Kerry Burke

Burke was first elected to Parliament as the Labour MP for Rangiora in the 1972 election. From 1973 to 1978 he was a Lincoln College Council member.[1]

In the 1975 election, however, he lost his seat, and remained outside Parliament for three years.[1]

After his defeat he took consolation that the swing against him in his electorate was lower than the overall swing against the government. He also appreciated that leaving parliament would give him more time to spend with his sons.[3] He decided to return to teaching, though found there to be no teaching vacancies in Canterbury at the time. This prompted him to move to the West Coast to teach at Greymouth High School from 1976 to 1978.[2]

He established himself locally and when the local MP, Paddy Blanchfield, announced his retirement Burke sought the Labour Party candidacy. Despite facing criticisms as an outsider, he managed to win the nomination over eight other candidates.[3]

In the 1978 election, Burke was elected as the MP for the West Coast electorate. After reentering Parliament he criticised the closure of several gasworks in his electorate as well as the resulting employee reductions at the Liverpool coal mine after subsidies for them were cut by the Muldoon government.[3]

He was elevated to the shadow cabinet by Labour leader Bill Rowling in 1979 and was Shadow Minister of Labour and State Services from 1979 to 1980, Shadow Minister of Employment and Science & Technology from 1981 to 1982 and Shadow Minister of Employment, Regional Development and Tourism from 1982 to 1983.[1] He supported Rowling when he was challenged for the leadership in 1980 by deputy leader David Lange.[4]

When Lange replaced Rowling in 1983 Burke fell in the rankings and was left only with the regional development portfolio.[5]

When Labour won the 1984 election, Burke became Minister of Immigration, Minister of Employment, . He held these roles until the 1987 election, when he was chosen to replace the outgoing Gerry Wall as Speaker. At 45 he was the second youngest Speaker in the history of the Parliament of New Zealand.

He served in this role for three years, losing the Speakership and his seat when Labour lost the 1990 election. In the 1990 New Year Honours, Burke was appointed a Knight Bachelor,[6] and the same year he was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.[7]

He was first elected councillor of the Canterbury Regional Council in 1998 and was chairman from 2004. On 24 October 2007, following the local body elections where he stood in the Christchurch South constituency, he was elected Chairman for a further term.[8][9]

On 24 September 2009, Burke lost a motion of no confidence and was replaced as Chairman.[10] In 2010, the New Zealand Government fired Burke, and the remaining Regional Councillors of Environment Canterbury, two years after the previous local body elections. They were replaced by Government-appointed Commissioners and elections for Environment Canterbury were to be held in 2013, but a return to full democracy was delayed until the 2019 local elections. The reason cited for the sacking was due to poor direction, "woeful" performance and governance and an overall collapse of confidence in the organisation.[11] In the 2010 local elections, Burke stood for Christchurch City Council in the Spreydon-Heathcote ward but was beaten by the two incumbents (Sue Wells and Barry Corbett).[12]