Jonathan Hunt (New Zealand politician) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids The Right Honourable Jonathan Hunt ONZ
Hunt in 2006
28th High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
In office April 2005 – March 2008
Prime Minister	Helen Clark
Preceded by	Russell Marshall
Succeeded by	Derek Leask
26th Speaker of the House of Representatives
In office 20 December 1999 – 3 March 2005
Prime Minister	Helen Clark
Preceded by	Doug Kidd
Succeeded by	Margaret Wilson
16th Minister of Housing
In office 14 August 1989 – 2 November 1990
Prime Minister	Geoffrey Palmer Mike Moore
Preceded by	Helen Clark
Succeeded by	John Luxton
27th Minister of Tourism
In office 10 January 1988 – 14 August 1989
Prime Minister	David Lange Geoffrey Palmer
Preceded by	Helen Clark
Succeeded by	Fran Wilde
3rd Leader of the House
In office 24 August 1987 – 2 November 1990
Prime Minister	David Lange Geoffrey Palmer Mike Moore
Preceded by	Geoffrey Palmer
Succeeded by	Paul East
50th Postmaster-General
In office 26 July 1984 – 24 August 1987
Prime Minister	David Lange
Preceded by	Rob Talbot
Succeeded by	Richard Prebble
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for New Lynn
In office 26 November 1966 – 12 October 1996
Preceded by	Rex Mason
Succeeded by	Phil Goff
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Labour party list
In office 12 October 1996 – 31 March 2005
Succeeded by	Lesley Soper
Personal details
Born	Jonathan Lucas Hunt (1938-12-02)2 December 1938 Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Died	8 March 2024(2024-03-08) (aged 85)
Political party	Labour
Profession	High school teacher

Jonathan Lucas Hunt ONZ PC (2 December 1938 – 8 March 2024) was a New Zealand politician and diplomat. He started a 38-year parliamentary career as the Baby of the House and retired as Father of the House. During that tenure, he was Speaker of the House of Representatives. Afterwards, he served as New Zealand's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2005 to March 2008. He was a member of the Order of New Zealand, New Zealand's highest civilian honour, and given the nickname "Minister for Wine and Cheese" for enjoying those items.

Early life

Hunt was born in Lower Hutt, but grew up in Palmerston North. He had a twin brother, David, who died four days after they were born. Hunt's father was a child welfare officer, reassigned to the Manawatu in 1942. Hunt was educated at Palmerston North Boys' High School and later Auckland Grammar School; later he enrolled at the University of Auckland, where he gained a BA (Hons) degree in history.

In 1958, Hunt was elected editor of the Auckland University Students' Association's (AUSA) Craccum magazine for the 1959 year. While at University Hunt is also credited with founding the Princes Street Labour branch. He was a 'radio quiz kid' and in 1963 he toured South-East Asia with a Rotary group of Young New Zealanders.

After graduating, Hunt became a History, English and Latin teacher from 1961 to 1966 at Kelston Boys High School in West Auckland where he also coached cricket. He was then a university tutor. Hunt also had a long-standing relationship with the Department of Political Studies at the University, which for many years has collected and archived Hunt's personal and professional papers. Hunt lived in Karekare on Auckland's west coast and he was well known for his passionate interest in the sport of cricket. He was the secretary of the Auckland Secondary Schools' Cricket Association.

Member of Parliament

In 1966 at age 27, Hunt was offered to replace the retiring Rex Mason in Auckland's New Lynn electorate. This being a safe Labour electorate, Hunt was effectively given a seat in parliament, and he became the Baby of the House as the only MP still in their 20s. Hunt was to later write a biography of Mason for the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. He remained MP for New Lynn until 1996, when he became a list MP after losing in Tamaki to National's Clem Simich. Hunt was returned twice more as a list MP; losing Waitakere to National's Brian Neeson in the 1999 election and as a list-only candidate in the 2002 election.

In mid-January 1970, United States Vice President Spiro Agnew visited Wellington. Hunt along with several other Labour Members of Parliament including Bob Tizard, Arthur Faulkner and Martyn Finlay boycotted the state dinner to protest American policy in Vietnam. Other Labour MPs, including Opposition Leader Norman Kirk attended the function which dealt with the Nixon Doctrine.

