Mike Moore (New Zealand politician)
Michael Kenneth Moore ONZ AO PC[1] (28 January 1949 – 2 February 2020) was a New Zealand politician, union organiser, and author. In the Fourth Labour Government he served in several portfolios including minister of foreign affairs, and was the 34th prime minister of New Zealand for 59 days before the 1990 general election elected a new parliament.[2] Following Labour's defeat in that election, Moore served as Leader of the Opposition until the 1993 election, after which Helen Clark successfully challenged him for the Labour Party leadership.
Mike Moore
Helen Clark
Geoffrey Palmer
Himself
David Lange
Geoffrey Palmer
Himself
2 February 2020 (aged 71)
Auckland, New Zealand
Following his retirement from New Zealand politics, Moore was Director-General of the World Trade Organization from 1999 to 2002. He also held the post of New Zealand Ambassador to the United States from 2010 to 2015.
Early life[edit]
Moore was born in 1949 in Whakatāne, Bay of Plenty Region, New Zealand, the son of Audrey Evelyn (née Goodall) and Alan George Moore.[3]
He was raised in Moerewa and while aged only two his mother pushed him around town in a pram which concealed Labour Party leaflets, which had been made illegal under the emergency powers enacted during the 1951 waterfront dispute.[4] His father died when he was five years old after which he moved to Dilworth School as a boarder. He was then educated at Bay of Islands College before leaving school at 14 to work as a labourer and then as a printer.[5]
He became an active trade unionist and at the age of 17 was elected to the Auckland Trades Council. He became the first youth representative on the Labour Party executive and was vice-president of the International Union of Socialist Youth for two consecutive terms.[6][7]
In 1975, he married Yvonne Dereany, a teacher and presenter of the children's television programme Romper Room.[8][9][10]