Clayton Cosgrove

Clayton James Cosgrove (born 31 October 1969) is a former New Zealand politician. He is a member of the Labour Party.

The Honourable
Clayton Cosgrove
52nd Minister of Immigration
In office
11 November 2007 – 19 November 2008
Prime MinisterHelen Clark
Preceded byDavid Cunliffe
Succeeded byJonathan Coleman
3rd Minister for Building Issues
In office
19 November 2005 – 5 November 2007
Prime MinisterHelen Clark
Preceded byChris Carter
Succeeded byShane Jones
24th Minister of Statistics
In office
19 November 2005 – 5 November 2007
Prime MinisterHelen Clark
Preceded byPete Hodgson
Succeeded byDarren Hughes
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Waimakariri
In office
27 November 1999 – 27 November 2011
Preceded byMike Moore
Succeeded byKate Wilkinson
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Labour Party list
In office
27 November 2011 (2011-11-27) – 23 September 2017 (2017-09-23)
Personal details
Born (1969-10-31) 31 October 1969
Nelson, New Zealand
Political partyLabour
Alma materUniversity of Canterbury

Early life

Cosgrove was born in Nelson, New Zealand. He received a BA (Triple Major), in History, American Studies and Political Science, from the University of Canterbury in 1992 and received an MBA in 1996. Before entering politics, he worked in the Corporate Affair field within the Minerals and Telecommunications industries. He was also a small business owner.

Labour Party involvement

Cosgove has been a member of the Labour Party since he was fourteen, and has held a number of posts within the party. He was chairman of the party's Canterbury branch from 1989 to 1994.

He was a strong supporter of Moore, and opposed Moore's replacement by Helen Clark. Before the 1996 election he was involved in discussions with Moore to form a new party but this failed to eventuate.[1]

Member of Parliament
New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate List Party
1999–2002 46th Waimakariri none Labour
2002–2005 47th Waimakariri none Labour
2005–2008 48th Waimakariri none Labour
2008–2011 49th Waimakariri 18 Labour
2011–2014 50th List 8 Labour
2014–2017 51st List 8 Labour

Cosgrove himself stood for election in Moore's former Waimakariri seat in the 1999 election, and was successful. During 2002 he was selected and graduated the World Economic Forum's Global Leaders of Tomorrow programme[2] (later called Young Global Leaders). He was re-elected in the 2002, 2005 and 2008 general elections. However, he was defeated in the electorate by National's Kate Wilkinson in 2011 and was subsequently elected as list MP. Wilkinson retired at the end of the parliamentary term and was replaced as National's candidate for the 2014 election by Matt Doocey, who had previously contested the 2013 by-election in Christchurch East.[3][4] Doocey beat Cosgrove with an increased majority.[5] Being again in eighth place on the Labour list, Cosgrove remained a list MP.[6]

Cabinet minister (2005–2008)

He was appointed Minister for Building and Construction, Minister of Statistics, Associate Minister of Finance, Associate Minister of Justice and Associate Minister of Immigration (responsible for individual immigration cases) after the 2005 election. At the October 2007 Cabinet reshuffle, he was promoted and replaced his Building and Construction and Statistics portfolio responsibilities; with the Immigration, Small Business, Sport and Recreation portfolios, and ministerial responsibility for the Rugby World Cup. He retained his roles as Associate Minister of Justice and Finance. Cosgrove lost his ministerial position when Labour was defeated in the 2008 election.

Cosgrove was selected to attend the World Economic Forum's Annual meeting in New York and Davos in 2001 and 2002, and was appointed to the Forum's task force on Free Trade. He is generally considered to be on the right of the Labour Party.

Boy racers

In August 2007 Cosgrove was targeted after raising considerable concerns about boy racers, who have caused numerous and significant problems throughout his electorate and Christchurch in general.[7][8] Boy racers attempted to intimidate Cosgrove in a number of ways, including defacing billboards and driving past his house on Saturday nights.[9] New Zealand has considerable problems with boy racers, leading to many car seizures[10] and a new law being mooted to crush the vehicles of the worst offenders.[11]

Opposition (2008–2017)

When Lianne Dalziel confirmed that she would contest the 2013 Christchurch mayoralty, her Christchurch Earthquake Recovery portfolio was split and assigned to Cosgrove and Ruth Dyson in July 2013.[12] He considered standing in the by-election resulting from Dalziel's resignation from Parliament, but in the end decided not to put his name forward for the Labour nomination.[13]

He announced he would be retiring from politics at the 2017 general election in April 2016.[14][15]

Post politics

After leaving parliament, Cosgrove worked as consultant and lobbyist, including for the ill-fated attempt to mine Foulden Maar for pig food[16][17] and the Greymouth Hospital construction.[18]

References
  1. Clifton, Jane (3 March 1996). "Moore closer to break with Labour". The Sunday Star-Times. p. A2.
  2. (PDF) https://web.archive.org/web/20120723153114/http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GLT_ClassOf2002.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 July 2012. Retrieved 4 February 2022. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. Conway, Glenn (8 November 2013). "Wilkinson to fall on her sword". The Press. p. A7.
  4. Conway, Glenn (8 November 2013). "Canterbury MP Kate Wilkinson quits". The Press. Retrieved 9 November 2013.
  5. "Official Count Results – Waimakariri". Electoral Commission. 21 September 2014. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  6. "Labour List for the 2014 Election Announced" (Press release). New Zealand Labour Party. Scoop. 23 June 2014. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  7. "Boy racers, residents draw battle lines". Television New Zealand. 20 August 2006.
  8. "Boyracers cause havoc in Christchurch". The New Zealand Herald. 10 March 2008.
  9. "Cosgrove hits back at boy racer website". The Press. 20 August 2007.
  10. "Hundreds of boy-racer cars seized", The New Zealand Herald, 22 May 2007
  11. "Car crush law closer for boy racers", The New Zealand Herald, 30 March 2009
  12. Cairns, Lois (11 July 2013). "Two MPs to take over Dalziel's portfolio". The Press. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  13. "Cosgrove not standing for Christchurch East". The Press. 6 September 2013. p. A5.
  14. "Labour's Clayton Cosgrove to leave politics". RNZ News. 10 April 2016. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  15. Law, Tina; Small, Vernon (11 April 2016). "Cosgrove calls quits on politics". The Press. p. A2. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  16. "Former Labour MP a lobbyist for firm planning to mine fossil-rich NZ land". Stuff. 13 May 2019.
  17. "Dunedin's 'Pompeii' to be mined to make pig food". Newsroom. 10 May 2019.
  18. "Greymouth hospital cost overrun more than $20m". Otago Daily Times Online News. 14 November 2019.
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