James Patrick Anderton (born Byrne; 21 January 1938 – 7 January 2018) was a New Zealand politician who led a succession of left-wing parties after leaving the Labour Party in 1989.
Anderton's political career began when he was elected to the Manukau City Council in 1965. After serving for five years as Labour Party president, Anderton successfully stood as the Labour candidate for Sydenham in Christchurch in . However, he soon came into conflict with the party's leadership, and became an outspoken critic of the Fourth Labour Government's free-market reforms, called Rogernomics. In April 1989, believing that Labour was beyond change, Anderton resigned from the party.
As leader of the Alliance and later the Progressive Party, he served as the 15th deputy prime minister of New Zealand in the Fifth Labour Government from 1999 to 2002 and as a senior minister in that government from 2002 to 2008. In 2010, he ran unsuccessfully for the mayoralty of Christchurch. Anderton retired from Parliament at the . After his retirement, he and former MP Philip Burdon were the two prominent campaigners for the restoration of ChristChurch Cathedral.
Early life Jim Anderton was born on 21 January 1938 in Auckland to Matthew Byrne and Joyce Savage. His father left the family and his mother married Victor Anderton. Matthew Byrne died in a train accident in 1946 and Victor Anderton adopted Jim in 1951. Jim undertook all his education in Auckland, attending Seddon Memorial Technical College and the Auckland Teachers' Training College. He graduated as a qualified teacher, but spent only two years in a teaching role (at St Peter's College, Auckland) before moving on to work as a child welfare officer in Wanganui.
In 1960, he married Joan Caulfield and they had five children, two girls and three boys. The same year he became the paid organiser for the Catholic Youth Movement in the Catholic Diocese of Auckland, and later worked as the secretary for the Catholic diocese in Auckland. Cardinal Reginald Delargey said that there were difficulties with Jim Anderton and his employment ended "when he put us in a position where we had to make a choice between him or the Pope".
Anderton later moved into business, working as an export manager for a textiles company before establishing a manufacturing company, Anderton Holdings, with his brother Brian in 1971 and also bought a superette in Parnell.
Entering politics Anderton joined the Labour Party in 1963 and first attended a Labour party branch meeting in Mangere in 1964. His political career began in 1965 when he was elected to the Manukau City Council on a Labour ticket. In 1971, he stood for the Auckland City Council as a Labour candidate unsuccessfully and was the highest polling un-elected Labour candidate.
Three years later, in 1974, he challenged Dove-Myer Robinson, the incumbent Mayor of Auckland City, for the mayoralty, but was beaten by 7,000 votes. In the same local election, he also stood for the Auckland City Council and was successful. David Lange, who also ran on the Labour ticket as a city councillor said "Like the other candidates, I contributed $50 to pay for an advertisement in the New Zealand Herald in support of the Labour ticket. When I opened the paper to look at our advertisement I saw a photograph of Jim Anderton and no mention of the other candidates. Here was a warning of much to come".
Anderton had another tilt at the Auckland City mayoralty in 1977, but was again beaten by the incumbent though he did manage to reduce Robinson's majority by nearly 1,500 votes. Earlier in 1977 he was elected to the Auckland Regional Authority via a by-election and was confirmed a member at the 1977 local elections later that year despite again losing the mayoralty. At the same time, he worked his way up the internal hierarchy of the Labour Party. He became the party's president in 1979, a year before his term with the Auckland Regional Authority ended. He was also a long-standing member of the party's policy council.
Following the sudden death of Frank Rogers in 1980 there was intense press speculation that Anderton (who was the proprietor of a business situated in the electorate) would stand to replace him in the Onehunga by-election. Despite briefly considering standing, he eventually declined the nomination, refusing to renege on the promise he made to members at the 1979 party conference that he would not stand for a parliamentary seat at, or before, the election. Soon afterwards Anderton was also rumoured to be contemplating replacing the retiring Arthur Faulkner in the electorate, but after a hostile reaction to the notion in caucus Anderton was dissuaded from seeking the Roskill nomination. In the attempted leadership coup against Labour leader Bill Rowling in 1980 by his deputy, David Lange, Anderton was among those (such as party secretary John Wybrow) who sided with Rowling.
