Jim Anderton

James Patrick Anderton (born Byrne; 21 January 1938 – 7 January 2018) was a New Zealand politician who led a succession of left-wing parties after leaving the Labour Party in 1989.

Jim Anderton was born on 21 January 1938 in Auckland to Matthew Byrne and Joyce Savage.

His father left the family and his mother married Victor Anderton.

Matthew Byrne died in a train accident in 1946 and Victor Anderton adopted Jim in 1951.

Jim undertook all his education in Auckland, attending Seddon Memorial Technical College and the Auckland Teachers' Training College.

He graduated as a qualified teacher, but spent only two years in a teaching role (at St Peter's College, Auckland) before moving on to work as a child welfare officer in Wanganui.

In 1960, he married Joan Caulfield and they had five children, two girls and three boys.

The same year he became the paid organiser for the Catholic Youth Movement in the Catholic Diocese of Auckland, and later worked as the secretary for the Catholic diocese in Auckland.

Cardinal Reginald Delargey said that there were difficulties with Jim Anderton and his employment ended "when he put us in a position where we had to make a choice between him or the Pope".

Anderton joined the Labour Party in 1963 and first attended a Labour party branch meeting in Mangere in 1964.

Anderton's political career began when he was elected to the Manukau City Council in 1965.

After serving for five years as Labour Party president, Anderton successfully stood as the Labour candidate for Sydenham in Christchurch in.

However, he soon came into conflict with the party's leadership, and became an outspoken critic of the Fourth Labour Government's free-market reforms, called Rogernomics.

His political career began in 1965 when he was elected to the Manukau City Council on a Labour ticket.

Anderton later moved into business, working as an export manager for a textiles company before establishing a manufacturing company, Anderton Holdings, with his brother Brian in 1971 and also bought a superette in Parnell.

In 1971, he stood for the Auckland City Council as a Labour candidate unsuccessfully and was the highest polling un-elected Labour candidate.

Three years later, in 1974, he challenged Dove-Myer Robinson, the incumbent Mayor of Auckland City, for the mayoralty, but was beaten by 7,000 votes.

In the same local election, he also stood for the Auckland City Council and was successful.

David Lange, who also ran on the Labour ticket as a city councillor said "Like the other candidates, I contributed $50 to pay for an advertisement in the New Zealand Herald in support of the Labour ticket. When I opened the paper to look at our advertisement I saw a photograph of Jim Anderton and no mention of the other candidates. Here was a warning of much to come".

Anderton had another tilt at the Auckland City mayoralty in 1977, but was again beaten by the incumbent though he did manage to reduce Robinson's majority by nearly 1,500 votes.

Earlier in 1977 he was elected to the Auckland Regional Authority via a by-election and was confirmed a member at the 1977 local elections later that year despite again losing the mayoralty.

At the same time, he worked his way up the internal hierarchy of the Labour Party.

He became the party's president in 1979, a year before his term with the Auckland Regional Authority ended.

He was also a long-standing member of the party's policy council.

Despite briefly considering standing, he eventually declined the nomination, refusing to renege on the promise he made to members at the 1979 party conference that he would not stand for a parliamentary seat at, or before, the election.

Soon afterwards Anderton was also rumoured to be contemplating replacing the retiring Arthur Faulkner in the electorate, but after a hostile reaction to the notion in caucus Anderton was dissuaded from seeking the Roskill nomination.

Following the sudden death of Frank Rogers in 1980 there was intense press speculation that Anderton (who was the proprietor of a business situated in the electorate) would stand to replace him in the Onehunga by-election.

In the attempted leadership coup against Labour leader Bill Rowling in 1980 by his deputy, David Lange, Anderton was among those (such as party secretary John Wybrow) who sided with Rowling.

Following Labour's election loss there were serious discussions regarding the future of affiliated trade unions in the Labour Party.

Labour was frequently attacked for being the 'party of unions' (particularly by Muldoon) despite only 15% of unions being affiliated and providing just 8% of the annual party funds.

In February 1982 Rowling gave a speech at a Labour regional conference in Timaru where he suggested Labour should cut formal ties with trade unions, citing the party's public perception being too closely linked with unions and that there had been a large demographic shift in the membership from the working class to middle-class liberals.

Rowling was supported by his Shadow Minister for Labour, Fred Gerbic, and several leading union figures such as national secretary of the New Zealand Electrical and Related Trades Union Tony Neary and secretary of the Wellington Clothing Workers Union Frank Thorn who stated their belief that their affiliation fees were too high and offered little benefit in return.

Anderton and other unionists such as Jim Knox, the secretary of the New Zealand Federation of Labour, were opposed and argued for a continuing union presence in the party.

By March the debate heated up with Rowling and Gerbic publicly expressing another concern that some affiliated unions had members of other parties, in particular the Socialist Unity Party (SUP).

Anderton publicly disagreed with Rowling stating that the SUP had no influence in the Labour Party and that "The entire membership of the SUP could be written on the back of a postage stamp."

In April 1989, believing that Labour was beyond change, Anderton resigned from the party.

As leader of the Alliance and later the Progressive Party, he served as the 15th deputy prime minister of New Zealand in the Fifth Labour Government from 1999 to 2002 and as a senior minister in that government from 2002 to 2008.

In 2010, he ran unsuccessfully for the mayoralty of Christchurch.

Anderton retired from Parliament at the.

After his retirement, he and former MP Philip Burdon were the two prominent campaigners for the restoration of ChristChurch Cathedral.