Graeme Lee

Graeme Lee (b.1934) is a former New Zealand politician. He was originally a National Party MP, but broke away to found the short-lived Christian Democrat Party (now known as The Kiwi Party.)

Lee was first elected to Parliament in the 1981 elections, winning the seat of Hauraki as the National candidate. Lee replaced Leo Schultz, a prominent National MP. He retained his seat from then until the 1996 elections, although a change of electoral boundaries resulted in the seat which covered the Thames-Coromandel district being renamed Coromandel in 1996.

Lee was known as one of the more conservative members of Parliament, being one of the most vocal opponents of Fran Wilde's bid to lift restrictions on homosexuality. Lee gradually came to believe that the National Party was drifting away from conservatism, but initially resolved to fight the shift from within the party. When Lee was dropped from Cabinet in 1993, however, Lee began making plans to quit the National Party. In his organisational history of the Department of Internal Affairs, Michael Bassett observed that Lee had not made an effective or authoritative Minister of Internal Affairs, and relied heavily on consultation with that departments executives.

At first, it was thought likely that Lee would join the Christian Heritage Party, but talks between Lee and Christian Heritage broke down. An important issue was that of "confessionalism" - Lee, while strongly believing in Christian teachings as a basis for morality, believed that anyone who shared the proper principles should be allowed to contribute, even if they were not actually Christian. The Christian Heritage Party, being strongly confessionalist, rejected this, saying that it was only logical that a Christian party should bar non-Christians from membership. This issue, as well as a number of smaller points, caused Lee to turn away from Christian Heritage and establish his own party in 1994. Lee initially called his group the United Progressive Party, but in 1995, it was relaunched as the Christian Democrats.

Sporadic talks with Christian Heritage continued, with many Christian activists putting pressure on both sides to unify. Eventually, in late 1995, the Christian Coalition was established. In the 1996 election, however, the Coalition narrowly missed out on entering Parliament. It later collapsed amid many accusations and recriminations.

Lee had told his family that if he failed to remain in Parliament, he would retire from politics. After his departure from politics, he became involved with the evangelical housing provider Habitat for Humanity, and wrote an autobiography about his religious views and political life within the National and Christian Democrat parties, as well as his ongoing conservative Christian political stance. For his current organisational affiliation, see concluding paragraph and links section.

As party president Anthony Walton led the Christian Democrats after his departure. The party adopted stealth tactics, renaming itself Future New Zealand. It merged with Peter Dunne's United Party to form United Future New Zealand in 2000. The party received 8 seats at the 2002 election. However, most New Zealanders realised that this was merely a cosmetic change during the 47th New Zealand Parliament, with most of the caucus professing either fundamentalist Protestant or conservative Catholic religious beliefs.

Graeme Lee was a minister at Auckland's Greenlane Christian Centre for a brief period of time, and was also one of the co-ordinators of Vision New Zealand, a national evangelical/ecumentalist umbrella group.

Autobiography

* Michael Bassett: "Mother of All Departments: A History of the Department of Internal Affairs:" Auckland: Auckland University Press: 1997: ISBN 1-86940-175-1.
* Graeme Lee: "Faith, Politics and Servant Leadership": Auckland: Castle: 2002: ISBN 0-9582124-9-X

See also

* Christian politics in New Zealand
* http://www.vision.org.nz Vision New Zealand (evangelical/ecumentalist umbrella group)