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Chris Finlayson

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For the British businessman, see Chris Finlayson (businessman).

The Honourable
Chris Finlayson
KC
33rd Attorney-General of New Zealand
In office
19 November 2008 – 26 October 2017
Prime MinisterJohn Key
Bill English
Preceded byMichael Cullen
Succeeded byDavid Parker
Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations
In office
19 November 2008 – 26 October 2017
Prime MinisterJohn Key
Bill English
Preceded byMichael Cullen
Succeeded byAndrew Little
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage
In office
19 November 2008 – 13 October 2014
Prime MinisterJohn Key
Preceded byHelen Clark
Succeeded byMaggie Barry
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for National Party List
In office
17 September 2005 – 30 January 2019
Succeeded byAgnes Loheni
Personal details
Born
Christopher Francis Finlayson

1956 (age 67–68)
Wellington, New Zealand
Political partyNational Party
RelativesAnnette King (second cousin)
Chester Borrows (third cousin)
OccupationLawyer

Christopher Francis Finlayson KC (born 1956) is a New Zealand lawyer and former Member of Parliament, representing the National Party.

He was elected to Parliament in 2005. In the Fifth National Government, from 2008 to 2017, he was Attorney-General and Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations.[1][2] He left politics to return to his legal career in January 2019.[3]

Early life

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Finlayson grew up in the Wellington suburb of Khandallah. He has three siblings.[4][5]

He attended St Benedict's Convent School,[4] and St. Patrick's College.[5] Finlayson joined the National Party in 1974 while still at St Patrick's College, after having had a long conversation with Keith Holyoake at Parliament the previous year.[5] He was an active party member in the Karori and Ōhāriu electorates, including periods as Karori branch chair in the 1980s.[6]

He graduated with a BA in Latin and French and an LLM from Victoria University of Wellington.[5]

Finlayson has been heavily involved in the arts community. He chaired Creative New Zealand's Arts Board from 1998 to 2001,[7] and has twice been appointed to the board of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.[8]

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Finlayson was admitted to the Bar as a barrister and solicitor in 1981.[4] He was a partner in Brandon Brookfield from 1986 to 1990 and then in Bell Gully from 1991 to 2003. In the 1990s, when Winston Peters was expelled from the National Party, Finlayson was a legal advisor to the party.[9] He practised as a barrister sole at the Barristers.Comm chambers from 2003 until 2005, when he entered Parliament.

At Bell Gully he spent years fighting for Ngāi Tahu against the government, pursuing its treaty claims through a series of high-profile court battles. "I used to love going to the office in the morning when we were suing the Crown" Finlayson said in a speech in 2009. "Ngāi Tahu mastered the art of aggressive litigation, whether it was suing the Waitangi Tribunal and [National Treaty negotiations minister] Doug Graham or the Director-General of Conservation. It was take no prisoners and it resulted in a good settlement."[10] The signing of the Treaty deal with Ngāi Tahu in 1997 was the highlight of his legal career.[5]

Since his admission, Finlayson has appeared in all courts of New Zealand, including seven appearances before the Privy Council, including as counsel for the New Zealand Bar Association in Harley v McDonald [2001] 2 WLR 1749 and counsel for the British Government in R v Attorney General for England and Wales (a decision of the Privy Council delivered on 17 March 2003). He has extensive experience appearing before tribunals and local authorities in New Zealand. He taught at the Faculty of Law of Victoria University of Wellington.[11]

Finlayson was a co-author of McGechan on Procedure, a text on the practice and procedure of the Courts of New Zealand, for its editions between1984 and 2008 and was the founding editor of the Procedure Reports of New Zealand.[12] He has written papers on many subjects, including intellectual property, litigation and conflicts of interest and has presented New Zealand Law Society seminars on High Court practice, conflicts of interest and limitation.[13]

On 13 December 2012, Finlayson was recommended by Prime Minister John Key for appointment by the Governor-General as Queen's Counsel,[14] based on his role as Attorney-General,[15] before representing New Zealand in the International Court of Justice in a case against Japan's whaling programme.

