Jonathan Hunt (New Zealand politician)

Jonathan Lucas Hunt (2 December 1938 – 8 March 2024) was a New Zealand politician and diplomat.

He started a 38-year parliamentary career as the Baby of the House and retired as Father of the House.

During that tenure, he was Speaker of the House of Representatives.

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.

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 had 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.

He was a 'radio quiz kid' and in 1963 he toured South-East Asia with a Rotary group of Young New Zealanders.

In 1966 at age 27, Hunt was offered to replace the retiring Rex Mason in Auckland's New Lynn electorate.

This being a safe Labour electorate, Hunt was effectively given a seat in parliament, and he became the Baby of the House as the only MP still in their 20s.

Hunt was to later write a biography of Mason for the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.

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.

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.

He had chaired the caucus committee on restructuring the broadcasting industry in 1973 which was uncompleted.

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.

Hunt was a contributor to major parliamentary reforms which saw Parliamentary Service and the Office of the Clerk of the New Zealand House of Representatives were separated.

After the shock defeat of the Rowling government in the 1975 general election, 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.

During the Fourth Labour Government he served as Postmaster-General, Minister of Broadcasting, Minister of Tourism and Minister of Housing.

On becoming Minister of Broadcasting in 1984, he said the idea would not be resurrected but reaffirmed his intention to fulfil Labour's manifesto 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.

Hunt worked on the Adult Adoption Information Act 1985, which enabled adults who were adopted as children to find out who their birth parents were as well as allowing birth mothers to learn about their adopted adult children.

In the Tourism portfolio he was deeply involved with restructuring New Zealand's wine industry, which laid the foundation for New Zealand's global reputation for good quality wine.

As Postmaster-General the New Zealand Post Office was heavily affected by the government's free-market reforms.

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 to National's Brian Neeson in the and as a list-only candidate in the.

Afterwards, he served as New Zealand's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2005 to March 2008.

He was a member of the Order of New Zealand, New Zealand's highest civilian honour, and given the nickname "Minister for Wine and Cheese" for enjoying those items.

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.