Hunt was appointed junior government whip upon Labour's victory in 1972 election. He was later promoted further in 1974 by Prime Minister Bill Rowling to the position of Chairman of Committees. As Chairman of Committees he had the responsibility of deputising for the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the 67 year old Stan Whitehead. Whitehead was in ill-health and Hunt acted on his behalf more than he had expected to. When Whitehead suffered a heart attack in the last parliamentary session of 1975 Hunt was nearly drafted to replace him as Speaker, though Whitehead was to make a recovery.

After the shock defeat of the Rowling government in the 1975 general election, Hunt was appointed to Rowling's shadow cabinet and designated as Shadow Minister of Health in 1976. He left the shadow cabinet, at his own request, in 1979 with the intention of setting himself up to become Speaker of the House should Labour win the next election. Labour did not win and in the next parliamentary term he was senior whip and Shadow Minister of Broadcasting.

Cabinet Minister

During the Fourth Labour Government he served as Postmaster-General, Minister of Broadcasting, Minister of Tourism and Minister of Housing. He had chaired the caucus committee on restructuring the broadcasting industry in 1973 which was uncompleted. On becoming Minister of Broadcasting in 1984, he said the idea would not be resurrected but reaffirmed his intention to fulfil Labour's manifesto to establish a Maori and Pacific Island radio station, ban commercials on the concert and national radio programmes and aiding the establishment of privately owned television stations. Hunt worked on the Adult Adoption Information Act 1985, which enabled adults who were adopted as children to find out who their birth parents were as well as allowing birth mothers to learn about their adopted adult children.

After the 1987 election, the cabinet was reshuffled in which he lost the broadcasting and Postmaster-General portfolios and designated Leader of the House. This left him without a department to administer which saw his salary reduced by $19,200 per annum, leading to opposition leader Jim Bolger to label Hunt's position as "sinecure", much to Hunt's displeasure. He eventually was given extra portfolios of tourism, housing and broadcasting during the course of the term. During his second period as Broadcasting minister he followed through with his pledge in aiding the establishment of privately owned television stations. He approved the licence for TV3, New Zealand's first commercial television channel, to begin operations in November 1989.

During the divisions of the Fourth Labour Government's second term, Hunt generally supported Prime Minister David Lange over the finance minister Roger Douglas. In 1989, Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer nominated Hunt a member of the Privy Council in recognition of his long service to Parliament.

Upon the retirement of Sir Robert Muldoon, Hunt was the longest-serving member of Parliament between 1991 and 2005, earning him the unofficial title of 'Father of the House'. He assumed the title of 'father' to the delight of colleagues given his status as a lifelong bachelor.

In opposition again from 1990, Hunt was senior opposition whip, Shadow Leader of the House and Shadow Minister of Housing under leader Mike Moore. Hunt supported Helen Clark in her successful leadership bid against Moore, after which he remained senior whip and Shadow Leader of the House.

Speaker of the House of Representatives

Hunt was elected Speaker unopposed when the fifth Labour government came to power in 1999. Hunt had previously served as Chairman of Committees from 1974 to 1975 which had since been rebranded as the Deputy-Speaker. Hunt became the eighth Chairman of Committees to later serve as Speaker. He retained his position following the election in 2002 serving in total as Speaker for six years from 1999–2005.

High Commissioner to the United Kingdom

In December 2004, it was announced that he would retire from politics and replace Russell Marshall as New Zealand High Commissioner in London, a move that had long been anticipated. He was replaced as Speaker by Margaret Wilson on 3 March 2005 and left Parliament on 30 March, the day that he gave his valedictory in parliament. In his valedictory speech he thanked many people and stated that he thought that his success in this Parliament was fighting for and finally getting the Adult Adoption Information Act passed in 1985.

As a list MP, his vacant parliamentary seat was filled by the next available candidate on the Labour Party list, Lesley Soper.

On 21 November 2007, the New Zealand Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, announced that the next High Commissioner to London would be Derek Leask from March 2008.

Personal life

Hunt (right) and Australian cricket captain Allan Border in 1986.

Hunt was the patron of the University of Auckland Debating Society. He was a lifelong enthusiast of the sport of cricket and was an administrator of the sport for many years.

Hunt died on 8 March 2024, at the age of 85.

Honours

In 1977, Hunt was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal and in 1990, the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal. In the 2005 New Year Honours, Hunt was appointed a Member of the Order of New Zealand.

Documentary

Hunt was also the subject of a documentary, Father of the House, directed by Simon Burgin and Xavier Forde, which was filmed in Wellington in 2005.