Michael Laws

Michael Laws (born 1957), a New Zealand politician, broadcaster and columnist, served two terms as a Member of the New Zealand Parliament, representing the National Party (1990 - 1996) and New Zealand First (1996). First elected Mayor of Wanganui in 2004, he won re-election in 2007.

Early life

Born in Wairoa, Laws moved with his parents to Wanganui where he received his pre-tertiary education at Tawhero Primary School, Wanganui Intermediate School and Wanganui Boys' College. His father, Keith Laws, a schoolteacher, became Rector (Principal) of Waitaki Boys' High School (Oamaru) and then of Scots College, Wellington. On leaving school, Laws spent two seasons at the Whakatu freezing works before entering Otago University, where he graduated with first-class honours in history and earned a University Grants Committee Postgraduate Scholarship. He was also awarded an Otago University sporting blue [see 'Otago Daily Times'13 Sept 2008] (He later obtained a Master of Arts from Victoria University). During his time at Otago he attracted controversy as a key member of a student organisation that supported the 1981 Springbok Tour. He also became an accomplished public speaker and captained both the New Zealand Universities and New Zealand debating teams in the early-mid 1980s.

National Party Member of Parliament

Having become involved in the New Zealand Young Nationals (the youth wing of the National Party), Laws worked as a parliamentary researcher for National between 1985 and 1989. Most of this time he spent as a senior researcher and press secretary, including assisting the dissident National MP Winston Peters from 1987 to 1989. In the 1987 elections, Laws stood as the National candidate for the Hawke's Bay seat, but narrowly failed to defeat the incumbent Bill Sutton of the Labour Party. In the 1990 elections, however, Laws wrested the seat from Sutton to enter Parliament with a majority of 2,895 votes. In the 1993 elections he retained his seat with an increased majority — despite a significant nation-wide swing away from the National Party.

Renegade MP

Laws never had a good relationship with the National Party's senior hierarchy. As a researcher he had done much of his work for Winston Peters, whom party leader Jim Bolger looked upon with disapproval. Tensions persisted between Laws and Bolger after Laws became an MP, made worse by Laws' declaration that he would attempt to follow popular opinion in Hawke's Bay rather than National Party policy. Laws voted against his party on a number of issues, joining several other dissident MPs to oppose the economic policies of the Minister of Finance Ruth Richardson. In early 1991 he even organised public seminars designed to avoid his government's new superannuation surtax policies. The Bolger administration later abandoned the surtax, but Laws earned the ongoing enmity of his colleagues for his stance. He also championed the unsuccessful Death with Dignity Bill, which aimed to legalise voluntary euthanasia. The terminal illness of Cam Campion, a fellow dissident in Laws' first term in parliament, prompted this advocacy.

Throughout his parliamentary career, rumours frequently circulated that Laws planned to join a new party. When Gilbert Myles and Hamish MacIntyre, angry about Ruth Richardson's policies, founded the new Liberal Party, they invited Laws to join them, but he declined. Later, when his old boss Winston Peters established the New Zealand First party, rumours claimed Laws had considered changing parties, but eventually decided that New Zealand First lacked the organisation and principle for success. Finally, Laws became involved in discussions with Mike Moore, former leader (1990 - 1993) of the Labour Party, to establish a new centrist party. It did not eventuate, however, with Laws claiming that Moore showed unwillingness to commit to it. In the end, Laws' relationship with the National Party deteriorated to the point where he no longer attended caucus meetings, and he decided to join New Zealand First in April 1996.

The "Antoinette Beck" affair

Laws did not remain in parliament much longer, due to the "Antoinette Beck" political scandal. Laws employed a company part-owned by his wife to conduct a Napier City Council communications poll, in his capacity as a recently-elected (October 1995) Napier city councillor. This contravened the Local Government (Member's Interests) Act, but Laws claimed that "there had been no profit to either company or individuals", and an official inquiry by the Auditor-General confirmed found only a minor and unintentional breach of regulations.

