Nick Smith (New Zealand)

Nick Smith (born 24 December 1964) is a member of the New Zealand Parliament, a former Cabinet minister, and a former deputy leader of the National Party.

Education and early career

Smith was educated at Canterbury University achieving 1st Class Honours in Civil Engineering, was an AFS Scholar to the U.S. and eventually gained a Ph.D. with a thesis on New Zealand landslides [http://www.nick4nelson.co.nz/about_nick.html] . Before entering parliament, he worked as an engineer for the Rangiora County Council, and as director of his family construction company. He also served on the Rangiora District Council.

Entry to politics

After having been involved in the National Party since his university days, Smith stood in the 1990 elections as the party's candidate in the Tasman electorate (based around Nelson). He has retained that seat (now called Nelson) since that time.

Cabinet

In 1996, after serving six years in parliament, Smith was elevated to Cabinet, becoming Minister of Conservation. A year later, in 1997, he gained the additional responsibility of Minister of Corrections. He also held a number of Associate Minister positions during this time. In early 1999, he dropped the Corrections portfolio and became Minister of Education. When National was defeated in the 1999 elections, Smith continued to serve as his party's education spokesperson.

Leadership struggles

Smith was a supporter of Bill English's bid to replace Jenny Shipley as party leader. When English was successful, Smith's position within the party rose. When English was himself challenged by Don Brash, Smith was one of English's strongest defenders, working very hard to win support against Brash. Eventually, however, English was defeated.

Smith was appointed to the position of deputy leader, presumably to placate members of the English camp. He took up this position on 28 October 2003. Soon, however, he was challenged from within the party on the basis of his behaviour after his elevation, which critics described as "irrational" and "paranoid". Smith's defenders said that the claims were exaggerated, and that Smith was merely suffering from stress and exhaustion. Smith returned to Nelson on "stress leave".

When Smith returned to parliament, however, he found himself challenged for the deputy leadership by Gerry Brownlee. Smith and his supporters were angry at this, saying that Brownlee's supporters had taken advantage of Smith's absence to deliberately misrepresent Smith as unstable. Smith was also angry that neither Brownlee or Brash (who appeared now to support Brownlee) had given any indication of the upcoming challenge. Smith was defeated, and lost the deputy leadership on 17 November 2003.

Contempt of Court

In late March 2004, Smith was found guilty of contempt of court. He had been asked to assist a constituent with a Family Court case and made a number of public comments which broke the court's confidentiality rules and was also found to have pressured a witness in the case. Smith's defence was that he was exercising his responsibility as a constituency MP to aid a constituent and that his public utterences in the matter had served the public interest, but these claims were rejected by the court. The Speaker, Jonathan Hunt, held that contempt of court was insufficient to warrant expulsion from Parliament, as it is not a crime.

Smith considered seeking a renewed public mandate through a by-election, but no by-election was held after leaders of other parties criticised the idea. Smith stood again in the 2005 general election and kept his seat with a greatly increased majority, his personal share of the vote increasing from 46.8% to 54.9% and his overall majority from 4,232 to 10,226.

Smith currently serves as National's spokesperson for building & construction, energy, and the environment / RMA. He is nominally ranked fifth in the National Party's hierarchy.

External links

* [http://www.nick4nelson.co.nz/ Official website]