Mel Courtney

Melvyn Francis Courtney (born 2 October 1943) is a Nelson City Councillor and a former Labour then Independent Member of Parliament for Nelson, in the South Island of New Zealand.

Courtney was born in Christchurch on 2 October 1943, the son of Clifford Francis and Joyce Elizabeth Courtney.

He grew up in the suburb of Spreydon, and was educated at Christchurch Technical College.

His family wished to get a state house, but faced constant rejection from state housing officials.

They went to local MP Mabel Howard who helped them to be accepted.

His father had problems with alcohol and eventually left the family.

As a 14-year old he got an after-school job at a grocery store leaving school at 16 to work at the store full time before shifting to work at a supermarket.

He studied business administration and trained in the grocery industry in Christchurch.

Courtney was the vice-chairman of the Labour Representation Committee and organised campaigns in the electorate for Mabel Howard and later Norman Kirk in the 1960s.

He noticed firsthand Howard's cognitive decline stating: "She was past her best. She didn't know who I was. She kept thinking I was a newspaper reporter."

As the campaign began Howard was clearly ill and Courtney, as a member of her campaign committee, ensured she was assisted at public appearances.

Howard had helped his family in their hour of need and he wanted to help her.

There had been no such visit of American warships to New Zealand since 1964.

In 1968, Courtney married his wife, Wendy, and the couple went on to have three children.

He was a Labour candidate for the Christchurch City Council in 1968, but was not elected.

Mabel Howard and Trevor Davey also stood and were unsuccessful.

His family moved from Christchurch to Nelson in 1970.

He owned and operated Courtney Enterprises which, in the mid-1970s, owned two supermarkets and had fifty employees in Nelson.

Courtney was an elected member of Nelson City Council for six years during the 1970s under mayor Roy McLennan; for some of that time, he was also a member of parliament.

He had a three-year gap and then became a member of the city council for another three-year term under mayor Peter Malone.

From the early 1970s to the mid 1980s two key issues emerged on the road to the eventual declaration of a New Zealand nuclear-free zone in 1984: one was the opposition to French nuclear tests at Mururoa and the other was opposition to American warships' visits to New Zealand.

When Nelson's MP Sir Stan Whitehead died in early January 1976, Courtney stood for the Labour nomination in the subsequent by-election.

The party head office in Wellington, as well as party leader Bill Rowling, favoured law professor Geoffrey Palmer, but as he had not lived in the area for decades and had been a party member for less than two-years there was resistance to Palmer's nomination.

A group of local party members threatened legal action over his membership tenure if he was nominated.

To prevent a split in the membership Arthur Baysting, the secretary of the Nelson Labour Electorate Committee (LEC), pushed for Courtney to be selected believing him to be the most electable alternative to Palmer.

Ultimately Courtney was chosen as Labour's candidate.

Among those that were unsuccessful in their bid for the Labour Party nomination were Sonja Davies, Frank O'Flynn and the aforementioned Geoffrey Palmer.

Courtney waged a local issues campaign and proved "an excellent choice" as a candidate.

He stressed Nelson's needs as a community as the major theme of his campaign, which was managed by MPs Colin Moyle and Arthur Faulkner.

Moyle, Faulkner and Labour leader Bill Rowling spoke at meetings in support of Courtney and defended him from attacks by National that he was the wrong choice of a candidate and that Palmer was more suitable, highlighting that Courtney had lived and worked in Nelson for the last six years while Palmer had not.

Labour fought a strong campaign and not only retained the seat but increased their majority as well, the victory at the polls vindicated the decision of the Labour Party's selection committee.

Courtney represented the Nelson electorate from 1976 to 1981 and was opposition spokesman for horticulture and fisheries for five years.

In July 1976 Courtney presented a petition to Parliament, signed by over 20,000 people (including the Nelson based writer Maurice Gee), asking the Government to reconsider its decision to allow nuclear warships into New Zealand ports (the USS Truxtun and USS Long Beach were expected later in the year).

In September 1976 Courtney followed up and put a parliamentary question to the Prime Minister, Robert Muldoon, to ascertain the cost of the USS Truxtun visit alone to the New Zealand taxpayer and it was estimated to be at least $110,000.

In December 1976 Courtney said in a written statement that the National Government had borrowed more than $1000 million after only a year in office.

He said this contrasted with the Prime Minister presenting himself to the electorate as "the man who was going to stop borrowing".

He was a recipient of both the Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977 for service to the community and the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal in recognition of services to New Zealand.

In April 1977 Courtney wrote to the Minister of Health, Frank Gill, about the health risks associated with lead in petrol.

There had been a survey in Christchurch "which concluded that lead levels from petrol emissions must be regarded as a serious problem".

However, Gill replied in a statement that, "there was no proven health hazard...[and] the Government had no immediate plans to reduce the level".