Harry Duynhoven

Harry James Duynhoven (born 1955) is a New Zealand politician and member of the New Zealand Labour Party.

Duynhoven was born in New Plymouth on 22 June 1955.

He left Spotswood College at age sixteen to become an electrician, and eventually became a technical teacher at the collegiate and polytechnic level.

He was a Member of Parliament for the New Plymouth electorate from 1987–1990, from 1993–2003, and again from 2003–2008.

Duynhoven entered Parliament in the 1987 election, winning the New Plymouth seat from incumbent National Party MP, Tony Friedlander.

In the 1990 election, he lost the seat to National's John Armstrong, but won it back in the 1993 election.

In 1990, Duynhoven was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.

In 2003, Duynhoven raised with the Speaker of Parliament his status, and whether he might have breached electoral law, thus disqualifying him from retaining his seat.

The Speaker was responsible for determining whether a vacancy existed.

This matter arose after Duynhoven applied to resume his citizenship of the Netherlands.

His father was from the Netherlands, and Duynhoven had possessed citizenship from birth, but had temporarily lost it due to a change of Dutch law.

According to electoral law, applying for foreign citizenship would disqualify Duynhoven from retaining his seat.

The Speaker ruled on 23 July 2003 that Parliament's Privileges Committee, who were until 2002 responsible for determining whether a vacancy exists, would consider the matter, and that he would be guided by their report.

The Solicitor General advised the Privileges Committee that the law was clear, and that Duynhoven's seat became vacant on 11 June 2003.

The majority decision of the Privileges Committee was that Duynhoven was disqualified from holding his seat, and that it had accordingly been vacated.

However the government introduced an act retroactively amending the law, to allow Duynhoven to resume his seat.

Duynhoven served as a Minister outside Cabinet of Helen Clark's Labour Government with the portfolio of Associate Minister of Transport, and later, Minister for Transport Safety and Associate Minister of Energy until his government's defeat.

In the 2008 election he lost to New Zealand National Party candidate, Jonathan Young by 105 votes, the smallest margin in the election.

He did not stand as a party list candidate in the 2008 general election.

He was the mayor of the city of New Plymouth and surrounding districts from 2010–2013.

Duynhoven was elected as Mayor of New Plymouth in October 2010 but was defeated after serving a single term.

In October 2010, Duynhoven was elected Mayor of New Plymouth.

He was appointed a Companion of the Queen's Service Order in the 2012 New Year Honours, for services as a Member of Parliament.

Three years later, on 12 October 2013, Mr Duynhoven became the first New Plymouth mayor since Edward Hill in 1956 to be ousted after one term." He attributed his defeat at that election to being overshadowed by maverick councillor John McLeod.

McLeod, along with fellow councillor Len Houwers, resigned in late 2014.

On 11 January 2015, Duynhoven confirmed months of speculation that he would stand in the by-election to fill the vacancies.

Duynhoven said his decision to stand in the by-election came after receiving "a huge number of phone calls and visits from people asking me to stand."

Duynhoven was one of the two successful candidates.

He was elected as a councillor for the city ward of the New Plymouth District Council in a by-election, and was re-elected to that role and elected as a board member on Taranaki's district health board in 2016 and 2019.

He was re-elected in the 2016 local elections and the 2019 local elections.

In both of those elections, he was also elected to the Taranaki District Health Board.