Mike Williams | |
|---|---|
 Williams in 2023 | |
| 32nd President of the Labour Party | |
| In office 19 November 2000 –2 March 2009 | |
| Vice President | Terry Scott Pat Webster Marian Hobbs |
| Leader | Helen Clark Phil Goff |
| Preceded by | Bob Harvey |
| Succeeded by | Andrew Little |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1949 (age 74–75) |
| Political party | Labour |
| Alma mater | Victoria University of Wellington University of Auckland |
Kenneth Michael Williams ONZM (born 1949) is a former president of the New Zealand Labour Party. [1]
Williams lived in Wainuiomata as a child before his family moved to Hastings. There he attended Karamu High School and was a friend of Paul Holmes. [2] He,alongside Holmes and Peter Beaven,organised a high school debating team. [3] At the age of 17,Williams joined the New Zealand Labour Party. He was recruited to the party by MP Jonathan Hunt. [4] He attended Victoria University of Wellington,where he joined marches against apartheid,nuclear weapons and the Vietnam War. He obtained a Master of Arts degree in New Zealand History from the University of Auckland. It was here that he first met future Prime Minister Helen Clark,where they were both members of the Princes Street Branch of the Labour Party. [2]
Williams set up two successful companies based on his experience of Labour Party organisation. Insight Research (now UMR Insight) was a market research company (which was sold in 1994) and Insight Data,which specialised in direct-mail and marketing and was sold in 1997. [2] Williams has been an information technology consultant [5] and was a director (until December 2008) of Genesis Energy,the NZ Transport Agency,and GNS Science. [6]
When living briefly in the United Kingdom Williams was invited to fill the role of a campaign manager to David Butcher (an old school friend of his) in the Hastings electorate at the 1978 election. Williams returned to New Zealand to manage the campaign and credits his experience in the campaign as getting him "hooked" on politics. He was not interested in becoming a Member of Parliament but was interested in political organisation,particularly the computerisation of it. [7]
Williams then started working for the Labour Party itself as an education officer during the 1981 election campaign,which Labour narrowly lost. [8] Afterwards,he rapidly moved into fundraising where he instigated a number of new practices including,a pledge system (whereby supporters agreed to pay a regular amount using the then-new automatic bank transfer system),sending out requests for donations to the party membership,enclosing pre-paid reply envelopes,visiting businesses to solicit donations,systematic canvassing and direct-mailing. These activities helped the party to achieve a landslide victory at the next election in 1984. After the election,Williams joined the Australian Labor Party in Canberra,after being headhunted for his computerisation skills and experience. but returned to New Zealand within a year. He attained a job at parliament working for Prime Minister David Lange,in charge of Lange's external communications and direct mail. [9]
After having sold his second company,Insight Data,Williams was invited by his friend and Labour MP Pete Hodgson for the role of Labour's nationwide campaign manager for the 1999 election. [7] Williams ran the 1999 election,which was won by the Labour Party. [2] After the election he was elected as party president at that years annual conference. He defeated former Labour MP Richard Northey 347 votes to 138. [4] As president he dealt frequently with personnel issues and dealt with most "behind closed doors". In 2022 Williams revealed such an instance that when a senior official in an electorate was exposed as a paedophile he fired him from his job,despite thinking retrospectively that he didn't have the authority to do so. [7] Williams retired as Labour's president in 2009 after Labour's defeat in the 2008 election. [10] He was the second longest serving president in Labour's history. [7]
In 2009 he became the Chief Executive Officer of the anti-P Stellar Trust,a charity which campaigns to raise awareness of the dangers of methamphetamine. [11]
Williams unsuccessfully stood for several local government positions in the 2010 Auckland local elections. These were the Henderson-Massey Local Board,the Waitakere Licensing Trust,and the WaitematāDistrict Health Board. [12] [13]
Since 2011 he has been the Chief Executive Officer of the Howard League for Penal Reform,a lobbying organisation for prison reform in New Zealand. [14]
In the 2023 New Year Honours,Williams was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit,for services to governance and the community. [15]
Michael Kenneth Moore was a New Zealand politician, union organiser, and author. In the Fourth Labour Government he served in several portfolios including minister of foreign affairs, and was the 34th prime minister of New Zealand for 59 days before the 1990 general election elected a new parliament. Following Labour's defeat in that election, Moore served as Leader of the Opposition until the 1993 election, after which Helen Clark successfully challenged him for the Labour Party leadership.
