David Shearer

David James Shearer (born 28 July 1957) is a New Zealand United Nations worker and politician.

From 1983 to 1987 he was a teacher at Massey High School and Onehunga High School.

Shearer has conducted various assignments with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Save the Children Fund, and the International Crisis Group, and is the author of numerous publications in the areas of humanitarian affairs and conflict resolution.

Between 1987 and 1989 he was a consultant for the Tainui Trust Board assisting with the preparation of its land claims to the Waitangi Tribunal.

In 1989 he was appointed as UN Co-ordinator for Humanitarian Operations in Africa and the Balkans and served as head of the Save the Children Fund in Rwanda, Somalia, Northern Iraq and Sri Lanka.

In 1992, Shearer was (together with his wife) named as New Zealander of the Year by The New Zealand Herald.

In 1995 he served as the Senior Humanitarian Affairs Adviser in Liberia.

From 1999 Shearer served in various UN posts including Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for the United Nations in Rwanda, Senior Humanitarian Adviser in Albania and Chief of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Belgrade.

Shearer left the United Nations to work as an adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Phil Goff for two years.

Before his election as a Member of Parliament Shearer had twice previously stood for the Labour party: in 1999 he stood as a list-only candidate and in 2002 he unsuccessfully contested the Whangārei electorate.

In 2002 Shearer returned to the United Nations, serving as a Senior Adviser to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

In February 2003 Shearer was appointed head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Jerusalem.

During the conflict in Lebanon in 2006 he served as the Humanitarian Coordinator organising assistance for civilians caught up in the conflict between Israel and Lebanon.

In 2007 Shearer was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as his Deputy Special Representative (Humanitarian, Reconstruction and Development) for Iraq.

While in Iraq, Shearer also served as the United Nations Resident Coordinator and the Humanitarian Coordinator.

In this role he was responsible for managing over $2 billion in aid for developmental projects for 16 different UN agencies.

He was a member of the New Zealand Parliament for the Labour Party from 2009 to 2016, serving as Leader of the Opposition from 2011 to 2013.

Shearer spent nearly 20 years working for the UN, managing the provision of aid to countries including Somalia, Rwanda, Liberia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Iraq.

On 13 June 2009 he won the Mount Albert by-election and entered the House of Representatives.

In May 2009 he returned to New Zealand and won the Labour Party nomination for Mount Albert against seven other candidates.

He then won the 2009 Mt Albert by-election on 13 June 2009 with 13,260 votes, a majority of 9,718 over National's Melissa Lee.

He was elected as leader of the Labour Party on 13 December 2011 but resigned on 15 September 2013, being succeeded by David Cunliffe.

Shearer extended his majority over Lee to 10,021 in the 2011 general election.

In December 2011, following the resignation of Phil Goff, Shearer contested for leadership of the Labour Party.

His opponents were David Cunliffe and David Parker.

Shearer was viewed as unlikely to win the election; Claire Trevett of The New Zealand Herald originally expected that only Cunliffe and Parker would run for the leader's role, and The Dominion Post Vernon Small wrote that "Mr Shearer's bid is seen as a way to lift his profile".

On 9 December, Horizon Research released a demographically weighted survey which found that 35.4% of adult New Zealanders supported Shearer's bid for the leadership, and 19.9% backed Cunliffe.

On 13 December, Shearer was elected by the Labour caucus.

Both One News ' Espiner and 3 News reported that Shearer received about twenty-two of the thirty-four votes for the leadership position; however, Party President Moira Coatsworth stipulated that the election was secret and that she was the only person who had access to the ballot papers, which were destroyed.

Grant Robertson won election as Shearer's deputy.

Political commentators opined that Shearer was moving the Labour Party towards the centre.

In March 2013 Shearer admitted he had not declared a US-based bank account in which he received his salary from the UN, saying he had simply forgotten about it.

In the 2014 general election, Shearer further extended his majority over Lee to 10,656.

Shearer resigned from Parliament in December 2016 and in 2017 was appointed to head the United Nations peace keeping mission in South Sudan.

in January 2021, he was succeeded in the role by Nicholas Haysom.

Shearer was born and brought up in the Auckland suburb of Papatoetoe.

He was the eldest of three children in a family of schoolteachers.

His father being a Presbyterian elder, he was a church-goer in his youth.

He attended Papatoetoe High School, where he was head boy and Phil Goff was a friend.

He graduated from the University of Auckland with a BSc and the University of Canterbury with a MSc (Hons) in Resource Management.