Hon Peter Dunne
Leader United Future New Zealand
Member for Ohariu-Belmont
Hon Peter Dunne was born in Christchurch in 1954.
He graduated from the University of Canterbury in 1977 with a Master of Arts degree with Honours in Political Science, and has also studied business administration at Massey University. He was President of the University of Canterbury Students' Association in 1975.
He worked for the Department of Trade and Industry in Wellington during 1977-78, prior to joining the Alcoholic Liquor Advisory Council where he was Council Secretary (1978-80); Deputy Chief Executive (1980-84); and Acting Chief Executive (1984).
He has been a Member of Parliament since 1984, holding the north-west Wellington seats of Ohariu from 1984 to 1993; Onslow from 1993 to 1996, and Ohariu-Belmont since 1996.
He was a Labour MP from 1984 to 1994, resigning from the Labour Party in October 1994 to become a founding member of United New Zealand (now known as United Future) a few months later. He has been party leader since October 1996.
He has been Minister of Revenue and Associate Minister of Health since October 2005.
He has also been a Minister on two earlier occasions serving as Minister of Regional Development; Associate Minister for the Environment and Associate Minister of Justice in the Palmer and Moore Labour Governments; and Minister of Revenue and Minister of Internal Affairs in the National/United Coalition Government.
Earlier he was a Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Ministers of Health (1987-89); Trade and Industry (1987-89); Energy (1988-89); Regional Development (1988-90); Commerce (1988-90); Justice (1989); Environment (1989-90); Internal Affairs (1989-90); and Local Government (1989-90).
Mr Dunne has served on many Parliamentary Select Committees, including the Finance and Expenditure Committee from 1984 to 1987 and from 1990 to 2002, serving as its deputy chair from 1996 to 1999, and 1999 to 2002, and its chair in 1999. He was chair of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee from 2002 to 2005; chair of the Constitutional Arrangements Committee, reviewing New Zealand's constitution, in 2005; a member of the Standing Orders Committee from 2000 to 2005; and, a member of the Parliamentary Service Commission from 2001 to 2005. He has been a member of the Privileges Committee since 2002.
Mr Dunne became a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management in 2005, having been an Associate Fellow since 1988, and was a member of the board of directors of Employee Assistance Programmes Services from 1991 to 1997. He has been a trustee of the Business and Parliament Trust since 1991, and was chairman of its executive committee from 1992 to 1998. He has been a Trustee of the Asia New Zealand Foundation since 2002. He was a radio talkback host in 1994-95 and a broadcaster with Wellington Access Radio from 1997 to 2002. He has written two books: "Home is Where My Heart Is", published in 2002, and "In the Centre of Things", published in 2005.
He married Jennifer Mackrell in 1976 and they have two sons.
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