David Russell Lange was a New Zealand politician who served as the 32nd prime minister of New Zealand from 1984 to 1989.
Sir Roger Owen Douglas is a retired New Zealand politician who served as a minister in two Labour governments. He became best known for his prominent role in New Zealand's radical economic restructuring in the 1980s, when the Fourth Labour Government's economic policy became known as "Rogernomics".
James Patrick Anderton was a New Zealand politician who led a succession of left-wing parties after leaving the Labour Party in 1989.
Philip Bruce Goff is a New Zealand politician and diplomat. He currently serves as High Commissioner of New Zealand to the United Kingdom since 2023. He was a member of the New Zealand Parliament from 1981 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 2016. He served as leader of the Labour Party and leader of the Opposition between 11 November 2008 and 13 December 2011.
Richard William Prebble is a former member of the New Zealand Parliament. Initially a member of the Labour Party, he joined the newly formed ACT New Zealand party under Roger Douglas in 1996, becoming its leader from 1996 to 2004.
Sir Wallace Edward Rowling, commonly known as Bill Rowling, was a New Zealand politician who was the 30th prime minister of New Zealand from 1974 to 1975. He held office as the leader of the Labour Party.
Richard John Northey is a New Zealand politician. He was an MP from 1984 to 1990, and again from 1993 to 1996. He served on the Auckland Council between 2010 and 2013, and is a member of the Labour Party.
Michael Edward Rainton Bassett is a former Labour Party member of the New Zealand House of Representatives and cabinet minister in the reformist fourth Labour government. He is also a noted New Zealand historian, and has published a number of books on New Zealand politics, including biographies of Prime Ministers Peter Fraser, Gordon Coates and Joseph Ward.
Robert James Tizard was a Labour politician from New Zealand. He served as the sixth deputy prime minister, the minister of Finance, minister of Health and minister of Defence.
Cedric Russell Marshall, known as Russell Marshall, is a former New Zealand politician of the Labour Party and diplomat.
Frederick Miroslav Gerbic was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.
John "Jock" Skinner Stewart was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.
Colin James Moyle was a New Zealand politician. A member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1963 to 1976 and again from 1981 to 1990. He was a Government minister in the Third Labour and Fourth Labour Governments. He was a close confidant of Bill Rowling during Rowling's short premiership. In the Fourth Labour Government, as Minister of Agriculture, Moyle oversaw the removal of farming subsidies and the establishment of a fisheries quota system.
Peter Neilson was a New Zealand businessman and politician who was a Labour Party Member of Parliament in the New Zealand House of Representatives.
David John Butcher is a former New Zealand politician of the Labour Party. He was a Cabinet minister in the Fourth Labour Government.
On 3 February 1983, a New Zealand Labour Party leadership election was held to determine the leadership of the New Zealand Labour Party. The leadership was won by Mangere MP David Lange, who had been Deputy Leader of the party since 1979.
The 1993 New Zealand Labour Party leadership election was held to determine the leadership of the New Zealand Labour Party. The leadership was won by Mount Albert MP Helen Clark, who had been Deputy Leader of the party since 1989.
The 1990 New Zealand Labour Party leadership election was held on 4 September to determine the leadership of the New Zealand Labour Party. The leadership was won by Christchurch North MP Mike Moore.
The Backbone club was a ginger group within the New Zealand Labour Party in the late 1980s and early 1990s that advocated neoliberal economic policies and supported Roger Douglas in his financial reforms of New Zealand. Its members later became the nucleus of ACT New Zealand, a neoliberal party which Douglas founded in 1994.