David Parker (New Zealand politician)

David William Parker (born 1960) is a New Zealand Labour Party politician who currently serves as Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Trade and Export Growth in the Sixth Labour Government. He previously served as a Cabinet Minister in the Fifth Labour Government and as interim Leader of the Labour Party from September to November 2014. He represented the Otago electorate at the 47th Parliament and has since served as a list MP.

The Honourable David Parker MP
Parker in 2020
31st Attorney-General of New Zealand
Incumbent
Assumed office 26 October 2017
Prime Minister	Jacinda Ardern
Preceded by	Chris Finlayson
In office 19 October 2005 – 20 March 2006
Prime Minister	Helen Clark
Preceded by	Michael Cullen
Succeeded by	Michael Cullen
15th Minister for the Environment
Incumbent
Assumed office 26 October 2017
Prime Minister	Jacinda Ardern
Preceded by	Nick Smith
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
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Labour Party list
Incumbent
Assumed office 2005
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Otago
In office 2002 – 2005
Preceded by	Gavan Herlihy
Succeeded by	Jacqui Dean
Personal details
Born	1960 (age 60–61) Roxburgh, New Zealand
Nationality	New Zealand
Political party	Labour
Children	3[1]
Alma mater	University of Otago
Occupation	Lawyer
Website	davidparker.co.nz

Before politics

David Parker was born in Roxburgh and grew up in Dunedin. He attended the University of Otago, studying law and business, and co-founded the Dunedin Community Law Centre.[2]

Before entering politics, Parker worked as a litigation partner in the law firm Anderson Lloyd Caudwell. He later had a business career in the agri-biotechnology field, including with Blis Technologies, where he was a manager.[3][4]

Member of Parliament

New Zealand Parliament
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–present	53rd	List	9	Labour

Parker first gained election to Parliament as a Labour member in the 2002 election, winning an upset victory over National's Gavan Herlihy in the Otago seat. In the 2005 election, the National candidate Jacqui Dean defeated him in his Otago electorate seat, but he returned to the House due to his position on the Labour list. In the 2008 general election Parker and Dean both stood in the resurrected Waitaki electorate, with Dean winning by over 11,000 votes.[5] Nevertheless, due to his list position he was still returned to parliament. In the 2011 election, Parker stood in the Epsom electorate, where he came third behind ACT New Zealand's John Banks and National's Paul Goldsmith, but was again returned as a list MP.[6] In the 2014 election, Parker did not contest an electorate, but was number two on the Labour list.[7]

Fifth Labour Government

During the Fifth Labour Government, Parker served as Attorney-General and Minister of Transport and Energy from 2005 until March 2006. He resigned his position as Attorney-General on 20 March 2006 after an allegation that he had filed an incorrect declaration with the Companies Office on behalf of the property company Queens Park Mews Limited. On 21 March Parker also resigned his place in Cabinet as Minister of Energy, Minister of Transport, and Minister Responsible for Climate Change Issues.[8] An inquiry by the Companies Office cleared him of the charge of filing false returns.[9]

Helen Clark, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, re-appointed Parker to the Energy and Climate Change portfolios and to the Land Information portfolio on 2 May 2006. (The Attorney-General portfolio remained with Michael Cullen, and Annette King took over Parker's former Transport portfolio.)

In July 2007 Clark appointed Parker as the acting Minister for the Environment following the resignation of David Benson-Pope.[10]

Opposition

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.

In 2011

Parker ran for the party leadership in 2011, but withdrew part-way through the contest to support David Shearer's bid.

Parker then became the Labour spokesperson for Finance and the shadow Attorney-General (from February 2013).

From 17 September 2013, Parker was the deputy leader of the Labour Party. He retained his finance portfolio.

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.[11] Little offered for Parker to continue as finance spokesperson, but Parker declined.[12] 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.

Sixth Labour Government

As Minister of Economic Development, Parker addresses the WTO Ministerial Conference in December 2017

During the 2017 general election, Parker was re-elected on the Labour Party list.[13] 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.[14]

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.[15]

As Environment Minister, Parker has launched a "comprehensive overhaul" of the Resource Management Act 1991.[16]

During the 2020 general election, Parker was re-elected on the Labour Party list.[17] 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.[18]

References

1. Small, Vernon (2 April 2011). "David Parker: MP who could be Labour's king". Stuff. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
2. "Candidate profile:David Parker". 3 News. 4 October 2011. Archived from the original on 24 February 2014. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
3. "About". Archived from the original on 7 November 2013. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
4. "Hon David Parker". New Zealand Parliament. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
5. Waitaki results 2008. Archived 11 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine
6. "Official Count Results – Epsom". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 15 December 2011.
7. "Labour List for the 2014 Election Announced" (Press release). New Zealand Labour Party. Scoop. 23 June 2014. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
8. "Parker quits all Cabinet posts". The New Zealand Herald. 21 March 2006.
9. Audrey Young (27 April 2006). "Parker heads back into the Cabinet". The New Zealand Herald.
10. Rt. Hon Helen Clark, 27 July 2007, Acting Ministers in portfolios, New Zealand Government Press Release, retrieved 25 November 2007.
11. Small, Vernon; Gulliver, Aimee (18 November 2014). "Andrew Little new Labour Party leader – by a whisker". Stuff. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
12. Young, Audrey (3 November 2017). "Grant Robertson: Finance Minister more than Dr No". The New Zealand Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
13. "2017 General Election - Official Result Successful Candidates". Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 17 January 2020. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
14. "Ministerial List". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
15. "Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's Cabinet reshuffle - the ups and downs". Stuff. 27 June 2019. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
16. Walls, Jason (24 July 2019). "Government wants to put a firmer focus on climate change when it shakes up the RMA". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
17. "2020 General Election and Referendums - Official Result Successful Candidates". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
18. "Ministerial List for Announcement on Monday" (PDF). Beehive.govt.nz. New Zealand Government. 2 November 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 November 2020. Retrieved 3 November 2020.

External links

• Official website
• MP biography