Gerry Brownlee

Gerard Anthony Brownlee (born 4 February 1956 ) is a New Zealand politician and the 32nd speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives.

His uncle, Mark Brownlee, represented New Zealand in rowing at the Summer Olympic Games in 1964 and 1968, and his cousin Scott Brownlee (Mark's son), represented New Zealand in rowing at the Olympics in 1992, 1996, and 2000.

A Roman Catholic, he attended St Bede's College where he twice failed to gain University Entrance.

After leaving high school, he worked in his family's timber business and received training in carpentry.

Brownlee was born in Christchurch to Leo (a sawmiller, who died in 1989) and Mary Brownlee.

He is the eldest of five children.

After qualifying as a builder, he retrained as a teacher and taught woodwork, technical drawing and Māori, over a period of twelve years, at Ellesmere College, and at his alma mater, St Bede's. He stood as a candidate for the Canterbury Regional Council in 1992 on the Citizens' Association ticket, but was unsuccessful.

Brownlee first stood for National in the 1993 election, unsuccessfully contesting the Sydenham electorate against Jim Anderton, the Alliance leader.

He was first elected as a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives for Ilam in 1996, representing the National Party.

In the 1996 election he contested the nearby seat of Ilam, and won by a comfortable margin.

As a junior government MP from 1997 to 1999, Brownlee was a member of the education and science committee and the internal affairs and local government committee, and deputy chair of the social services committee.

He chaired the Accident Insurance Bill committee in 1998.

When National went into opposition in 1999, was appointed the party's new junior whip and spokesperson for ACC.

From 1999 to 2001, he was on the transport and industrial relations committee; in 2001, promoted to education spokesperson, he was on the education and science committee.

Brownlee received criticism during the 1999 election campaign when he ejected Neil Able, a 60-year-old Native Forest Action campaigner, from the National Party's 1999 election campaign launch.

The ejection took place with what many, including watching journalists, considered excessive force.

Neil Able started civil assault proceedings against Brownlee, seeking damages of $60,000.

Brownlee has held senior roles within the National Party since October 2001, when the new National leader Bill English appointed him shadow leader of the House, a position he continued to hold under subsequent leaders Don Brash and John Key.

Brownlee was the Leader of the House and a senior minister in the Fifth National Government, including Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Brownlee challenged the vacant deputy leadership of the National Party in 2001, but was defeated by Bill English.

English eventually succeeded to the leadership later that year.

In the English shadow cabinet, Brownlee was spokesperson for local government and energy, as well as shadow Leader of the House.

Before that his closest brush with defeat occurred in the 2002 election wherein he had a majority of 3,872 votes – 11.52%.

Brownlee stood as a list-only candidate in 2023, fuelling speculation he would be National's candidate for speaker should it win the election.

In 2002, a District Court judge found in favour of Able that Brownlee had "used excessive and unnecessary force on Abel when he tried to remove him from a staircase handrail".

Brownlee was ordered to pay Able $8,500 in damages.

Brownlee later sought unsuccessfully to have $48,000 of his legal fees reimbursed by the Government.

He was twice deputy leader of the National Party, first from November 2003 until November 2006 and again from July until November 2020.

As the longest continuously serving member of Parliament, Brownlee became Father of the House in October 2022.

He was also deputy leader to Brash from 2003 to 2006 and to Judith Collins in 2020.

Brownlee became Father of the House in October 2022, having the longest uninterrupted membership of the House of Representatives.

On 24 November 2023, prime minister-designate Christopher Luxon announced that Brownlee would be nominated to be Speaker of the House.

By 2003, Brownlee was seen by Labour Party MP Phil Goff and Scoop columnist Paulo Politico as a potential challenger to English's leadership.

English was eventually replaced as National Party leader by former Reserve Bank Governor Don Brash.

Brownlee was thought to be a possible deputy leader to Brash but declined to pursue the position, which went to Nick Smith.

Shortly after his election, however, Smith opted to take two weeks of stress leave, saying that the protracted leadership disputes had exhausted him.

He returned to the shadow House leadership from 2018 to 2020.

He became a list MP in 2020.

Brownlee was a senior member of the Fifth National Government, serving as Leader of the House, Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

He remained the MP for Ilam since that point until losing his seat in the 2020 election.