Rodney David Donald (10 October 1957 – 6 November 2005) was a New Zealand politician who co-led the
Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand
The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand ( mi, Rōpū Kākāriki o Aotearoa, Niu Tireni), commonly known as the Greens, is a green and left-wing political party in New Zealand. Like many green parties around the world, it has four organisational ...
, along with
Jeanette Fitzsimons
Jeanette Mary Fitzsimons (née Gaston; 17 January 1945 – 5 March 2020) was a New Zealand politician and environmentalist. She was the co-leader of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand from 1995 to 2009, and was a Member of Parliament from ...
.
He lived in
Christchurch
Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...
with his partner Nicola Shirlaw, and their three daughters.
Early political career
Donald held
Values Party
The Values Party was a New Zealand political party. It is considered the world's first national-level environmentalist party, pre-dating the use of "Green" as a political label. It was established in May 1972 at Victoria University of Wellingto ...
membership from 1974 to 1979 and then
Labour Party membership from 1982 to 1988. On becoming national spokesperson of the impartial
Electoral Reform Coalition
The Electoral Reform Coalition (ERC) is a group advocating electoral reform in New Zealand. It was founded in 1986. The group has been reformed as the ''Campaign for MMP'' to fight to retain Mixed-member proportional representation at the 2011 r ...
from 1989 to 1993 he had to resign his party membership. After the success of the MMP referendum at the
1993 election he joined the Green Party in February 1994. After he became co-leader of the Greens in 1995, voters first elected him to
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
1996 election as an
Alliance
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
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 ...
.
The Green Party left the Alliance to stand alone in the
1999 election. He entered the 1999 parliament as number two on the Greens'
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 ...
. He retained his list seat in the
2002
File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
and
2005 elections.
Member of Parliament
For many years Donald had a special interest in
electoral reform in New Zealand
Electoral reform in New Zealand has, in recent years, become a political issue as major changes have been made to both parliamentary and local government electoral systems.
National elections in New Zealand were first held in 1853 using the basi ...
. From 1989 to 1993 he served as spokesperson for the
Electoral Reform Coalition
The Electoral Reform Coalition (ERC) is a group advocating electoral reform in New Zealand. It was founded in 1986. The group has been reformed as the ''Campaign for MMP'' to fight to retain Mixed-member proportional representation at the 2011 r ...
during the campaign that led to the introduction of
mixed-member proportional
Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP or MMPR) is a mixed electoral system in which votes cast are considered in local elections and also to determine overall party vote tallies, which are used to allocate additional members to produce ...
(MMP) representation. Subsequently, he played a major part in getting legislation passed to allow
STV voting in
local body
Local may refer to:
Geography and transportation
* Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand
* Local, Missouri, a community in the United States
* Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...
elections in New Zealand. Co-leader
Jeanette Fitzsimons
Jeanette Mary Fitzsimons (née Gaston; 17 January 1945 – 5 March 2020) was a New Zealand politician and environmentalist. She was the co-leader of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand from 1995 to 2009, and was a Member of Parliament from ...
described MMP as Donald's greatest legacy.
He also served as the Green Party spokesperson on
Buy Kiwi Made
Buy NZ Made is a campaign promoting and encouraging people to buy New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South ...
, commerce,
electoral reform
Electoral reform is a change in electoral systems which alters how public desires are expressed in election results. That can include reforms of:
* Voting systems, such as proportional representation, a two-round system (runoff voting), instant-ru ...
, finance and revenue,
land information,
regional development
Regional development is a broad term but can be seen as a general effort to reduce regional disparities by supporting (employ) economin regions. In the past, regional development policy tended to try to achieve these objectives by means developmen ...
and
small business
Small businesses are types of corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships which have fewer employees and/or less annual revenue than a regular-sized business or corporation. Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of being able to ap ...
,
superannuation,
sustainable economics,
state services
A public service is any Service (economics), service intended to address specific needs pertaining to the aggregate members of a community. Public services are available to people within a government jurisdiction as provided directly through pub ...
,
statistics
Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of ...
, tourism, trade, and
waste
Waste (or wastes) are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value. A waste prod ...
.
Death
Shortly after midnight on 6 November 2005, the day before his scheduled swearing-in for his fourth term in Parliament, he died suddenly at his
Christchurch
Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...
home after suffering for a few days from ''
Campylobacter jejuni
''Campylobacter jejuni'' () is a species of pathogenic bacteria, one of the most common causes of food poisoning in Europe and in the US. The vast majority of cases occur as isolated events, not as part of recognized outbreaks. Active surveillan ...
''
food poisoning from an unknown source. An autopsy initially ruled out a heart attack, but subsequent test-results determined that death resulted from an inflammation of the
heart muscle
Cardiac muscle (also called heart muscle, myocardium, cardiomyocytes and cardiac myocytes) is one of three types of vertebrate muscle tissues, with the other two being skeletal muscle and smooth muscle. It is an involuntary, striated muscle tha ...
(
myocarditis
Myocarditis, also known as inflammatory cardiomyopathy, is an acquired cardiomyopathy due to inflammation of the heart muscle. Symptoms can include shortness of breath, chest pain, decreased ability to exercise, and an irregular heartbeat. The ...
), which is a very rare consequence of ''C. jejuni'' infection. He was 48 years old. His funeral, which took place at the
Cathedral of ChristChurch, was attended by over 1,000 people.
His casket arrived on board an electric bus and his
wake took place at the adjacent
Warner's Hotel
Warner's Hotel in 50 Cathedral Square, Christchurch is the site of a hotel established in 1863. The original building, extended on numerous occasions, burned down in 1900. A new building was built in 1901. Again, it underwent numerous alteration ...
.
The Parliament showed its respect for Donald by suspending a day of business, and a
minute of silence was observed in the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
.
He was succeeded in the Green Party leadership by
Russel Norman
Russel William Norman (born 2 June 1967) is a New Zealand politician and environmentalist. He was a Member of Parliament and co-leader of the Green Party. Norman resigned as an MP in October 2015 to work as Executive Director of Greenpeace Aote ...
.
See also
*
*
Notes
References
External links
* VIDEO of Rod Donald speaking on 'Fairness In Trad
* VIDEO of Rod Donald speaking (humorously) at the Winter 2000 GPANZ conference in Turangi on 3 June 2000
Rod Donald biography(Green Party website)
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Donald, Rod
1957 births
2005 deaths
20th-century New Zealand politicians
21st-century New Zealand politicians
Alliance (New Zealand political party) MPs
Deaths from food poisoning
Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand MPs
Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand co-leaders
Infectious disease deaths in New Zealand
Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives
New Zealand Labour Party politicians
New Zealand list MPs
People from Christchurch
Place of birth missing
Values Party politicians