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Larry Baldock MP |
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1st Leader of the Kiwi
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Assumed office January 5, 2008 |
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| Deputy | Gordon Copeland |
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In office 2002 – 2005 |
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| Born | 1954 |
| Nationality |  New Zealand |
| Political party | United Future
(2002-2005) Future New Zealand (2007-2008) The Kiwi Party(2008-) |
| Religion | Evangelical Christian |
Larry Baldock (born 1954) is a New Zealand politician. He was a member of the United Future New Zealand party caucus. He was originally elected to Parliament in 2002 elections. Before entering national politics, he served on the Tauranga City Council, and was also previously involved with the evangelical Youth With A Mission organisation.
Contents |
| Years | Term | Electorate | List | Party |
| 2002–2005 | 47th | List | 7 | United Future |
Along with Murray Smith, Bernie Ogilvy,and Marc Alexander, Baldock failed to make it back to the 48th New Zealand Parliament, given United Future New Zealand's drop in electoral support to one-third the level at the previous general election. Like Smith, Ogilvy and Adams, Baldock is an evangelical Christian.
On May 16, 2007, his former colleague Gordon Copeland, then a United Future List MP, announced that he would be forming a new Future New Zealand party after expressing dissatisfaction with party leader Peter Dunne's support of the child-discipline bill.[1] Baldock joined the new party.
After Copeland's announcement, Baldock held an inaugural party meeting in Tauranga, his city of residence, and stated that forty-five former members of the pre-merger Future New Zealand had attended, although the party had between sixteen to twenty members at that time.[2] Former United Future List MP Bernie Ogilvy also joined Future New Zealand, as party secretary.
On July 17, 2007, the Future New Zealand website's Copeland Chronicle (June 2007) edition announced that "Future New Zealand" had achieved its five hundred member goal required for registration under the New Zealand Electoral Act 1993 as a viable political party. The newsletter also stated that Copeland and Baldock would now work on establishing a Board of Management and Board of Reference for the party.[3]
On January 28, 2008, Future New Zealand renamed itself The Kiwi Party. Baldock became sole party leader, while Copeland concentrated primarily on parliamentary matters.[4] Baldock successfully collected 310,000 signatures against the Child Discipline Act, which forced a referendum on the issue. In 2008, Baldock stood as the Kiwi Party candidate for Tauranga, but came a distant fourth, with approximately five percent of the vote.[5] The Kiwi Party also performed badly, receiving 0.54% of the party vote nationwide.[6]
Undaunted by its poor performance, the Kiwi Party held a conference in Christchurch in March 2009, and announced its intention to contest the next New Zealand general election, due to be held in 2011. As The Family Party seems moribund, it may be the only New Zealand fundamentalist party in that contest. At this date, Baldock is still Kiwi Party leader.
Baldock has proposed giving parents the right to strike their children with implements stating, "I'm not opposed to the wooden spoon or ruler because you can control things with that better than you can with an open hand." [7] .
| Party political offices | ||
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| New political party |
Leader of the Kiwi Party 2008- |
Incumbent |
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