Jenny Shipley

The Right Honourable Dame Jenny Shipley DNZM
Shipley in 2013
36th Prime Minister of New Zealand
In office 8 December 1997 – 5 December 1999
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Governor-General	Michael Hardie Boys
Deputy	Winston Peters Wyatt Creech
Preceded by	Jim Bolger
Succeeded by	Helen Clark
28th Leader of the Opposition
In office 10 December 1999 – 8 October 2001
Prime Minister	Helen Clark
Preceded by	Helen Clark
Succeeded by	Bill English
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Rakaia
In office 27 October 1990 – 27 July 2002
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Brian Connell
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Ashburton
In office 15 August 1987 – 27 October 1990
Preceded by	Rob Talbot
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Personal details
Born	Jennifer Mary Robson (1952-02-04) 4 February 1952 Gore, New Zealand
Political party	National Party
Spouse(s)	Burton Shipley (m. 1972)
Children	2

Dame Jennifer Mary Shipley DNZM PC (née Robson; born 4 February 1952^[1]) is a former New Zealand politician who served as the 36th Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1997 to 1999. She was the first female Prime Minister of New Zealand, and is the only woman to have led the National Party.^[2]

Shipley was born in Gore, Southland. She grew up in rural Canterbury, and attended Marlborough Girls' College and the Christchurch College of Education. Before entering politics, she worked as a schoolteacher and was involved with various community organisations. Shipley was elected to Parliament at the 1987 election, winning the Ashburton electorate (later renamed Rakaia). When the National Party returned to power in 1990, she was appointed to Cabinet under Jim Bolger. Shipley subsequently served as Minister of Social Welfare (1990–1996), Minister for Women's Affairs (1990–1996), Minister of Health (1993–1996), and Minister of Transport (1996–1997).

In December 1997, Bolger resigned as Prime Minister after losing the confidence of his party. Shipley was elected as his replacement unopposed, becoming New Zealand's first female head of government. She inherited an uneasy coalition with New Zealand First, led by Winston Peters. The coalition was dissolved in August 1998, but Shipley was able to remain in power with the aid of Mauri Pacific, an NZ First splinter group. At the 1999 election, Shipley's government was defeated by Helen Clark's Labour Party. She continued on as Leader of the Opposition until October 2001. Shipley has involved herself with business and charitable interests since leaving politics, and is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders.

Early life

Born in Gore, New Zealand, Shipley was one of four sisters.^[3] After attending Marlborough Girls' College, she qualified in 1971 as a teacher through the Christchurch College of Education and taught in New Zealand primary schools until 1976. In 1973 she married Burton Shipley and settled in Ashburton.^[3]

Member of Parliament

Having joined the National Party in 1975, Shipley successfully stood in Ashburton, a safe National seat in the country areas surrounding Christchurch, in the 1987 election. Entering parliament at age 35, she was one of parliament's youngest members.^[3]

Prime Minister

Shipley and US President Bill Clinton join in a toast during a gala at the Royal New Zealand Air Force Museum in Christchurch, 15 September 1999

Shipley grew increasingly frustrated and disillusioned with the cautious pace of National's leader, Jim Bolger, and with what she saw as the disproportionate influence of New Zealand First. She began gathering support to replace Bolger in mid-1997. Later that year, while Bolger attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Shipley convinced a majority of her National Party colleagues to back her bid for the leadership. Bolger returned to New Zealand and discovered that he no longer had the support of his party. Rather than face being voted out, he resigned, and Shipley replaced him. As leader of the governing party, she became Prime Minister on 8 December 1997. On 21 May 1998 Shipley was appointed to the Privy Council and became The Right Honourable Jenny Shipley.^[6]

Despite continued economic growth, the Shipley government became increasingly politically unstable. In particular, the relationship between National and New Zealand First deteriorated. While Bolger had been able to maintain good relations with New Zealand First and with its leader, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, the alliance became strained after Shipley rose to power. Finally, on 14 August 1998, Shipley sacked Peters from Cabinet.^[7][8]

