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 Rive ...

with his partner Nicola Shirlaw, and their three daughters.

Early political career

Donald held Values Party membership from 1974 to 1979 and then Labour Party membership from 1982 to 1988. On becoming national spokesperson of the impartial Electoral Reform Coalition 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: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

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. He retained his list seat in the 2002 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 basic ...

. From 1989 to 1993 he served as spokesperson for the Electoral Reform Coalition during the campaign that led to the introduction of mixed-member proportional (MMP) representation. Subsequently, he played a major part in getting legislation passed to allow STV voting in local body elections in New Zealand. Co-leader

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-r ...

, 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, 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, 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

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 that ...

( myocarditis), 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. 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 ...

Notes

References

External links