David Caygill

The Honourable David Caygill CNZM
Caygill in 2013
28th Minister of Health
In office 24 August 1987 – 30 January 1989
Prime Minister	David Lange
Preceded by	Michael Bassett
Succeeded by	Helen Clark
Constituency	St Albans
36th Minister of Finance
In office 14 December 1988 – 2 November 1990
Prime Minister	David Lange Geoffrey Palmer Mike Moore
Preceded by	Roger Douglas
Succeeded by	Ruth Richardson
Personal details
Born	1948 Christchurch  New Zealand
Political party	Labour

David Francis Caygill, CNZM (born 15 November 1948 in Christchurch), ^[1] is a former New Zealand politician. After being New Zealand's youngest city councillor at 22 (in Christchurch), he was an MP from 1978 to 1996, representing the Labour Party. He served as Minister of Finance between 1988 and 1990.

Political career

Christchurch City Council

Caygill was a councillor of Christchurch City Council from 1971 to 1980.^[2] On 29 April 1974, he became the city's youngest ever acting Mayor for a period of five days.^[3]

Member of Parliament

Caygill was first elected to Parliament in the 1978 elections as MP for the Christchurch electorate of St Albans. He served for six terms.^[4]

Lange Ministry

When the Fourth Labour Government was formed after the 1984 elections, Caygill aligned himself with Roger Douglas, the controversial Minister of Finance. Douglas, Caygill, and Richard Prebble were together dubbed "the Treasury Troika",^[5] and were responsible for most of the economic reform undertaken by the Labour government. The "Rogernomics" reforms, which were based on free market economic theory, were unpopular with many traditional Labour supporters, but Caygill managed to avoid the worst of the condemnation directed towards Douglas and Prebble. When the two became founding members of the ACT New Zealand political party in 1994, Caygill chose not to join them.

Caygill was appointed Minister of Trade and Industry, and Minister of National Development, on 26 July 1984.^[6] The Prime Minister at that time was David Lange.

Minister of Finance

When Douglas was fired by Prime Minister Lange, Caygill was appointed Minister of Finance in his place. After Lange himself had resigned, Caygill retained his position under both Geoffrey Palmer and Mike Moore, Lange's short-lived successors as Prime Minister.

In his last budget as Minister of Finance before retiring, Caygill lifted the quarantining of rental losses on investment property, allowing an investor to offset losses on their investment property against their other taxable income.

In 1991, a year after the Labour Party had lost office, Caygill was replaced as finance spokesperson by Michael Cullen, who was more moderate in his economic policies. Caygill continued to hold a senior position in the Labour Party, however, and when Helen Clark became leader in 1993, Caygill replaced her as deputy leader. At the 1996 elections, Caygill retired from Parliament. He was replaced as deputy leader by Michael Cullen.

Life after politics

After leaving politics, Caygill returned to his original occupation, law. For some time, he was a partner at Buddle Findlay, a prominent law firm. He also worked for a number of government bodies, and was chair of the Accident Compensation Corporation. He chaired a ministerial inquiry into the New Zealand electricity market in 2000, and was appointed chairman of the Electricity Commission in 2007. He is a board member of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority. He is the chair of the Education New Zealand Trust.^[4]

In 2010, Caygill was appointed by the National Government as one of the commissioners at Environment Canterbury. He holds the role of deputy chair.^[4] Caygill was appointed, in December 2010, as the Chair of the 2011 NZ ETS Review Panel.^[4]

References

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