George Gair

George Frederick Gair (13 October 1926 – 17 August 2015) was a New Zealand politician.

He was once deputy leader of the National Party in the New Zealand Parliament, and was considered by many to be a possible contender for the leadership itself.

He was known for his polite and diplomatic style, which often contrasted with the political situation around him – Michael Laws described him as "a refugee from the age of manners."

Gair was born in Dunedin, but moved to Wellington when young.

He was a graduate of Victoria University and University of Auckland.

He worked as a journalist at The New Zealand Herald from 1945 to 1947 then travelled to Japan before moving to Melbourne where he worked for The Sun News-Pictorial from 1949 to 1950 before returning to New Zealand after accepting a position at the Auckland Star between 1950 and 1952.

Gair married Esther Mary Fay Levy in about 1950, and the couple went on to have three children, including make-up artist and body painter Joanne Gair.

From 1952 to 1957 Gair was a public relations officer in Auckland.

He also became involved in the organisational wing of the National Party, and briefly served on the parliamentary staff of Keith Holyoake from 1958 to 1960.

From 1960 to 1966 he was the personal assistant to the general manager of Air New Zealand.

He was an organiser for the National Party in the Onehunga and Roskill electorates.

He then became the deputy chairman of National's Auckland division and a dominion councillor of the party.

Gair first stood for the National Party nomination for the Remuera electorate in the 1966 election, losing the nomination to Allan Highet.

Gair then went across the bridge and contested and won the North Shore nomination from retiring National MP Dean Eyre.

He was successful, and was elected to Parliament that year.

In 1969 he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of Education and Science.

In Parliament, Gair came to be regarded as a competent and diligent administrator.

These beliefs were especially noticeable when, in the late 1970s, Gair opposed measures to restrict abortion.

Barry Gustafson, in his history of the National Party, called Gair "the most effective strategist of the parliamentary pro-abortion lobby".

Gair's support of abortion earned him the hostility of many National Party colleagues, including that of the party's leader, Robert Muldoon.

Muldoon was already somewhat distrustful of Gair, as Gair had occasionally been spoken of as an alternative party leader.

The political styles of Muldoon and Gair were radically different – Muldoon had a reputation as being tough and confrontational, while Gair was seen as polite and diplomatic.

Some members of the party who disliked Muldoon's "dictatorial" style saw Gair as a possible alternative.

He briefly became Minister of Customs in 1972 at the end of the Second National government, but this was interrupted when National lost the 1972 election to the Labour Party under Norman Kirk.

After National's defeat party leader Jack Marshall appointed Gair as Shadow Minister of Customs.

Gair had supported Marshall for the leadership and liked him on a personal level, however by early 1974 had come to the belief that National would have a better chance of winning the next election under the then deputy leader Robert Muldoon.

In the lead up to a leadership spill Gair advised Marshall that Muldoon had the numbers to win which led Marshall to retire from the leadership and not contest the leadership ballot.

When National was returned to power in the 1975 election, Gair was returned to cabinet in the Third National government.

In 1980, when a number of party dissidents began to plot against Muldoon's leadership, Gair was on the list of potential replacements.

However, Gair was regarded as too liberal to gain majority support within the party.

The dissidents eventually decided to encourage Brian Talboys, the party's deputy leader, to make a leadership bid (now called the "Colonels' Coup").

Gair was not involved in planning this bid, but was supportive of it, and worked hard to convince Talboys that a challenge was a good idea.

In the end, however, Talboys bailed out, and the coup collapsed without a vote ever being taken.

Gair continued to advocate a challenge, but Talboys was adamant that preserving party unity was more important than curbing Muldoon's damaging leadership style.

Later, after Talboys had retired from politics, Gair supported another Muldoon opponent, Derek Quigley, to replace Talboys as deputy leader.

Between that time and National's defeat in the 1984 election, Gair held a number of challenging portfolios, including serving as Minister of Health and Minister of Social Welfare.

He also served as Minister of Housing, Minister of Energy, Minister of Transport, Minister of Railways and a number of other roles.

Gair also distinguished himself for some of his personal views.

Gair, although a member of the country's main conservative party, generally adopted a "live and let live" approach to social and moral issues, rejecting what he saw as "intolerance" in some of his colleagues.

When Muldoon became leader he promoted Gair from 13th to 6th in the caucus rankings and switched him from Customs to Shadow Minister of Housing instead.