However, Laws' conduct during the matter attracted strong criticism, with Laws misleading the public on a number of issues, and he eventually resigned from parliament. Differing opinions exist over the whole controversy. Laws acknowledges that he did things which he should not have done, but described the scandal as a relatively minor matter which his numerous political enemies blew out of proportion. His opponents paint Laws as corrupt. Official investigations by the New Zealand Police, by the Serious Fraud Office and by the Auditor-General found he had no case to answer. The latter declared that he made "an honest mistake" in not declaring his wife Karen's shareholding in the company that contracted to the Napier City Council to conduct the poll. This poll led to the "Antoinette Beck" affair, so named after a person who did not exist signed off the poll with this name.

Two of Laws' principal antagonists in the Antoinette Beck affair - Napier city councillors John Harrison and Kerry Single - unsuccessfully sued him for defamation, and Laws personally defended himself in the Napier High Court in December 1997. The Court awarded costs of over NZ$200,000 against the joint plaintiffs, and this court victory appeared to re-ignite Laws' public career.

Although he had left Parliament, Laws remained involved in politics, managing New Zealand First's campaign for the general election held on 12 October 1996. He would later write in his political autobiography that the experience resembled nursing a stick of unstable dynamite. Later he served as an adviser to Neil Kirton, who emerged as New Zealand First's leading dissident despite his position as an Associate Minister of Health. Laws' association with Kirton irritated the National Party, which had formed a coalition with New Zealand First. Eventually, the New Zealand First parliamentary leader, Winston Peters, sacked Kirton. Later, Laws worked in the public-relations industry. He eventually became a broadcaster, working in both radio and television.

Mayor of Wanganui

Laws returned to politics in 2004 by successfully contesting the mayoralty of the Wanganui District Council. He formed and led a "Vision Wanganui" team at the local-body elections, capturing the majority of the Council seats and unseating the incumbent mayor Chas Poynter, who had served for 18 years in that position. Laws immediately opened the Council's finance figures to the public, introduced yearly referendums, announced management-restructuring and lobbied successfully for a nil rate-increase for the district. A local community newspaper, River City Press, made him its inaugural "Person of the Year" for 2005.

However, Laws' mayoralty generated controversy, with some citizens complaining about derogatory comments he made about some Wanganui residents. An internal committee of investigation in mid-2005 (comprising mainly Laws' political allies) found that he had not breached the council's code of conduct, but his administration remained controversial. He dismayed the local arts community by canning plans for an extension to the Sarjeant Art Gallery while increasing funding for other local recreational facilities. Nonetheless, his "Vision Wanganui" grouping subsequently won two council by-elections in February 2006.

In August 2006, in his roles as both talkback-radio host and mayor, Michael Laws caused national controversy for refusing to lower the municipal flag to recognise the death of Tongan king, King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV (reigned 1965 - 2006). On his radio-show Laws described the deceased monarch as "a bloated, brown slug" and referred to the anti-democratic leadership of the Tongan royal family. Some people perceived the comments as an insult to the Tongan community residing in New Zealand, and minor protests occurred, including a complaint to the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA). The BSA subsequently cleared Laws of any breach of broadcasting standards, and later the New Zealand Press Council cleared columns he wrote on peanut-allergy sufferers and on public-school bans. However, New Zealand Herald readers judged it the "worst insult of 2006", marginally eclipsing prime minister Helen Clark's "cancerous" description of then Leader of the Opposition, Don Brash.

Despite his controversial style, Laws has acquired the reputation of having rejuvenated the "River City" (Wanganui). A couple of New Zealand newspapers, the Herald on Sunday(Feb 2007) and the National Business Review (December 2006) credit him with having raised Wanganui's profile and having had a positive effect upon property-prices.

In November 2006 Laws announced he would not contest the mayoralty at the 2007 local-body elections. He said he wanted to spend more time with his family, especially his young daughters Lucy and Zoe, but did not rule himself out of standing for lesser public offices. He had previously announced he had signed a five-year contract with RadioWorks to continue his morning talkback-show on Radio Live.

Laws campaigned vigorously against criminal gangs (such as the Mongrel Mob, Black Power and Hells Angels) and in April 2007 campaigned for a Yes vote in a Wanganui referendum to outlaw gang-patches and regalia in the Wanganui district. As a result, the Council drafted a local bill which the Whanganui MP Chester Borrows introduced into Parliament in 2008. A gang-related drive-by shooting of a two-year-old toddler in Wanganui in May 2007 reportedly prompted Laws to seek further legislation to outlaw gangs as well as their gang-patches. The anti-gang patch bill was heard by Parliament's law and order select committee and reported back positively on 24 September 2008.