Shipley, along with the New Zealand Tourism Board, backed the quasi-national emblem of the silver fern on a black background as a possible alternative flag,^[9][10] along the lines of the Canadian flag, but she took pains to publicly disassociate herself from Bolger's support for republicanism. As the debate continued in 1999, the Princess Royal visited New Zealand, and Shipley stated, "I am an unashamed royal supporter, along with many New Zealanders".^[11] However, the debate was muted by the controversy surrounding Tourism Board contracts going to the public-relations firm Saatchi & Saatchi, whose World CEO Kevin Roberts, also an advocate of the silver fern flag, was a good friend of Shipley.^[12]

The APEC Summit was hosted in Auckland in September 1999. Shipley met with the President of the United States, Bill Clinton, in one of only two state visits to New Zealand by a US President.^[13]

Shipley was the first Prime Minister to attend the gay and lesbian Hero Parade,^[14] being the first National Party leader to seek to make electoral overtures to the gay and lesbian voting public. She advocated lowering the alcohol purchase age from 20 to 18 and achieved this in 1999.^[8] This was part of her expressed desire to expand the traditional National Party voting base.

Shipley became a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an international network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers.^[15]

Defeat and resignation

Shipley led the National Party into the 1999 election, hoping to become the first woman to be elected prime minister in her own right. However, she was defeated by the Labour Party, also led by a woman, Helen Clark. This election was a significant moment in history for New Zealand as it was the first (and to date, only) New Zealand election in which the leaders of both major parties were women.^[16]

Shipley served as the Leader of the Opposition until October 2001, when Bill English took over as National Party leader.^[17] She retired from Parliament in January 2002.^[18]

Media commentary

Given Shipley was New Zealand's first female Prime Minister, it is perhaps surprising that there is relatively little commentary on Shipley during her time as Prime Minister. Shipley comments herself during her 9th floor interview with Guyson Espiner that women and men tend to be labelled differently in the media. She uses the example that men are called bold, whereas women are called vindictive. Although, she notes that this is an observation, not something that hurts her personally.^[19] Shipley was nicknamed "the perfumed steamroller," when she first became Prime Minister^[20] an indication of how people viewed her as strong and tough, but at the same time still a woman.

Health

Shipley suffered a heart attack in 2000, leading to an emergency angioplasty procedure.^[21] She made modifications to her lifestyle and lost weight, though she was diagnosed with diabetes in 2004. She underwent gastric bypass surgery in late 2007.^[15]

Life after politics

Since leaving politics, Shipley has involved herself with various business and charitable interests. In 2007, she joined the financial services firm Source Sentinel, and in 2009, she was appointed chair of the Genesis Energy Limited board.^[22] As of 2012, she was on the board of the China Construction Bank.^[23] In December 2012, Shipley resigned from the board of directors of Mainzeal Property & Construction (MPCL), which went into receivership on 6 February 2013. At mid-day on 5 February 2013 she was one of four independent directors who resigned from the board of Mainzeal Group Ltd.^[24] MPCL and Mainzeal Group Limited are part of the Richina group, controlled and majority owned by Yan Ci Lang (also known as Richard Yan).^{[25][26][27][28]} In May 2015, the receiver of Mainzeal, BDO, filed a civil lawsuit against the former Mainzeal directors, including Shipley, for an alleged breach of directors' duties.^[29]

Shipley accepted a damehood on 14 August 2009. This came after the Fifth National Government reinstated knighthoods.^[30] Also in 2009, Shipley appeared on an episode of the television reality/travel show Intrepid Journeys, where she visited Namibia.^[31] She later started a charity to help a school she came across on that trip called the Namibian Educational Trust.^[32] Shipley chairs Global Women NZ, and is Patron of the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre and the New Zealand National Heart Foundation's campaign "Go Red for Women".^[15]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jenny Shipley.

• Prime Minister's Office biography, primeminister.govt.nz; accessed 18 June 2015.
• Profile, GlobalWomen.org.nz; accessed 18 June 2015.
• Scherer, Karyn (4 February 2008). "The prime of Mrs Jenny Shipley". The New Zealand Herald.