Tony Brunt

Brunt was born in Auckland in 1947 and later became a journalist. He briefly changed profession and became a trade union organiser before returning to his career in journalism.[1] He then moved to Wellington to study political science at Victoria University of Wellington.[2]

Brunt became politically active and formed the environmentalist Values Party in the early 1970s and served as its inaugural leader. He founded the party to serve as a response to the "barren and miniaturist" political culture that existed in New Zealand at the time.[3] Then aged 25, Brunt was the youngest leader of a political party in New Zealand history.[4] He went on to contest the Wellington electorate of Island Bay at the 1972 election, where he placed third out of six candidates, gaining 7.6% of the vote.[5]

Two years later, he stood for the Wellington mayoralty and City Council on a Values ticket. He placed third for mayor but was easily elected to the council. Brunt's candidacy for the mayoralty was viewed as having drawn away many left-wing voters from the Labour Party. Labour mayor Frank Kitts lost office in a very close race and blamed the Values vote for his defeat.[6] In 1977 he again stood for both positions and was again elected only as a councillor, topping the poll with more votes than any other candidate.[7] Brunt opposed extending the Wellington Urban Motorway to the foot of Mount Victoria.[8] While he was a member of the Council, Brunt was also employed by the Commission for the Environment as an investigating officer.[9] He did not stand for re-election in 1980.

In the 1980s Brunt was chairman of the campaign committee of the Save the Rivers campaign to protect New Zealand's best wild and scenic rivers.[10] Brunt later moved back to Auckland and settled in the suburb of Hillsborough. In 2000, he became the chairman of the Friends of Puketutu Trust, a lobby group campaigning for the Manukau Harbour island of Puketutu to be classified as a regional park.[11]