The Honourable
Sir Kerry Burke
22nd Speaker of the House of Representatives
In office
16 September 1987 – 28 November 1990
Prime MinisterDavid Lange
Geoffrey Palmer
Mike Moore
Preceded byGerry Wall
Succeeded byRobin Gray
41st Minister of Immigration
In office
26 July 1984 – 24 August 1987
Prime MinisterDavid Lange
Preceded byAussie Malcolm
Succeeded byStan Rodger
8th Minister of Employment
In office
26 July 1984 – 6 April 1987
Prime MinisterDavid Lange
Preceded byOffice not in use
Succeeded byPhil Goff
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for West Coast
In office
25 November 1978 – 27 October 1990
Preceded byPaddy Blanchfield
Succeeded byMargaret Moir
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Rangiora
In office
25 November 1972 – 29 November 1975
Preceded byLorrie Pickering
Succeeded byDerek Quigley
Personal details
Born (1942-03-24) 24 March 1942 (age 81)
Christchurch, New Zealand
Political partyLabour
Children3
ProfessionTeacher

Sir Thomas Kerry Burke (born 24 March 1942) is a former New Zealand politician and Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives. He was a Member of Parliament for the Labour Party from 1972 to 1975 and again from 1978 to 1990, and later served twelve years on Canterbury Regional Council (Environment Canterbury) from 1998 to 2010.

Early life and career

Burke was born in Christchurch in 1942. He attended Opawa Primary School and Linwood College.[1] In 1960, he began three years of study at the University of Canterbury, after which he studied for a year at the Christchurch College of Education. He taught at Rangiora High School from 1967 to 1972.[2][3] From 1969 to 1971 he was chairman of the Rangiora branch of the Post Primary Teachers' Association (PPTA) union.[1]

Member of Parliament

Third Labour government

New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate Party
1972–1975 37th Rangiora Labour
1978–1981 39th West Coast Labour
1981–1984 40th West Coast Labour
1984–1987 41st West Coast Labour
1987–1990 42nd West Coast Labour

Burke was first elected to Parliament as the Labour MP for Rangiora in the 1972 election. From 1973 to 1978 he was a Lincoln College Council member.[1]

In the 1975 election, however, he lost his seat, and remained outside Parliament for three years.[1]

Political interregnum

After his defeat he took consolation that the swing against him in his electorate was lower than the overall swing against the government. He also appreciated that leaving parliament would give him more time to spend with his sons.[3] He decided to return to teaching, though found there to be no teaching vacancies in Canterbury at the time. This prompted him to move to the West Coast to teach at Greymouth High School from 1976 to 1978.[2]

He established himself locally and when the local MP, Paddy Blanchfield, announced his retirement Burke sought the Labour Party candidacy. Despite facing criticisms as an outsider, he won the nomination over eight other candidates.[3]

Opposition

In the 1978 election, Burke was elected as the MP for the West Coast electorate. After reentering Parliament he criticised the closure of several gasworks in his electorate as well as the resulting employee reductions at the Liverpool coal mine after subsidies for them were cut by the Muldoon government.[3]

He was elevated to the shadow cabinet by Labour leader Bill Rowling in 1979 and was Shadow Minister of Labour and State Services from 1979 to 1980, Shadow Minister of Employment and Science & Technology from 1981 to 1982 and Shadow Minister of Employment, Regional Development and Tourism from 1982 to 1983.[1] He supported Rowling when he was challenged for the leadership in 1980 by deputy leader David Lange.[4]

When Lange replaced Rowling in 1983 Burke fell in the rankings and was left only with the regional development portfolio.[5]

Fourth Labour government

When Labour won the 1984 election, Burke became Minister of Immigration and Minister of Employment. He held these roles until the 1987 election, when he was chosen to replace the outgoing Gerry Wall as Speaker. At 45 he was the second youngest Speaker in the history of the Parliament of New Zealand.

He served in this role for three years, losing the Speakership and his seat when Labour lost the 1990 election. In the 1990 New Year Honours, Burke was appointed a Knight Bachelor,[6] and the same year he was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.[7] He did not contest West Coast in the 1993 election; Damien O'Connor succeeded him as Labour's candidate.

Local government career

After leaving Parliament, Burke returned to Canterbury. He contested and was elected to the Canterbury Regional Council (Environment Canterbury) in 1998, beginning what would be 12 years of service. He first became chairman in 2004 and was reelected to the chair after the 2007 local elections.[8][9] On 24 September 2009, Burke lost a motion of no confidence and was replaced as chairman by former National MP Alec Neill.[10] The council was removed in 2010 and replaced by Government-appointed commissioners. The reason cited for the sacking was due to poor direction, "woeful" performance and governance and an overall collapse of confidence in the organisation.[11]

In the 2010 local elections, Burke stood for Christchurch City Council in the Spreydon-Heathcote ward but was beaten by the two incumbents (Sue Wells and Barry Corbett).[12]

Personal life

Burke had two sons with his first wife Jenny. He remarried with journalist Helen Paske in October 1984, with whom he had a third son in 1985.[3][13] Paske died in 1989.[14]

At one time Burke was patron of Cholmondeley Children's Home in Governors Bay.[15] In March 2012 he joined the board of the Draco Foundation (NZ) Charitable Trust, an organisation whose purpose is the protection and promotion of democracy and natural justice in New Zealand.[16] The trust was denied charitable status by the Charities Commission and on appeal by the High Court of New Zealand the Draco organisation was found to have no public benefit and was set up for political purposes.

