John Kirk (New Zealand politician)

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Norman John Kirk, generally called John Kirk, (born 1947), is a former New Zealand Member of Parliament for Sydenham, in the South Island.

[edit] Member of Parliament

Kirk was the son of Norman Kirk, a popular Labour Party Prime Minister who died in office in 1974. John Kirk succeeded his father as MP for Sydenham. He held the seat for ten years from 1974 to 1984.

In July 1983 John Kirk announced that he would not seek the Labour Party's nomination for Sydenham in the 1984 election. In his place Labour selected Jim Anderton, the party president, whereupon Kirk (a strong David Lange supporter) declared that he would stand against the official Labour candidate as an independent. His continuing opposition to Anderton's selection resulted in the Labour Party's New Zealand Council suspending him from membership of the Labour Party.

Kirk served out the remainder of his parliamentary career as an Independent MP after declaring that he would never again vote with the Labour Party. He stood in the Wellington urban electorate of Miramar in the 1984 general election where he was unsuccessful.

[edit] References

• New Zealand Parliamentary Record: 1840-1984 by J. O. Wilson (1985, Government Printer, Wellington)
• From Muldoon to Lange: New Zealand Elections in the 1980s by Alan McRobie and Steven Levine (2002, MC Enterprises, Rangiora)