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Mike Moore, born 1949, has had a successful career in New Zealand politics for over 25 years.
He was the youngest person to be elected to parliament at the age of 23 as the Member of Parliament for Mount Eden, a position he held till 1975. He then went on to represent the Waimakiriri electorate (formally Papanui and Christchurch North) from 1978. He resigned as a Member of Parliament in 1999 to take up the role of Director-General of the World Trade Organisation.
In the course of his long parliamentary career, he held a number of ministerial portfolios, including Deputy Minister of Finance, Minister of External Relations and Trade, Minister Responsible for the America’s Cup, Minister of Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Minister Responsible for Publicity, and he was Minister of Overseas Trade and Marketing, a role in which he was involved with the GATT Trade Round Negotiations. He also led a number of trade missions to Australia, China, Japan, the Middle East, Latin America, and a number of European countries.
Mike Moore was the Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party from 1990 to 1993 and enjoyed a short term as Prime Minister of New Zealand from 4 September to 2 November 1990, and in the same year, he was appointed a Member of Her Majesty’s Privy Council.
Before his parliamentary career he was an active trade unionist. He became a Member of the Auckland Trades Council when he was 17 years old and was also the first youth representative on the New Zealand Labour Party Executive.
Mike Moore is a prolific author and has written a number of books ranging from politics to the Pacific. His many titles include Added Value Economy, Beyond Tomorrow, Brief History of the Future, Bush Fire Justice, Children of the Poor, Hard Labour, Labour of Love,New Zealand: a Nation That Can Work Again and On Balance: a Labour Look at Regional, Community and Town Development.
He has received many foreign distinctions and Honorary Doctorates. In addition to Honorary Doctorates in Commerce from Lincoln University, the Auckland University of Technology, and the University of Canterbury, he has an Honorary Doctorate in Economics from the People’s University of China and an Honorary Doctorate in Law from La Trobe University in Australia.
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