Clem Simich

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Parl.	Electorate	List Pos.	Party
43rd	Tamaki	n/a	National
44th	Tamaki	n/a	National
45th	Tamaki	42	National
46th	Tamaki	none	National
47th	Tamaki	none	National
48th	List	18	National

Clem Simich is a New Zealand politician. He is a member of the National Party.

He was first elected to Parliament in the 1992 by-election in Tamaki, prompted by the retirement of former Prime Minister Robert Muldoon. He remained as MP for Tamaki until 2005, when he stepped down to stand as the National candidate for Mangere. He is now a List MP, having not succeeded in winning the Labour safe seat.

In August 1998, he was appointed to Cabinet, being Minister of Police, Minister for Racing, and Minister in Charge of the Audit Department. He also became Minister of Corrections in January 1999. He lost his ministerial positions, however, when National lost the 1999 elections.

Simich served as Assistant Speaker of the House between 2002 and 2005. On the retirement of Jonathan Hunt, Simich stood for election as Speaker, but was defeated by Labour's Margaret Wilson. It was likely that he would have become Speaker if National had won the 2005 elections. Simich is likely to be earmarked for retirement in the 2008 elections.

Simich became the Deputy Speaker of the House after the 2005 election.

Simich is of Croatian (in Croatian the surname is Šimić) and also Māori descent..