In January 2016, aged 73, Burke was convicted of drink driving having 517 μg of alcohol per litre of breath. He was fined $400 and disqualified from driving for six months.[17]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Who's Who 1987, p. 39.
  2. ^ a b "Biographies of Former and Current Speakers of the New Zealand House of Representatives" (PDF). New Zealand Parliamentary Library. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d e Verdon, Tony (12 January 1980). "Being part of solution". The New Zealand Herald. p. 3.
  4. ^ Henderson 1981, pp. 24–25.
  5. ^ "Labour leader allocates responsibilities". The Press. 17 March 1983. p. 3.
  6. ^ "No. 51982". The London Gazette (2nd supplement). 30 December 1989. p. 29.
  7. ^ Taylor, Alister; Coddington, Deborah (1994). Honoured by the Queen – New Zealand. Auckland: New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa. p. 84. ISBN 0-908578-34-2.
  8. ^ ECan chair re-elected, new deputy[permanent dead link], Environment Canterbury Press Release, 24 October 2007, Retrieved 9 December 2007.
  9. ^ "Local election of ECan candidates". Environment Canterbury (Press release). 24 August 2007. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
  10. ^ Environment Canterbury new chair, deputy chair unchanged Archived 18 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Environment Canterbury Press Release, 24-09-09, retrieved 24-09-09. See also Alec Neill replaces Sir Kerry, The Press/www.Stuff.co.nz on-line, 24-09-09, retrieved 24-09-09. Archived at WebCite
  11. ^ "ECan council canned in favour of commissioners". Television New Zealand. 30 March 2010. Retrieved 12 October 2011.
  12. ^ Sullivan, Clare (14 October 2010). "Declaration of Result of Election" (PDF). Christchurch City Council. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
  13. ^ Who's Who 1987, p. 40.
  14. ^ Paske, Helen Mary, 1948–1989, NZ National Library
  15. ^ Glass, Amy (28 August 2011). "Happy days in home recalled". The Press. Retrieved 10 September 2011.
  16. ^ "About the Draco Foundation". Draco Foundation (NZ) Charitable Trust. Archived from the original on 5 May 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  17. ^ Clarkson, David (9 January 2016). "Former Parliament Speaker Sir Kerry Burke admits drink-driving". The Press. p. A5. Retrieved 29 January 2016.

References

Further reading

  • Regional development policy: supporting statement to submission to the Hon. Kerry Burke, Minister of Regional Development [prepared by Canterbury Regional Development Council and Canterbury United Council], Christchurch, [N.Z.]: The Councils, 1986
  • Submission to the review of financial assistance to students: presented to the Hon. Russell Marshall, Minister of Education and to Hon. Kerry Burke, The Minister of Employment, Hon. Koro Wētere, The Minister of Maori Affairs, Hon. Ann Hercus, The Minister of Social Welfare and of Women's Affairs, The Right Hon. David Lange, The Minister of Foreign Affairs., Wellington, [N.Z.]: NZUSA, 1985
  • Burke, Kerry (1985), Labour market assistance measures: a paper from the Minister of Employment, Wellington, [N.Z.]: Employment Promotion Conference
  • Burke, Kerry (1985), A new deal in training and employment opportunities, December 1985, Wellington, [N.Z.]: Dept. of Labour
  • Burke, Kerry (1986), From the Minister: the Minister of Employment Kerry Burke answers questions on the government's employment programmes, Wellington, [N.Z.]: Dept. of Labour
  • Clark, Margaret, ed. (2005), For the record: Lange and the fourth Labour Government, Wellington, [N.Z.]: Dunmore Publishing, ISBN 1-877399-10-8
  • Scott, Noel (convenor); Austin, Margaret; Mallard, Trevor (1985), Interim report of Government Committee on Transition Education to Hon. Russell Marshall, Minister of Education, Hon. Kerry Burke, Minister of Employment, Wellington, [N.Z.]: The Committee
Political offices Preceded byRichard Johnson Chair of Environment Canterbury 2004–2009 Succeeded byAlec Neill Preceded byGerry Wall Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives 1987–1990 Succeeded byRobin Gray Preceded byAussie Malcolm Minister of Immigration 1984–1987 Succeeded byStan Rodger Vacant Minister of Employment 1984–1987 Succeeded byPhil Goff New Zealand Parliament Preceded byPaddy Blanchfield Member of Parliament for West Coast 1978–1990 Succeeded byMargaret Moir Preceded byLorrie Pickering Member of Parliament for Rangiora 1972–1975 Succeeded byDerek Quigley
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