Джонатан Хант: Политик и дипломат Новой Зеландии

New Zealand politician and diplomat (1938–2024)

Jonathan Lucas Hunt (2 December 1938 – 8 March 2024) was a New Zealand politician and diplomat. He started a 38 year parliamentary career as the Baby of the House and retired as Father of the House. During that tenure, he was Speaker of the House of Representatives. Afterwards, he served as New Zealand's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2005 to March 2008. He was a member of the Order of New Zealand, New Zealand's highest civilian honour, and given the nickname "Minister for Wine and Cheese" for enjoying those items.

Hunt was born in Lower Hutt, but grew up in Palmerston North. He had a twin brother, David, who died four days after they were born. In 1958, Hunt was elected editor of the Auckland University Students' Association's (AUSA) Craccum magazine for the 1959 year. While at University Hunt is also credited with founding the Princes Street Labour branch. He was a 'radio quiz kid' and in 1963 he toured South East Asia with a Rotary group of Young New Zealanders. After graduating, Hunt became a History, English and Latin teacher from 1961 to 1966 at Kelston Boys High School in West Auckland where he also coached cricket. He was the secretary of the Auckland Secondary Schools' Cricket Association. He remained MP for New Lynn until 1996, when he became a list MP after losing in Tamaki to National's Clem Simich. Hunt was returned twice more as a list MP; losing to National's Brian Neeson in the and as a list only candidate in the
In mid January 1970, United States Vice President Spiro Agnew visited Wellington. Hunt along with several other Labour Members of Parliament including Bob Tizard, Arthur Faulkner and Martyn Finlay boycotted the state dinner to protest American policy in Vietnam. Other Labour MPs, including Opposition Leader Norman Kirk attended the function which dealt with the Nixon Doctrine. Hunt was appointed junior government whip upon Labour's victory in He was later promoted further in 1974 by Prime Minister Bill Rowling to the position of Chairman of Committees. As Chairman of Committees he had the responsibility of deputising for the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the 67 year old Stan Whitehead. Whitehead was in ill health and Hunt acted on his behalf more than he had expected to. When Whitehead suffered a heart attack in the last parliamentary session of 1975 Hunt was nearly drafted to replace him as Speaker, though Whitehead was to make a recovery. After the shock defeat of the Rowling government in the 1975 general election, Hunt was appointed to Rowling's shadow cabinet and designated as Shadow Minister of Health in 1976. He left the shadow cabinet, at his own request, in 1979 with the intention of setting himself up to become Speaker of the House should Labour win the next election. Labour did not win and in the next parliamentary term he was senior whip and Shadow Minister of Broadcasting.

During the Fourth Labour Government he served as Postmaster General, Minister of Broadcasting, Minister of Tourism and Minister of Housing. After the , the cabinet was reshuffled in which he lost the broadcasting and Postmaster General portfolios and instead designated Leader of the House. This left him without a department to administer which saw his salary reduced by $19,200 per annum, leading to opposition leader Jim Bolger to label Hunt's position as "sinecure", much to Hunt's displeasure. He eventually was given extra portfolios of tourism, housing and broadcasting during the course of the term. During his second period as Broadcasting minister he followed through with his pledge in aiding the establishment of privately owned television stations. He approved the licence for TV3, New Zealand's first commercial television channel, to begin operations in November 1989. He was responsible for the passing of the Broadcasting Act 1989 which established NZ On Air, an organisation responsible for funding support for local broadcasting and creative works. Hunt supported Helen Clark in her successful leadership bid against Moore, after which he remained senior whip and Shadow Leader of the House.

Hunt was elected Speaker unopposed when the fifth Labour government came to power in 1999. Hunt had previously served as Chairman of Committees from 1974 to 1975 which had since been rebranded as the Deputy Speaker. Hunt became the eighth Chairman of Committees to later serve as Speaker. He retained his position following the election in 2002 serving in total as Speaker for six years from 1999–2005. Some controversy arose in mid 2005, when not long after he arrived in London, Hunt was told publicly by the New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark that he could not apply for the U. K. pension as it was not appropriate given his position of New Zealand High Commissioner and the fact that he was already collecting a New Zealand parliamentary pension. On 21 November 2007, the New Zealand Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, announced that the next High Commissioner to London would be Derek Leask from March 2008.

Hunt never married or had any children. In a 2005 interview he stated not doing so was his biggest regret, thinking that splitting his life between Auckland and Wellington would be an unfair burden to be foisted upon family members. He was a lifelong enthusiast of the sport of cricket and was an administrator of the sport for many years.

In 1977, Hunt was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal and in 1990, the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal. In the 2005 New Year Honours, Hunt was appointed a Member of the Order of New Zealand.

Hunt was also the subject of a documentary, Father of the House, directed by Simon Burgin and Xavier Forde, which was filmed in Wellington in 2005.