Clayton Cosgrove
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Parl. | Electorate | List Pos. | Party |
| 46th | Waimakariri | none | Labour |
| 47th | Waimakariri | none | Labour |
| 48th | Waimakariri | none | Labour |
Clayton James Cosgrove (31 October 1969 - ) is a New Zealand politician. He is a member of the Labour Party. He is currently Minister for Building and Construction, Minister of Statistics, Associate Minister of Finance, Associate Minister of Justice and Associate Minister of Immigration (responsible for individual immigration cases).
Cosgrove was born in Nelson. He received a BA from Canterbury University in 1992 and received an MBA in 1996. Before entering politics, he worked in the public relations industry.
Cosgove has been a member of the Labour Party since he was fourteen, and has held a number of posts within the party. He was chairman of the party's Canterbury branch from 1989 to 1994, and served as campaign manager to Labour Party leader Mike Moore in the 1990 election and the 1993 election. He was a strong supporter of Moore, and opposed Moore's replacement by Helen Clark. Before the 1996 election he was involved in discussions with Moore to form a new party but this failed to eventuate.
Cosgrove himself stood for election in the Waimakariri seat in the 1999 election, and was successful. He was re-elected in the 2002 election. He was again elected in the 2005 general election.
Cosgrove was selected to attend the World Economic Forum's annual conferences in 2001 and 2002, and was appointed to the Forum's task force on global trade liberalisation. He is generally considered to be on the right of the Labour Party.
