Frank Grover (born 19 March 1940) is a former New Zealand politician. He was an MP from 1996 to 1999, representing first the

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 ...

and then the Christian Heritage Party 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 ...

Early life

Grover was born in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

on 19 March 1940, the son of Madge Grover (née Troutbeck) and Percival Gordon Grover. Before entering politics, Grover had a background in law, having received an

LLB Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

from

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

. He worked as a magistrate in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

from 1979 to 1983.

Political career

The Liberals

Grover was originally a member of the National Party, but became disillusioned with National's economic policy under

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", " ...

Ruth Richardson Ruth Margaret Richardson (born 13 December 1950) is a New Zealand retired politician of the National Party who served as Minister of Finance from 1990 to 1993. Her 1991 budget, which she dubbed the "Mother of all Budgets", formed the catalyst ...

. Richardson promoted strong

free market In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ot ...

economic theories, which were popular with some sections of the party, but resented by more conservative elements. Gilbert Myles and Hamish McIntyre, two National MPs who believed that Richardson's reforms were deeply harmful to society, split from the party in 1992, founding the new

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

. Grover was one of those who accompanied them. Soon afterwards, the Liberals chose to join the Alliance, a broad left-wing coalition which they saw as the most significant opponent of Richardson and her allies. Some members of the Liberals, quite possibly including Grover, were unhappy at this decision, however – while they opposed Richardson's reforms, they did not see themselves as left-wing. Following the failure of either Myles or McIntyre to be re-elected, Myles decamped to the newly founded New Zealand First party and McIntyre retired. Grover assumed the leadership of the Liberals in 1994.

Member of Parliament

Grover was elected to Parliament in the 1996 election as an Alliance

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 disagreed with the Alliance on a number of issues, however, and on 11 June 1999, not long before the 1999 election, he officially quit the Alliance to join the Christian Heritage Party. This gave the CHP its only ever seat in Parliament. In 1998 Grover had indicated that he would stand for the

Christian Democrat Party __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...

, but when they became

Future New Zealand The Christian Democrat Party of New Zealand was a Christian socially conservative political party established in 1995. It contested the 1996 general election as part of the Christian Coalition with the Christian Heritage Party. It changed it ...

he decided to join the CHP instead. Grover's switches was strongly criticised by other parties, particularly the Alliance but also New Zealand First, which had also experienced defections. For the election, Grover was ranked sixth on Christian Heritage's list, but the party failed to win any seats. Grover therefore left Parliament.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grover, Frank 1940 births Living people Politicians from Auckland Alliance (New Zealand political party) MPs University of Auckland alumni Christian Heritage Party of New Zealand MPs New Zealand Liberal Party (1991) politicians New Zealand list MPs New Zealand National Party politicians Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Unsuccessful candidates in the 1993 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 1999 New Zealand general election