Denis O'Rourke
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Denis John O'Rourke (born 26 July 1946) is a former New Zealand politician. He served fifteen years as a councillor on
Christchurch City Council The Christchurch City Council (CCC) is the local government authority for Christchurch in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority elected to represent the people of Christchurch. Since October 2022, the Mayor of Christchurch is Phil Ma ...
, and served six years as a Member of Parliament representing
New Zealand First New Zealand First (), commonly abbreviated to NZ First or NZF, is a political party in New Zealand, founded and led by Winston Peters, who has served three times as Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand, deputy prime minister. The party has form ...
.


Early years

Born in
Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...
, O'Rourke was educated at Christchurch West High School. He studied at the
University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...
, graduating with a
Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...
, and went on to practise law, specialising in legal drafting, statutory interpretation and commercial law, until 1992.


Political career


Early political activities

O’Rourke's political interest arose from his opposition to the policies of
Robert Muldoon Sir Robert David Muldoon (; 25 September 19215 August 1992) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 31st prime minister of New Zealand, from 1975 to 1984, while leader of the National Party. Departing from National Party convention, Mu ...
, who was Prime Minister from 1975 to 1984. O'Rourke perceived Muldoon's policies as divisive, with "incredibly oppressive regulations, absolutely awful economic policies which just drove New Zealand economy into the ground." O’Rourke became a member of the Labour Party in around 1983, and sought to be the party's candidate for the Sydenham electorate, but the party selected Labour Party President
Jim Anderton James Patrick Anderton (born Byrne; 21 January 1938 – 7 January 2018) was a New Zealand politician who led a succession of Left-wing politics, left-wing parties after leaving the New Zealand Labour Party, Labour Party in 1989. Anderton's pol ...
instead. On one occasion, he was the campaign manager for Ann Hercus who successfully contested . When Hercus retired prior to the 1987 election, O'Rourke stood to be Labour's new candidate in that electorate, but lost the nomination to Peter Simpson. O'Rourke sought the Lyttelton nomination again in 1992, this time losing it to
Ruth Dyson Ruth Suzanne Dyson (born 11 August 1957) is a former New Zealand politician. She was a Labour Party Member of Parliament from 1993 to 2020. She represented the electorate from the election to 2020. She also held a number of senior offices i ...
. O'Rourke first stood for Parliament as an independent candidate for the Ilam electorate at the . He finished seventh in a field of eleven candidates.


Local government

O'Rourke was elected to
Christchurch City Council The Christchurch City Council (CCC) is the local government authority for Christchurch in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority elected to represent the people of Christchurch. Since October 2022, the Mayor of Christchurch is Phil Ma ...
in 1989, as a representative of the Labour Party. He served on the council for 15 years until 2004. For many years, he chaired the Sustainable Transport and Utilities Committee, and under his chairmanship, the Blenheim Road deviation and the four-laning of Fendalton Road were major council projects. He championed unpopular projects like the Kate Valley Landfill and set up the Recovered Materials Foundation, which represented the start of kerbside recycling in Christchurch. O’Rourke lost his seat on Christchurch City Council in the 2004 local election. In this year, the size of the council was halved from 24 to 12, and O’Rourke came fifth in the two-member Hagley-Ferrymead ward. He ran for a seat on Environment Canterbury (the Canterbury Regional Council) in 2007, but came third in the two-member electorate. He also sought re-election to Christchurch City Council as well as a seat on the
Canterbury District Health Board The Canterbury District Health Board (Canterbury DHB or CDHB; ) was a district health board with the focus on providing healthcare to the Canterbury, New Zealand, Canterbury region of New Zealand, north of the Rangitata River. It was responsibl ...
(CDHB) in the 2010 local elections, but did not win a seat in either group; for the council he came second in the one-member Banks Peninsula ward and for the health board he came seventeenth in a contest for seven positions.


Switching parties

O'Rourke was a member of the Labour Party for 19 years. In 2003, he resigned over dissatisfaction with the direction of
Helen Clark Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008 and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...
's
government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...
. He joined
New Zealand First New Zealand First (), commonly abbreviated to NZ First or NZF, is a political party in New Zealand, founded and led by Winston Peters, who has served three times as Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand, deputy prime minister. The party has form ...
in early 2010.


Member of Parliament

In the , O'Rourke stood for parliament for
New Zealand First New Zealand First (), commonly abbreviated to NZ First or NZF, is a political party in New Zealand, founded and led by Winston Peters, who has served three times as Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand, deputy prime minister. The party has form ...
. He was placed seventh on NZ First's party lists. O’Rourke contested and lost the Port Hills electorate, coming fourth, but his party received 6.6% of the party vote, meaning that O’Rourke along with seven other NZ First candidates won seats in parliament. O’Rourke retained his list seat in the 2014 general election. He again contested Port Hills, coming fourth. He was re-elected to Parliament on the New Zealand First Party list. In the 2017 general election, New Zealand first lowered O’Rourke's position on its party list from 7th to 13th. With this lower ranking, and again coming fourth in Port Hills, he did not win a seat in Parliament. In the 2020 general election, he unsuccessfully contested the new
Banks Peninsula Banks Peninsula () is a rocky peninsula on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand that was formed by two now-extinct volcanoes. It has an area of approximately . It includes two large deep-water harbours — Lyttelton Harbour a ...
electorate. He was placed 10th on NZ First's party list, but the party only received 2.6% of the party vote, below the five percent threshold needed to enter Parliament, and so all NZ First MPs lost their seats at that election.


Political positions and style

In 2013, O'Rourke voted against the Marriage Amendment Bill, which introduced same sex marriage in New Zealand, with all of his fellow New Zealand First MPs. From his local government days, O'Rourke had a reputation of a "no half-measures" politician. He was known to undertake exhaustive research on his portfolios and claimed to have "read every word in every council report" ever put to him. O'Rourke described his political style as "forceful", whilst some others described it as "abrasive". One of his fellow councillors once publicly accused him of being a bully. O'Rourke describes debating as "recreational".


Business interests

Since 2000, O'Rourke was one of the Christchurch City Council representatives on the Central Plains Water Enhancement Steering Committee under Doug Marsh as chairman. The steering committee, which formed a trust, was set up by Christchurch City Council and Selwyn District Council. O'Rourke remained a trustee when he lost his seat on Christchurch City Council. In December 2009, O'Rourke replaced Marsh as chairman. Since 2008, O'Rourke has been chairman of a recycling plant in Opawa owned by Becon Canterbury that handles demolition waste and other commercial refuse. At times, O'Rourke has owned a wedding chauffeur business with this business partner Stephen James. In 2014 it had come to light that James had left a bogus review of the service on TradeMe which gained attention as O'Rourke had been elected to the Parliament.


Personal life

In 2014 O'Rourke was investigated by the
Speaker of the House The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England. Usage The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hung ...
David Carter for employing his partner or spouse in a tax-payer funded administrative role. O'Rourke denied that this was occurring, and that the person who lived at the address with him was just a friend and business partner. In August 2021, O'Rourke was charged with causing death by careless driving. O'Rourke was driving a party to a wedding in May 2021 when his car collided with a motorcyclist, who died at the scene. The charges were withdrawn in February 2022, with Crown Law stating that the motorcyclist was speeding and therefore at fault.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orourke, Denis 1946 births Living people Politicians from Christchurch People educated at Christchurch West High School University of Canterbury alumni New Zealand First MPs New Zealand list MPs Christchurch City Councillors New Zealand Labour Party politicians 20th-century New Zealand lawyers Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Unsuccessful candidates in the 1999 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2017 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2020 New Zealand general election University of Canterbury Faculty of Law alumni