Andrew Little and Grant Robertson.[51] Little offered for Parker to continue as finance spokesperson, but Parker declined.[36][37] Instead, Parker was assigned a range of portfolios including shadow attorney-general and spokesperson for trade and export growth, the environment and, after the resignations of former leaders Goff and Shearer, foreign affairs.[18]
Following the formation of the Labour-led coalition government, he was sworn in as Attorney-General, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for the Environment, and Minister for Trade and Export Growth. He also became Associate Minister of Finance.[52]
On 8 March 2018, as Trade Minister, Parker formally signed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership on behalf of New Zealand.[53]
In August 2018, Parker led the passage of the Overseas Investment Amendment Act 2018, that banned the sale of existing residential property in New Zealand to foreign buyers.[54]
In a June 2019 reshuffle, the economic development portfolio was reassigned to Phil Twyford. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said this was so that Parker could focus more on water quality and trade negotiations with the European Union and United Kingdom.[55]
In May 2020, as Attorney-General, Parker led the passage of the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020 through Parliament. This provided the legal framework for the Government's efforts to combat COVID-19. [56]
On 2 November, he was appointed as Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Minister for Oceans and Fisheries, Minister of Revenue and Associate Minister of Finance.[57]
As Environment Minister, Parker has launched a "comprehensive overhaul" of the Resource Management Act 1991.[58] On 14 November 2022, Parker introduced the Bill into Parliament alongside the companion Spatial Planning Bill.[59] The two bills are intended to replace the Resource Management Act 1991.
On 2 March 2023, Parker in his capacity as Environment Minister removed Rob Campbell from his positions as chair and board member of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) in response to Campbell's LinkedIn post criticising the National Party's opposition to the Government's Three Waters reform programme. Campbell's remarks violated the Public Service Commission's policy of political impartiality for civil servants. Campbell had earlier been dismissed as the chair of the national health service Te Whatu Ora (Health New Zealand).[60]
On 26 April 2023, Parker released research from the Inland Revenue Department that found New Zealand's wealthiest families pay less than half the amount of tax, across all forms of income, than most other New Zealanders. Parker said the "internationally ground-breaking research" revealed a "large differential between the tax rates ordinary New Zealanders pay on their full income compared with the super-wealthy".[61] On 18 May 2023, Parker introduced the Tax Principles Reporting Bill that proposes an ongoing reporting framework for fairness in the tax system.[62]
On 21 June 2023, Parker gained the Transport portfolio, upon the resignation of Michael Wood following several controversies around shares.[63] He replaced Kieran McAnulty, who was the temporary holder of the role following the original controversies around Auckland Airport shares held by Wood.
As part of an already planned reshuffle, Parker resigned his role as Revenue Minister on 25 July 2023 after Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, said Labour would not introduce a wealth tax.[64]
Following the formation of the National-led coalition government in late November 2023, Parker became Shadow Attorney General and spokesperson for foreign affairs and electoral reform
Parker is a liberal. He has been described as an "ardent progressive"[65] and once self-described himself as an "agent of progressive change."[66] He voted in support of civil unions in 2004 (the Civil Union Bill)[67] and gay marriage in 2013 (the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill).[68] He voted against legalising voluntary euthanasia in 2003,[69] but voted for the End of Life Choice Bill in 2019.[70] In 2019, he stated a personal view that the sale of fireworks should be limited to only the days around Matariki rather than Guy Fawkes Night.[71] He has also given his support to a four-year electoral cycle, rather than the current three-year cycle.[72]
In 2003, Parker supported a petition calling for the government to hold a royal commission of inquiry to review the case of Peter Ellis.[73] A parliamentary committee reviewed the petition and rejected the petitioners' call for a commission of inquiry, concluding that it was not practical to hold such an inquiry.[74] Ellis's case was eventually heard by the Supreme Court which found in his favour; in 2021, North & South argued that without Parker's 2019 appointment of Sir Joseph Williams to the court it is unlikely the case would have been successful.[65] In terms of the reach of the senior courts, Parker said that he is "concerned when judicial activism goes too far and amounts to lawmaking, which should be left to Parliament."[75] He co-authored the Labour Party policy, later the New Zealand Bill of Rights (Declarations of Inconsistency) Amendment Act 2022, which set out that when the Supreme Court finds a law to be inconsistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act that the issue be returned to Parliament.[72]
On 28 February 2022, Parker became the first New Zealand Member of Parliament to test positive for COVID-19.[76] He broke his leg in late 2023 and was unable to travel to Parliament to be sworn in; instead the Clerk of the House traveled to Dunedin to administer Parker's oath remotely.[13]