Brendan Horan

Brendan Francis John Horan (born 9 July 1961) is a New Zealand politician and former list MP, who was elected to the New Zealand Parliament in 2011 for the New Zealand First party. He was expelled from the New Zealand First caucus on 4 December 2012 and served the remainder of his term as an Independent.^[1][2] Horan is of Māori descent with affiliations to Ngāti Maniapoto.^[3]

Media career

Horan was a weather presenter for Television New Zealand's ONE News, running on a regular cycle with Karen Olsen and Natalie Crook. He started in March 2005, and took redundancy in 2007 when former TV1 weather presenter Jim Hickey returned after nearly 4 years absence on the air.^[4][5] His final weather presentation was on 7 September 2007.

Horan has been a professional lifeguard and coach, and was a New Zealand Surf Lifesaving Iron Man champion. He also represented New Zealand and Australia in waterpolo, and was a New Zealand outrigger canoe champion.^[5][6]

Political career

In the 2008 general election, Horan contested the East Coast electorate for the New Zealand First party. He came third in electorate votes^[7] but due to New Zealand First's poor showing in party votes, was not elected from the party list.^[8]

At the 2011 general election Horan stood in Tauranga, narrowly coming third (by 96 votes) behind the Labour candidate.^[9] However, he was elected as a list MP for New Zealand First, after being ranked sixth on their party list.

In October 2012 he helped saved the life of Indonesian MP Atte Sugandi by giving him CPR when the MP collapsed at a UN conference in Japan.^[6]

Expulsion from NZ First

In November 2012 Horan was accused of taking money from his dying mother's bank account and spending it on gambling.^[10] At first Winston Peters refused to say whether he still had confidence in Horan,^[11] but on 4 December expelled him from the party.^[2] Horan wasn't informed until Peters made the announcement in Parliament.^[12]

Horan flatly denied the allegations,^[13] and vowed to continue as an independent MP,^[14] despite only making it into Parliament as a list MP, without an electorate.

On 10 December 2012, Horan admitted making 144 calls to gambling agency TAB on his taxpayer-funded phone, but denied he had a gambling problem.^[15] Later that day he notified the Speaker he was no longer a member of NZ First, making his independence from the party official. He also called for an investigation into who leaked his phone records to the media.^[16]

New Zealand Independent Coalition

In 2013, Horan announced his intention to form a new political party.^[17] In January 2014 he launched the NZ Independent Coalition,^[18] which, following the general election on 20 September 2014 did not win any seats or cross the 5% party vote threshold to stay in Parliament.^[19] Horan stood in the Bay of Plenty electorate, coming fifth.^[20]

Post-Political Career

Following his defeat, Horan returned to Wellington to clear out his office and work with his former colleagues to get jobs for his now unemployed staffers. He currently is maintaining a low profile following the election. ^[21]

References