John Key

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Image:John key.jpg
Parl.	Electorate	List Pos.	Party
47th	Helensville	43	National
48th	Helensville	1	National

John Phillip Key (born 9 August 1961, in Auckland, New Zealand) is a New Zealand politician. He is a member of the National Party, representing the electorate of Helensville, New Zealand. As of the 27 November 2006 he was elected Leader of the National party, thus becoming the current Leader of the Opposition.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Entry into politics 2.1 Political views 3 Leadership of the National Party 4 Trivia 5 External link 6 Political offices

[edit] Early life

Key was raised by his Austrian-Jewish immigrant mother after his father died, which left the family in debt. He grew up in a Christchurch state house, and attended Burnside High School. His first job was project manager at Christchurch-based clothing manufacturer. He gained a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Canterbury and later undertook management studies at Harvard University.

Before entering politics, Key was an investment banker, having worked for Merrill Lynch's Singapore, London and Sydney, Australia offices and as a member of the Foreign Exchange Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

John is married to Bronagh and has two children. When he has some spare time he likes to spend time with the family, cooking, playing golf and watching rugby.

[edit] Entry into politics

In 2001, he returned to New Zealand to pursue a political career. In the 2002 elections, he was the National Party's candidate for Helensville--a seat he won. In August 2004, he was ranked at tenth place in the National caucus, and made the party's spokesperson for finance.

After the 2005 election the National Party Leader Don Brash promoted him to number four in the caucus just behind Bill English in recognition of his role in selling the party's tax package during the campaign. He retained his seat with a 12,778 vote majority.

[edit] Political views

Key is considered relatively socially liberal by his colleagues. However, he voted against the Civil Union Bill and favoured a split drinking age, with age at 20 when the issue was debated in Parliament [1]. John Key supports an inclusive New Zealand opposing his predecessor Dr. Don Brash, and Brash's controversial Orewa legacy. Key and his deputy Mr. Bill English represent a younger generation of New Zealand politicians and are expected to return to more centrist policies. Mr Key has also indicated he will steer National away from a divisive approach to race relations after Dr Brash controversially claimed Maori received special treatment. [2]

[edit] Leadership of the National Party

Key had also been a centre of speculation by political commentators as a possible future leader of the National Party. Some commentators suggested that a leadership coup might occur before the 2008 election to replace Don Brash with Key. Both Brash and Key denied this however with Key threatening the 'un-named Senior MP' leading such efforts [3] [4].

Following the resignation of Don Brash on November 23, 2006, Key announced his candidacy for the leadership of the National Party [5], and was confirmed as the new leader of the National Party on 27 November 2006. He is aided by the new deputy leader of the Opposition, Bill English.

[edit] Trivia

• Key shares the same birth year as his deputy, Bill English, with both being 45 years old.
• Key does not profess any faith as such, describing himself as "not a heavy believer" and not a believer in life after death, although his mother was Jewish [6]. If appointed Prime Minister, Key would be the third premier of New Zealand with Jewish ancestry.
• He once sent his Labourite mother a National rosette for a birthday present.

[edit] External link

• Official website

[edit] Political offices

Preceded by: (constituency created)	Member of Parliament for Helensville 2002 – present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by: Dr Don Brash	Leader of the Opposition 2006 – present	Succeeded by: incumbent
Preceded by: Dr Don Brash	Leader of the New Zealand National Party 2006 – present	Succeeded by: incumbent

 

New Zealand political party leaders
Rodney Hide (ACT) | Jeanette Fitzsimons & Russel Norman (Greens) | Helen Clark (Labour) | Tariana Turia & Pita Sharples (Māori) | John Key (National) | Winston Peters (New Zealand First) | Jim Anderton (Progressives) | Peter Dunne (United Future)