Garth Neil McVicar (born ) is a New Zealand political lobbyist who founded the
Sensible Sentencing Trust
The Sensible Sentencing Trust is a political advocacy group based in Napier, New Zealand. The Trust's stated goal is "to educate both the public and victims of serious violent and/or sexual crime and homicide" It focuses on advocating for the ri ...
(SST) law-and-order advocacy group in 2001. In August 2014, he stood down from SST to focus on a campaign for
election to Parliament. McVicar was the candidate for the
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
in the electorate, and ranked third on the party's list, but was unsuccessful.
Biography
McVicar and his wife Anne have four adult daughters. The McVicars live with two of their daughters on their family farm near the
Mohaka River
The Mohaka river is on the North Island of New Zealand in the east central region of Hawke’s Bay. Mohaka is a Māori language, Maori word, roughly translated it means “place for dancing”. The iwi (Māori tribes) associated with the Mohaka Ri ...
west of
Napier.
He founded the Sensible Sentencing Trust in 2001 in response to the police prosecution of Mark Middleton for threatening to kill Paul Dally who tortured, raped, and killed Middleton's 13-year-old stepdaughter Karla Cardno in 1989.
In 2006 McVicar was ranked 32nd in a
New Zealand Listener Power List, a list of 50 influential New Zealand people. In 2014, McVicar was ranked 62nd equal on the Reader's Digest Most Trusted New Zealanders list, ahead of
Police Commissioner Mike Bush (79th) but well behind
Chief Justice Sian Elias
Dame Sian Seerpoohi Elias (born 13 March 1949) is a New Zealand former Government official, who served as the 12th Chief Justice of New Zealand, and was therefore the most senior member of the country's judiciary. She was the presiding judge o ...
(33rd).
According to
Stephen Franks
Stephen Franks (born 1950) in Wellington, New Zealand is a commercial lawyer. At one time, he was chairman and Partner of the large firm Chapman Tripp. Franks has been a member of two political parties. He previously served as a List MP for th ...
, a former member of parliament for
ACT New Zealand
ACT New Zealand, known simply as ACT (), is a right-wing, classical-liberal political party in New Zealand. According to former party leader Rodney Hide, ACT's values are "individual freedom, personal responsibility, doing the best for our natur ...
, McVicar had been asked to stand for
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
several times.
After weeks of speculation, McVicar announced in August 2014 that he had joined the
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
to contest the 2014 general election.
McVicar was 3rd on the
party list
An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can ...
and was nominated for the electorate. He received 7,135 votes but
cut into traditional
National Party votes allowing
Stuart Nash
Stuart Alexander Nash (born August 1967) is a politician from New Zealand. He was a list member of the House of Representatives for the Labour Party from to 2011, and was re-elected in the as representative of the Napier electorate. He ente ...
to win back the seat for
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
. McVicar subsequently announced his departure from the Conservative Party and that he would return to heading the Sensible Sentencing Trust.
On 1 April 2018, Garth McVicar drew controversy when he posted remarks on
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
lauding the
New Zealand Police
The New Zealand Police ( mi, Ngā Pirihimana o Aotearoa) is the national police service and principal law enforcement agency of New Zealand, responsible for preventing crime, enhancing public safety, bringing offenders to justice, and maintai ...
for killing a man armed with a machete who resisted arrest in the early hours of
Easter Sunday
Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the ''Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
. McVicar's remarks drew criticism from various people including prisoner advocates and a police officer, who stated that "shooting a human being is never a time to congratulate anybody." McVicar defended his actions and claimed that he wanted to spark a debate on public discussion of crime.
In December 2018, McVicar apologised on behalf of the Sensible Sentencing Trust after the organisation misidentified a man as a convicted pedophile on their online database, which caused the man considerable stress and duress. The
Privacy Commissioner John Edwards publicly criticised the Trust, stating that it had a "continuously negligent, cavalier, and dangerous approach to privacy." McVicar accepted that the organisation had made a mistake and promised to correct the inaccurate information on its database. However, he also criticised Edwards for alleged double standards in singling out the Trust for criticism while not calling for the names of recidivist violent offenders to be placed in a public database.
In December 2018, McVicar stepped down as leader of the Sensible Sentencing Trust. He was succeeded by his youngest daughter Jess McVicar, who became the Trust's National Spokesperson.
Views
McVicar is known as a "hard-line law and order lobbyist".
McVicar submitted to Parliament on the
Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Act 2013
The Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Act 2013 is an Act of Parliament in New Zealand, which since 19 August 2013, allows same-sex couples to legally marry.
The Act was proposed as a member's bill by MP Louisa Wall in May 2012, and wa ...
that "changing the law would be another erosion of basic morals and values in society that had led to an escalation of child abuse, domestic violence and an ever-increasing prison population." He stated that crime would increase if gays were allowed to marry.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:McVicar, Garth
1950s births
People from the Hawke's Bay Region
New Conservative Party (New Zealand) politicians
New Zealand activists
People educated at Napier Boys' High School
Living people
Unsuccessful candidates in the 2014 New Zealand general election