Kenneth Lex Shirley (born 12 August 1950) is a former New Zealand politician. He was a member of theACT New Zealand party, although was previously a member andCabinet minister of theLabour Party.
Shirley was born on 12 August 1950, the son of World War II veteran Wallace Keown Shirley.[1] He was educated atHeretaunga College inUpper Hutt,[2] and went on to study atVictoria University of Wellington,[3] graduating with aBachelor of Science degree in 1975.[4] He became a resources manager at the Nelson Catchment Board. He and his wife Jenny had two children.[5]
| Years | Term | Electorate | List | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984–1987 | 41st | Tasman | Labour | ||
| 1987–1990 | 42nd | Tasman | Labour | ||
| 1996–1999 | 45th | List | 3 | ACT | |
| 1999–2002 | 46th | List | 2 | ACT | |
| 2002–2005 | 47th | List | 7 | ACT | |
He joined theLabour Party in 1977 after moving toRichmond. In 1978 he became the secretary of the Tasman electorate committee. A year later he became the secretary of the Tasman campaign committee. When Tasman MP, and former Labour leader,Bill Rowling announced his retirement Shirley contested the nomination to replace him. From a field of seven (includingJohn Blincoe,Annette King andStephen Rainbow) he was selected as Labour's candidate.[5]
Shirley first enteredParliament in the1984 election, when he stood as theLabour Party candidate in the Tasman electorate. At the time, there was considerable tension in theLabour Party over the policies of theMinister of Finance,Roger Douglas – the policies were based around economicderegulation andfree trade, and traditionalists saw them as a betrayal of the party'sleft-wing roots. Shirley aligned himself with the faction that supported Douglas. Shirley was not a member of the faction's so-called "Troika" (consisting of Douglas,Richard Prebble, andDavid Caygill), but was nevertheless a notable supporter of the reforms Douglas promoted.
Eventually, thePrime Minister,David Lange, fired Douglas asfinance minister and then himself resigned. In the re-arrangement that followed, Shirley briefly heldCabinet rank asMinister of Fisheries, Associate Minister of Agriculture, Associate Minister of Forestry, and Associate Minister of Health. He lost these positions when theLabour Party was defeated in the1990 election. Shirley himself lost his Tasman seat toNational'sNick Smith, leaving him outsideParliament.
When Douglas and his allies created theACT New Zealand party, Shirley was involved. InACT's first electoral campaign, the1996 election, Shirley was ranked in third place on the ACTparty list, and re-enteredParliament as alist MP.
He has previously served as ACT's deputy leader, and in 2004, he was one of four candidates to seek the party's leadership after the retirement ofRichard Prebble.
On the retirement ofJonathan Hunt, he sought election asSpeaker of the House of Representatives, but placed third behindMargaret Wilson andClem Simich.
He remained alist MP until the2005 election, in which only two ACT MPs were returned.
In May 2006, Shirley was appointed Executive Director of Organics Aotearoa New Zealand (OANZ), the peak industry body representing the organic sector, which is charged with implementing a strategy to boost New Zealand's organic production to $1 billion by 2013.
In July 2007 the Researched Medicines Industry Association, a pharmaceuticals industry group, announced that Shirley was to be their new Chief Executive Officer, an appointment he took up in September 2007.
From July 2010 to 2018, he was the chief executive of the Road Transport Forum (RTF), representing road transport interests.[6][7][8]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Minister of Fisheries 1990 | Succeeded by |
| New Zealand Parliament | ||
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament for Tasman 1984–1990 | Succeeded by |