Laws' reputation with the Wanganui public may have affected a 2007 independently-conducted Council-commissioned survey relating to public perception of the Council and its services, which reported a 77-percent positive rating, a significant improvement on a 2003 survey. He subsequently changed his mind about retiring from the mayoralty and on the last day for local-government nominations (24 August 2007) announced he would stand for a second term for mayor, (and as part of a "reformist" 'Health First' team for the Whanganui District Health Board).

On 13 October 2007, the voters re-elected Michael Laws as mayor with an increased majority: he gained about 50-percent more votes than the next candidate, John Martin, and won 55-percent of the total vote — the first Wanganui mayor since 1995 to gain over 50% of the total vote. However, his "Vision Wanganui" team lost its majority around the council-table, winning five of 12 seats. Laws also won election to the Whanganui District Health Board, as did two of his "Health First" team.

In 2008 he created a new power-sharing plan by making his councillors "mini-mayors" and giving them responsibility for areas of council policy. Laws was also back in the headlines for saying that pit-bull owners "look like their dogs" and for labelling pub charity gambling chiefs as "morons".

Election record

List of elections won/lost in Michael Laws' political career:

Year	Election	Result
1987	Hawke's Bay constituency (NZ Parliament)	Lost
1990	Hawke's Bay constituency (NZ Parliament)	Won
1993	Hawke's Bay constituency (NZ Parliament)	Won
1995	Napier City Council (council seat)	Won
2004	Mayoralty (Wanganui District Council)	Won
2007	Mayoralty (Wanganui District Council)	Won
2007	Member (Whanganui District Health Board)	Won

Other information

Laws has written three books which have sold well - all featured in Booksellers New Zealand's "Top Ten" fortnightly surveys.. The first, The Demon Profession, released in August 1998, comprised a political memoir that Laws characterised as an inside view into the real workings of politics. The following year he released a novel entitled Dancing With Beelzebub. His third book, Gladiator - the Norm Hewitt story (see Norm Hewitt), became the New Zealand No 1 bestseller over Christmas/New Year 2001 and sold over 35,000 copies.

Laws hosts a nation-wide morning talkback-radio show on Radio Live, hosts his own weekly rugby media show on SKY Network Television, and writes a weekly column for The Sunday Star-Times newspaper which won him the Charles Southwell Prize in 2003. He has also appeared on various "celebrity" and "reality television" shows.

In June 2008, the New Zealand Police prosecuted Michael Laws for contempt of court in relation to a breach of a suppression order on his Radio Live talkback show in December 2006. The Court discharged him without conviction.

Laws' partner, Leonie Brookhammer, gained election as a Horizons (Manawatu-Wanganui) regional councillor in 2004. They have two children: Lucy (born 2004) and Zoe (born 2006). Laws has two other children from previous relationships: James (born 1978) and Rachel (born 1979). Brookhammer quit at the 2007 election following her appointment as CEO of the organisation Natural Fertility New Zealand.

In April 2007 Laws won selection to participate in the television series Dancing with the Stars (with dance-partner Lauren de Boeck). Prior to the competition he broke a bone in his foot while practising, but vowed to continue, saying that Wanganui would benefit from the nationwide coverage. In his Sunday Star-Times column he classed himself as "a dancing duffer", and he did not survive the third episode of the competition.

In February 2008 doctors diagnosed leukemia in Laws' 3-year-old daughter Lucy; they gave her a poor prognosis due to other infections. However she survived that scare and Laws' mayoral website provides weekly updates as to her health.

In September 2008, Michael Laws went on paternal leave from the mayoralty to await the birth of his latest child, Theo(dore) Frederick Brookhammer Laws. He remains on leave.

Sources

Laws, Michael (1998). The Demon Profession. Auckland: HarperCollins (New Zealand). ISBN 1-86950-257-4

External links

• Official website
• Council website
• LawsWatch website
• New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists. The Open Society, Volume 76 No. 3 Spring 2003 (PDF, 272 KB) Page 17 (PDF 19), brief biography