David Parker (New Zealand politician)
David William Parker (born 1960) is a New Zealand Labour Party politician who currently serves as Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Minister of Transport and Associate Minister of Finance in the Sixth Labour Government. He previously served as a Cabinet Minister in the Fifth Labour Government, Deputy Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party and Deputy Leader of the Opposition from September 2013 to September 2014, and as interim Leader of the Labour Party from September to November 2014. He represented the Otago electorate at the 47th Parliament and has since served as a list MP.

Before politics
David Parker was born in Roxburgh and grew up in Dunedin, where he attended Otago Boys' High School. He studied law and business at the University of Otago, graduating with a BCom/LLB. He co-founded the Dunedin Community Law Centre.

Before entering politics, Parker worked as a litigation partner in the law firm Anderson Lloyd Caudwell. He later had a business career in the agri-biotechnology field, including A2 Corporation, Blis Technologies, Botryzen and Pharmazen.

Member of Parliament

Fifth Labour Government, 2002–2008
Parker was first elected to Parliament as a Labour member in the 2002 election, winning an upset victory over the National Party's Gavan Herlihy in the Otago seat.

In the 2005 election, the National candidate Jacqui Dean defeated him in his Otago electorate seat, but he returned to the House of Representatives from the Labour party list.

During the Fifth Labour Government, Parker served as Attorney-General and Minister of Transport and Energy from 2005 until March 2006. He resigned his position as Attorney-General on 20 March 2006 after an allegation that he had filed an incorrect declaration with the Companies Office on behalf of the property company Queens Park Mews Limited. On 21 March Parker also resigned his place in Cabinet as Minister of Energy, Minister of Transport, and Minister Responsible for Climate Change Issues. An inquiry by the Companies Office cleared him of the charge of filing false returns.

Prime Minister Helen Clark re-appointed Parker to the Energy and Climate Change portfolios and to the Land Information portfolio on 2 May 2006. (The Attorney-General portfolio remained with Michael Cullen, and Annette King took over Parker's former Transport portfolio.) In July 2007 Clark appointed Parker as the acting Minister for the Environment following the resignation of David Benson-Pope.

In the 2008 general election Parker and Dean both stood in the resurrected Waitaki electorate, with Dean winning by over 11,000 votes. Nevertheless, he returned to Parliament due to his list position.

Fifth National Government, 2008–2017
Following Labour's defeat in the 2008 general election, Parker became the Opposition spokesperson on Conservation, ACC and Shadow Attorney-General. On 15 June 2010, Opposition Leader Phil Goff appointed Parker to be Portfolio Spokesperson for Economic Development, a position formerly held by Shane Jones, and shifted the portfolio of Conservation to Chris Carter.

In the , Parker stood in the  electorate, where he came third behind ACT New Zealand's John Banks and National's Paul Goldsmith,  but was again returned as a list MP.

Following the 2011 general election, Parker ran for the party leadership in 2011, but withdrew part-way through the contest to support David Shearer's bid. Parker then became the Labour spokesperson for Finance and the shadow Attorney-General (from February 2013). From 17 September 2013, Parker was the deputy leader of the Labour Party. He retained his finance portfolio.

In the , Parker did not contest an electorate, but was number two on the Labour list. He was returned to Parliament on the party list.

Following the poor performance of the Labour Party in the 2014 general election, and the eventual resignation of David Cunliffe as leader, Parker was appointed interim leader of the Labour Party. He then unsuccessfully ran in the 2014 Labour Party leadership election and he came third in the leadership election behind Andrew Little and Grant Robertson. Little offered for Parker to continue as finance spokesperson, but Parker declined. Instead, Parker was assigned a range of portfolios including shadow attorney-general and spokesperson for trade and export growth, the environment and, after the resignations of former leaders Goff and Shearer, foreign affairs.

Sixth Labour Government, 2017–present

During the 2017 general election, Parker was re-elected on the Labour Party list. Following the formation of the Labour-led coalition government, he was sworn in as Attorney-General, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for the Environment, and Minister for Trade and Export Growth. He also became Associate Minister of Finance.

On 8 March 2018, as Trade Minister, Parker formally signed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership on behalf of New Zealand.

In August 2018, Parker led the passage of the Overseas Investment Amendment Act 2018, that banned the sale of existing residential property in New Zealand to foreign buyers.

In a June 2019 reshuffle, the economic development portfolio was reassigned to Phil Twyford. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said this was so that Parker could focus more on water quality and trade negotiations with the European Union and United Kingdom.

In May 2020, as Attorney-General, Parker led the passage of the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020 through Parliament. This provided the legal framework for the Government's efforts to combat COVID-19. 

During the 2020 general election, Parker was re-elected on the Labour Party list. On 2 November, he was appointed as Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Minister for Oceans and Fisheries, Minister of Revenue and Associate Minister of Finance.

As Environment Minister, Parker has launched a "comprehensive overhaul" of the Resource Management Act 1991. On 14 November 2022, Parker introduced the Natural and Built Environment Bill into Parliament alongside the companion Spatial Planning Bill. The two bills are intended to replace the Resource Management Act 1991. 

On 2 March 2023, Parker in his capacity as Environment Minister removed Rob Campbell from his positions as chair and board member of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) in response to Campbell's LinkedIn post criticising the National Party's opposition to the Government's Three Waters reform programme. Campbell's remarks violated the Public Service Commission's policy of political impartiality for civil servants. Campbell had earlier been dismissed as the chair of the national health service Te Whatu Ora (Health New Zealand).

On 26 April 2023, Parker released research from the Inland Revenue Department that found New Zealand's wealthiest families pay less than half the amount of tax, across all forms of income, than most other New Zealanders. Parker said the "internationally ground-breaking research" revealed a "large differential between the tax rates ordinary New Zealanders pay on their full income compared with the super-wealthy". On 18 May 2023, Parker introduced the Tax Principles Reporting Bill that proposes an ongoing reporting framework for fairness in the tax system. 

On 21 June 2023, Parker gained the Transport portfolio, upon the resignation of Michael Wood following several controversies around shares. He replaced Kieran McAnulty, who was the temporary holder of the role following the original controversies around Auckland Airport shares held by Wood.

As part of an already planned reshuffle, Parker resigned his role as Revenue Minister on 25 July 2023 after Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, said Labour would not introduce a wealth tax.

Personal life
Parker has three children and is in a relationship with Barbara Ward.

On 28 February 2022, Parker became the first New Zealand Member of Parliament to test positive for COVID-19.

References

External links 

 MP biography

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1960 births
Living people
Attorneys-General of New Zealand
New Zealand Labour Party MPs
Members of the Cabinet of New Zealand
20th-century New Zealand lawyers
New Zealand list MPs
People from Roxburgh, New Zealand
Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives
New Zealand MPs for South Island electorates
University of Otago alumni
21st-century New Zealand politicians
Candidates in the 2017 New Zealand general election
Candidates in the 2020 New Zealand general election