Denis Marshall (politician)
Minister of Lands | |
---|---|
In office 2 November 1993 – 10 December 1996 | |
Prime Minister | Jim Bolger |
Preceded by | Rob Storey |
Succeeded by | John Luxton |
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Rangitikei | |
In office 14 July 1984 – 27 November 1999 | |
Preceded by | Bruce Beetham |
Succeeded by | Simon Power |
Personal details | |
Born | Denis William Anson Marshall 23 September 1943 Marton, New Zealand |
Political party | National |
Denis William Anson Marshall
Early life
Born in Marton on 23 September 1943,[1] Marshall was educated at Norwood School, Gisborne, Hereworth School, Havelock North, Christ's College, Christchurch and Lincoln College as part of the Kellogg New Zealand Rural Leadership Programme and was a Nuffield Farming Scholar to the United Kingdom 1983.
In 1965, he married Mary Annette Kilmister, and the couple went on to have three children.[1]
Member of Parliament
Years | Term | Electorate | List | Party | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1984–1987 | 41st | Rangitikei | National | ||
1987–1990 | 42nd | Rangitikei | National | ||
1990–1993 | 43rd | Rangitikei | National | ||
1993–1996 | 44th | Rangitikei | National | ||
1996–1999 | 45th | Rangitikei | 32 | National |
Marshall was a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives from 1984 to 1999. Having joined the National Party in the 1970s, he was first elected to Parliament for Rangitikei in the 1984 election, defeating Social Credit Party leader Bruce Beetham. He held the seat against Beetham in the 1987 election, and retained it until his retirement at the 1999 election.
Cabinet minister
Marshall served in a number of Ministerial roles, beginning in 1993 and ending in 1996. He was
Minister of Conservation
Denis Marshall's best known post was as Minister of Conservation from 1990 to 1996 during which he also acted as Associate Minister of Agriculture and Associate Minister of Employment. He resigned from his role as a minister in May 1996, roughly a year following the April 1995 Cave Creek disaster in which 14 people died. A commission of inquiry[2] found that whilst many individual mistakes contributed to the accident, a root cause was that the Department of Conservation had been under-funded and under-resourced for the role it was expected to achieve, and from the time of its creation in 1987 it had remained disorganised internally with few consistently used project and safety management systems, or formally qualified staff for much of the required work. Intense scrutiny of the Minister followed, as well as scrutiny of the government's funding priorities.
He did not resign immediately following the release of the report, claiming that his resignation would not remedy the situation, and citing a quotation of
Life after politics
Marshall retired from Parliament in 1999, and moved to London. He took up a full-time post as Secretary-General at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association[3] (CPA) from January 2002 to December 2006.
He has been consulting to the UNDP and the WBI over the past four years.[4]
He now lives in Queenstown, Central Otago, New Zealand where he is a vigneron of his own vineyard Hawkshead Wine and producer of pinot noir, pinot gris, riesling and sauvignon blanc.
Community
In 2000 he founded the NZ National Parks and Conservation Foundation following his strong belief that there needed to be an opportunity for the private sector and corporate world to contribute more to conservation in New Zealand. He was the foundation's inaugural chairman from 2000 to 2001.
He was the chairman of the New Zealand Rural Communities Trust from 2000 to 2001.
He is a member in numerous community organisations in NZ such NZ Historic Places Trust and Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society.
Honours
In 1990, Marshall was awarded the
References
- ^ ISBN 0-908578-34-2.
- ^ a b Parliamentary Debate—Denis Marshall (Minister of Conservation), Wednesday, 22 November 1995
- ^ "Former Secretary-Generals". Archived from the original on 5 November 2016.
- ^ Stapenhurst (2006). "The role of parliament in curbing corruption". The World Bank.
- ^ "New Year honours list 2000". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 31 December 1999. Retrieved 23 March 2019.