Peter Dunne

Peter Francis Dunne (born 17 March 1954) is a retired New Zealand politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ōhāriu.

Dunne was born in Christchurch on 17 March 1954, the son of Ralph and Joan Dunne.

He attended St Bede's College and gained an MA in political science from Canterbury University before studying business administration at Massey University.

In 1976, he married high school chemistry teacher Jennifer Mackrell, and they have two sons.

His brother, John Dunne, is a radio broadcaster.

A grandfather, Frank Smyth, played for the All Blacks.

He worked for the Department of Trade and Industry from 1977 to 1978 and then for the Alcoholic Liquor Advisory Council until 1984.

He served as Deputy Chief Executive of the council from 1980 to 1984.

He held the seat and its predecessors from 1984 to 2017 – representing the Labour Party in Parliament from 1984 to 1994, and a succession of minor centrist parties from 1994.

In the 1984 election, Dunne successfully stood for Parliament as a candidate of the Labour Party, winning the seat of Ohariu, defeating sitting National MP Hugh Templeton.

Bob Jones, leader of the New Zealand Party (not to be confused with New Zealand First), also stood in the seat, splitting the former National vote and enabling the Labour victory in the seat.

Dunne retained the seat in the 1987 election, after which he became a Parliamentary Undersecretary.

In 1990, he became Minister of Regional Development, Associate Minister for the Environment, and Associate Minister of Justice.

He won his seat again in the 1990 election, but the Labour Party suffered defeat, and Dunne thus lost his ministerial posts.

In November 1990 he was appointed as Labour's spokesperson for Revenue, Regional Development and the Environment by Labour leader Mike Moore.

In the 1993 election, Dunne won the seat of Onslow, which covered much the same area as his former Ohariu seat.

He found himself, however, increasingly at odds with the majority of the Labour Party – Dunne tended to support Labour's right-leaning faction rather than the party's more unionist wing.

With the departure of leading right-wingers like Roger Douglas, Richard Prebble and David Caygill he found himself isolated.

He was the Leader of Future New Zealand from 1994 to 1995, United New Zealand from 1996 to 2000, and United Future from 2000 to 2017.

He served as a Cabinet minister while in the Labour Party and later in governments dominated by the centre-right National Party and by the Labour Party.

In October 1994 Dunne resigned from the Labour Party, becoming an independent MP.

Soon after he rebuffed an approach by National MP Christine Fletcher to join the National Party.

A short time later, he established the Future New Zealand party (not to be confused with a later party of the same name).

In 1995, a group of MPs from both Labour and National decided to band together and form a new centrist party.

Dunne, who had already quit his party in a similar way, decided to join the larger group.

Together, the defectors and Dunne established the United New Zealand party, with a total of seven MPs, led by Clive Matthewson.

United eventually established a coalition with the National Party, with the deal seeing Dunne return to Cabinet as Minister of Internal Affairs and Revenue.

United New Zealand hoped to take advantage of the new mixed-member proportional (MMP) system, which took effect for the 1996 election.

However, that election saw United New Zealand almost completely wiped out.

Dunne, by virtue of his personal support, won the newly formed seat of Ohariu-Belmont, but all other United MPs suffered defeat.

As the sole surviving United member in the House, Dunne became the party's leader.

From 2005 to 2008 he held the posts of Minister of Revenue and Associate Minister of Health as a minister outside of Cabinet with the Labour-led government.

After Labour suffered an election defeat in 2008 to the National Party, United Future was reduced to having Dunne as its sole MP.

However, in a deal between United Future and National, Dunne retained his two portfolios outside Cabinet.

On 7 June 2013 he resigned his warrant as a minister due to a purported leak from his office.

He effectively was an independent MP between 25 June 2013 and 13 August 2013 when United Future was temporarily deregistered.

On 28 January 2014 Dunne was reinstated as a minister holding the Internal Affairs, Associate Health, and Associate Conservation portfolios.

On 21 August 2017, Dunne announced that he would retire from politics and pulled out of campaigning for re-election at the 2017 New Zealand general election.

United Future lost its sole seat in Parliament and attained only 0.1% of the party vote.

He is retired as a politician, and is now a political commentator.