Michael Cullen

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for the Australian ornithologist see John Michael Cullen
The Honourable
 Dr Michael John Cullen
Michael Cullen

Dr Cullen in 2007.
Incumbent
Assumed office 
5 December 1999
Prime Minister Helen Clark
Preceded by Bill Birch
Constituency None (list, formerly St. Kilda)
Incumbent
Assumed office 
15 August 2002
Prime Minister Helen Clark
Preceded by Jim Anderton
Born February 5, 1945 (1945-02-05) (age 63)
London, Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom
Political party Labour
Profession Lecturer

Michael John Cullen (born 5 February 1945, London) is a New Zealand politician.

Cullen currently serves as Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand, Minister of Finance, Minister of Tertiary Education, Attorney-General and Leader of the House. He is deputy leader of the New Zealand Labour Party, currently the largest party in Parliament.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Michael Cullen migrated to New Zealand while young and attended secondary school at Christ's College in Christchurch, and achieved an MA in History at Canterbury University. Receiving the Commonwealth Scholarship he then gained a Ph.D. in Social and Economic History from the University of Edinburgh. From 1971 to 1981 he was a lecturer at Otago University, with a term as a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University from 1975 to 1976.[1]

[edit] Member of Parliament

Parl. Electorate List Pos. Party
40th St Kilda n/a Labour
41st St Kilda n/a Labour
42nd St Kilda n/a Labour
43rd St Kilda n/a Labour
44th St Kilda n/a Labour
45th Dunedin South 2 Labour
46th List 2 Labour
47th List 2 Labour
48th List 2 Labour

Cullen joined the Labour Party in 1974, and served on the party's Executive and Council between 1976 and 1981. In 1981 he was elected MP for the Dunedin electorate of St Kilda.

[edit] Fourth Labour Government

Main article: Fourth Labour Government of New Zealand

When Labour entered government in 1984, Cullen became Senior Whip. Due to his knowledge of economics, Cullen became increasingly involved in the disputes surrounding the Minister of Finance, Roger Douglas, who supported the liberalization of trade and the sale of state assets plus deep tax cuts. These goals, which were against traditional Labour policies, angered both party members and the public. When the Prime Minister, David Lange, attempted to limit the influence Douglas had on the government's direction, Cullen became involved on Lange's side. After Labour's re-election in 1987, Cullen was made Associate Minister of Finance (an attempt by Lange to provide an anti-reform counterbalance to the radical Douglas) and Minister of Social Welfare (an attempt to limit the impact of the reforms in that area).

Eventually, Douglas was forced to resign, but a month later the political controversies around the dispute prompted the resignation of Lange himself. Douglas was succeeded as Finance Minister by David Caygill, one of his allies (albeit a considerably less radical one). Cullen was made Associate Minister of Health, again to reduce the effect of reforms on that sector.

[edit] Opposition

When Labour lost the 1990 election (something attributed by many people to public anger at Douglas' reforms), Cullen returned to being Labour's spokesperson on social welfare. The following year, he replaced David Caygill as the party's chief finance spokesperson. When Caygill retired from politics in 1996 Cullen took the deputy leader's post as well. Before Labour's position in the polls improved, Cullen also made an attempt to oust Helen Clark as party leader, but failed. The two do not appear to bear each other any resentment, however. Cullen claims to be happy with his position as second, saying that in terms of personality, he is "a number two sort of person". Many commentators agree, believing that Cullen's strength lies more in administration than leadership.

[edit] Fifth Labour Government

Labour's electoral victory in 1999 resulted in Cullen becoming Minister of Finance. After the 2002 election , it was decided that the size of Labour's junior coalition partner was not sufficient to justify its leader's high office, resulting in Jim Anderton stepping down as Deputy Prime Minister to make way for Michael Cullen.

In 2005 Cullen was appointed Attorney-General, following the election of Margaret Wilson as Speaker of the House. His appointment was controversial because of the his non-legal background (he was only the second non-lawyer to hold the post) and because of his previous criticisms of the judiciary, including the Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias. His term in the position ended following the 2005 general election. However, with the resignation of David Parker in March 2006, Cullen took over the position.

When Cullen was first appointed Minister of Finance, many parts of the business community were concerned that he would adopt unrealistic positions driven by his political views. Slowly, however, the business world lost much of its fear of him, and most people concede that he is a competent administrator. Viewed as secure in his role as deputy prime minister, he is not thought of as a likely contender as a possible future replacement for prime minister Helen Clark. He is considered to be one of the Labour Party's best parliamentary debaters, and is known for his sometimes "acerbic" sense of humour.

[edit] Political offices

Assembly seats
Preceded by
Bill Fraser		 Member of Parliament for St Kilda
1981 – 1996		 Succeeded by
abolished
Preceded by
(constituency created)		 Member of Parliament for Dunedin South
1996 – 1999		 Succeeded by
David Benson-Pope
Political offices
Preceded by
David Caygill		 Deputy Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party
1996 – present		 Succeeded by
incumbent
Preceded by
Jim Anderton		 Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand
2002 – present		 Succeeded by
incumbent

[edit] References

  1. ^ Hon Dr Michael Cullen. New Zealand Parliament. Retrieved on 2007-12-05.

[edit] Further reading

  • Cullen provided "Brief thoughts on three leaders" to this volume.
  • Cullen provided "Opening remarks" to this volume.
  • Cullen, Michael (1993), Medium term fiscal outlook, Wellington, [N.Z.]: Office of Opposition Spokesperson on Finance 
  • Cullen, Michael (2000), The Minister’s statement & overview, Wellington, [N.Z.]: The Treasury, ISBN 0-478-11802-3 
  • Cullen, Michael (2001), Taxation of Māori organisations: a Government discussion document, Wellington, [N.Z.]: Policy Advice Division, Inland Revenue Dept., ISBN 0-478-10345-X 
  • Cullen, Michael; Swain, Paul & Wright, John (2001), More time for business: tax simplification for small business: a Government discussion document, Wellington, [N.Z.]: Policy Advice Division, Inland Revenue Dept., ISBN 0-478-10342-5 
Persondata
NAME Cullen, Michael John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Politician, academic
DATE OF BIRTH
PLACE OF BIRTH London, United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Languages