Following Labour's election loss there were serious discussions regarding the future of affiliated trade unions in the Labour Party. Labour was frequently attacked for being the 'party of unions' (particularly by Muldoon) despite only 15% of unions being affiliated and providing just 8% of the annual party funds. In February 1982 Rowling gave a speech at a Labour regional conference in Timaru where he suggested Labour should cut formal ties with trade unions, citing the party's public perception being too closely linked with unions and that there had been a large demographic shift in the membership from the working class to middle-class liberals. Rowling was supported by his Shadow Minister for Labour, Fred Gerbic, and several leading union figures such as national secretary of the New Zealand Electrical and Related Trades Union Tony Neary and secretary of the Wellington Clothing Workers Union Frank Thorn who stated their belief that their affiliation fees were too high and offered little benefit in return. Anderton and other unionists such as Jim Knox, the secretary of the New Zealand Federation of Labour, were opposed and argued for a continuing union presence in the party. By March the debate heated up with Rowling and Gerbic publicly expressing another concern that some affiliated unions had members of other parties, in particular the Socialist Unity Party (SUP). Anderton publicly disagreed with Rowling stating that the SUP had no influence in the Labour Party and that "The entire membership of the SUP could be written on the back of a postage stamp." At Labour's annual conference in May 1982 the conference delegates rejected Rowling's proposal and union affiliation remained to Anderton's relief. At the conference Gerbic used most of his speaking time to attack Anderton for publicly disagreeing with him over the SUP. Anderton was more bemused than angered and Gerbic's speech finished with a more booing than applause. As a result of this failure maverick Labour MP Roger Douglas publicly questioned Rowling's leadership qualities and his lack of direction. While Rowling did not respond, Anderton staunchly defended Rowling from Douglas' criticism.
Anderton got involved in the public discourse over the Mount Erebus disaster where an Air New Zealand plane crashed in Antarctica on 28 November 1979. He was publicly critical of the backlash that Justice Peter Mahon QC, who presided over the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the crash, received after the commission concluded that the primarily cause of the accident was an alteration of the flight path coordinates the night before the disaster while not informing the pilots of the change. The report contradicted an earlier investigation which concluded the accident was caused primarily by pilot error to which Mahon charged as "an orchestrated litany of lies" to cover up the real cause. Anderton particularly defended Mahon after a particularly attack on both him and his report by Prime Minister Robert Muldoon. After commenting publicly on the matter Bob Owens, the chairman of Air New Zealand, invited Anderton to a meeting with himself and chief executive John Wisdom. The meeting got heated with Anderton being confrontational in tone (particularly after Owens admitted to having not read Mahon's report in full and did not intend to) and lasted only 8 minutes. It climaxed with Owens calling his security to escort Anderton from the office. Air New Zealand subsequently released a press statement criticising Anderton. Rowling later apologised to Owens for the incident.
Many in the Labour Party (who were already critical of Anderton) used the Air New Zealand incident to attempt to remove him as president. A group of MPs (Michael Bassett, Roger Douglas, Mike Moore and Richard Prebble) organised a challenge for the presidency at the 1982 party conference. They approached former MP and party vice-president Joe Walding to stand, though he declined. Instead Bassett, the most acerbic critic of Anderton in the group, declared he would stand for the presidency of the party. An open conflict drew the ire of many in the party and eventually Bassett withdrew his candidacy. He was subsequently dumped from the shadow cabinet in February 1982 as a result. At the conference Anderton was challenged by Allan O'Neill, president of the Auckland Carpenters Union, but won easily 1,120 votes to 126.
Member of Parliament
In 1983 he was selected as the Labour candidate for the Christchurch seat of against 6 local contenders. The outgoing MP for Sydenham John Kirk declared that he did not support Anderton as the official Labour candidate and saw Anderton's selection a sign that Labour was moving too far to the left. In the 1984 general election, Anderton was elected as MP for Sydenham. This election resulted in the formation of the Fourth Labour Government. Some on the left of the party, including Helen Clark, tried to persuade Anderton to remain president of the party, however he declined to stand again at the 1984 conference believing the president should not also be an MP. Anderton was appointed chairperson of Labour's caucus sub-committee on industrial relations. Prime Minister David Lange sacked Anderton from the role on 3 August 1986 and replaced him with Fran Wilde ostensibly for a poor meeting attendance record, but more likely due to curb Anderton's ability to criticise labour market restructuring. After it was revealed he in fact had the second-highest attendance record, Anderton received a caucus-level apology.
Anderton soon came into conflict with the party's leadership, and became one of the most outspoken critics of Minister of Finance Roger Douglas. Douglas and his allies, Richard Prebble and David Caygill, were determined to implement radical reforms of the country's economic system, known unofficially as "Rogernomics". This involved a monetarist approach to controlling inflation, the removal of tariffs and subsidies, and the privatisation of state assets, all of which were regarded by Anderton as a betrayal of the party's left-wing roots, and an abandonment of the party's election platform.