Kenneth Lex Shirley (born 12 August 1950) is a former New Zealand politician. He was a member of the

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 ...

party, although was previously a member and

Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

minister of the Labour Party.

Early life

Shirley was born on 12 August 1950, the son of World War II veteran Wallace Keown Shirley. He was educated at

Heretaunga College Heretaunga College is a state coeducational secondary school located in Upper Hutt, New Zealand. The school has approximately students from Years 9 to 13 (ages 12 to 18). The college grounds are a large area with primary access via Ward Street ...

Upper Hutt Upper Hutt ( mi, Te Awa Kairangi ki Uta) is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand and one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington#Wellington metropolitan area, Wellington metropolitan area. Geography The Upper Hutt city cent ...

, and went on to study at

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well know ...

, graduating with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in 1975. He became a resources manager at the Nelson Catchment Board. He and his wife Jenny had two children.

Member of Parliament

He joined the Labour Party in 1977 after moving to

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

. In 1978 he became the secretary of the Tasman electorate committee. A year later he became the secretary of the Tasman campaign committee. When Tasman MP, and former Labour leader,

Bill Rowling Sir Wallace Edward Rowling (; 15 November 1927 – 31 October 1995), 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 parliamentary leader of t ...

announced his retirement Shirley contested the nomination to replace him. From a field of seven (including

John Blincoe John Gary Blincoe (born 1952) is a former New Zealand politician. He was an MP from 1990 to 1996, representing the Labour Party. Early life and family Blincoe was born on 14 March 1952 in Nelson, New Zealand. His parents were Victor and May ...

Annette King Dame Annette Faye King (née Robinson, born 13 September 1947) is a former New Zealand politician. She served as Deputy Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party and Deputy Leader of the Opposition from 2008 to 2011, and from 2014 until 1 March 20 ...

and

Stephen Rainbow Stephen Laurence Rainbow (born 26 January 1961) is a former New Zealand politician. He is manager of Auckland Transport's key relationships unit. Biography Early life Stephen Rainbow was born in Christchurch in 1961. He grew up on a tobacco fa ...

) he was selected as Labour's candidate. Shirley first entered

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 ...

in the 1984 election, when he stood as the Labour Party candidate in the Tasman electorate. At the time, there was considerable tension in the Labour Party over the policies of the

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

Roger Douglas Sir Roger Owen Douglas (born 5 December 1937) is a retired New Zealand politician who served as a minister in two Labour governments. He became arguably best known for his prominent role in New Zealand's radical economic restructuring in the 198 ...

– the policies were based around economic

deregulation Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...

and

free trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econo ...

, and traditionalists saw them as a betrayal of the party's

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

roots. Shirley aligned himself with the faction that supported Douglas. Shirley was not a member of the faction's so-called "Troika" (consisting of Douglas,

Richard Prebble Richard William Prebble (born 7 February 1948) 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 19 ...

, and

David Caygill David Francis Caygill (born 15 November 1948) is a former New Zealand politician. Caygill was born and raised in Christchurch. He entered politics in 1971 as Christchurch's youngest city councillor at the age of 22. He served as a Member of Pa ...

), but was nevertheless a notable supporter of the reforms Douglas promoted.

Cabinet minister

Eventually, the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

David Lange David Russell Lange ( ; 4 August 1942 – 13 August 2005) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 32nd prime minister of New Zealand from 1984 to 1989. Lange was born and brought up in Otahuhu, the son of a medical doctor. He became ...

, fired Douglas as

finance minister A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

and then himself resigned. In the re-arrangement that followed, Shirley briefly held

rank as Minister of Fisheries, Associate Minister of Agriculture, Associate Minister of Forestry, and Associate Minister of Health. He lost these positions when the Labour Party was defeated in the 1990 election. Shirley himself lost his Tasman seat to

National National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

's Nick Smith, leaving him outside

ACT New Zealand

When Douglas and his allies created the

party, Shirley was involved. In ACT's first electoral campaign, the 1996 election, Shirley was ranked in third place on the ACT

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 re-entered

as a

list MP A list MP is a member of parliament (MP) elected from a party list rather than from by a geographical constituency. The place in Parliament is due to the number of votes that the party won, not to votes received by the MP personally. This occurs ...

. He has previously served as ACT's deputy leader, and in 2004, he was one of four candidates to seek the party's leadership after the retirement of

. On the retirement of Jonathan Hunt, he sought election as Speaker of the House of Representatives, but placed third behind

Margaret Wilson Margaret Anne Wilson (born 20 May 1947) is a New Zealand lawyer, academic and former Labour Party politician. She served as Attorney-General from 1999 to 2005 and Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2005 to 2008, during the Fifth L ...

and

Clem Simich Clement Rudolph "Clem" Simich or Šimić (born 2 June 1939) is a New Zealand politician for the National Party. Early life Simich was born in Te Kōpuru, Northland in 1939. Member of Parliament He was first elected to Parliament in ...

. He remained a

until the 2005 election, in which only two ACT MPs were returned.

Post-parliamentary career

In May 2006, Shirley was appointed Executive Director of Organics Aotearoa New Zealand (OANZ), the peak industry body representing the organic sector, which is charged with implementing a strategy to boost New Zealand's organic production to $1 billion by 2013. In July 2007 the Researched Medicines Industry Association announced that Shirley was to be their new Chief Executive Officer, an appointment he took up in September 2007. Since July 2010, he has been the chief executive of the Road Transport Forum (RTF), representing road transport interests.

References