After completing nearly fourteen years as a member of Parliament, Finlayson returned to his legal career. He practices at Bankside Chambers in Auckland.[16] He represented Labour MP Louisa Wall when she challenged the Labour Party over her deselection in 2020.[17]

Member of Parliament

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New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate List Party
2005–2008 48th List 27 National
2008–2011 49th List 14 National
2011–2014 50th List 9 National
2014–2017 51st List 8 National
2017–2019 52nd List 9 National

Finlayson stood as National's candidate for the Mana electorate in the 2005 election, and was also ranked twenty-seventh on National's party list, making him the second most highly ranked National candidate who was not already an MP. While he failed to win Mana, losing by a margin of 6,734 votes,[18] the National Party polled well on party votes and Finlayson was elected via the party list. Finlayson transferred to the safe Labour seat of Rongotai for the 2008 election, where he was routinely defeated by Annette King. Finlayson had no desire to be an electorate MP and often remarked that if he won the electorate he would be the first to ask for a recount.[19][20][21] When offered the prospect of a safer seat, like Ōhāriu, Finlayson responded by convincing the incumbent Peter Dunne not to resign.[22] National did win the party vote over Labour in Rongotai for the first time in 2014.[23][24]

Finlayson's first term was spent in opposition. He was appointed as deputy chair of the Justice and Electoral select committee (2005–2008) and as a member of the Māori Affairs committee (2006–2008). He was National's shadow attorney-general and, under John Key, spokesperson for Treaty of Waitangi negotiations and arts, culture and heritage. When National formed a new government in 2008, Finlayson became Attorney-General and Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations (2008–2017). He was also Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage (2008–2014), Associate Minister of Māori Development (2011–2017) and Minister responsible for the NZSIS and GCSB (2014–2017).[4][25]

Finlayson speaking at a lectern with flowers behind him
Finlayson speaking at the 30th Anniversary of the NZ String Quartet in 2017

As Attorney-General and Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, Finlayson was successful in reaching an unprecedented number of financial Waitangi Treaty settlements (59 over nine years) including with iwi he had previously represented in private practice.[4] He also chaired the Privileges Committee from 2012 to 2017.[2] Being attorney-general had been Finlayson's principal political ambition and he regarded it as "the highlight of [his] legal career."[26]

As Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, Finlayson progressed legislation enabling the development of Pukeahu National War Memorial Park ahead of the 100th anniversary of Anzac Day.[27] In 2012, he conducted a review of the orchestra sector but ruled out disestablishing the national symphony orchestra.[28][29] He briefly acted as Minister of Labour (2012–2013) when Kate Wilkinson resigned after the Royal Commission on the Pike River Coal Mine Tragedy reported back.[2][30] He was also acting Minister for the Environment when Nick Smith resigned in 2012 and acting Minister of Justice when Judith Collins resigned in 2014.[2][31][32]

In June 2010 he was found by the registrar of pecuniary interests to have broken the rules in not declaring a directorship in his annual pecuniary interest return.[33] In his memoir, Finlayson commented that his interest had not been pecuniary and he successfully campaigned to change the name of the register to be the "pecuniary and other interests" register.[34]

Finlayson (left) with US Secretary of State John Kerry and Gerry Brownlee at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park, Wellington, in 2016

He supported Simon Bridges as deputy leader of the National Party in 2016 and, after National lost the 2017 election, as leader in 2018, although later expressed regret for not supporting Steven Joyce.[35][36] In opposition for the second time, Finlayson was again appointed as the shadow-attorney general and additionally as National's spokesperson for commerce, the NZSIS and the GCSB (2017–2018) and Crown-Māori relations and Pike River mine re-entry (2018–2019).[2] He was on the intelligence and security committee from 2018 to 2019. His member's bill, the Administration of Justice (Reform of Contempt of Court) Bill, was drawn from the ballot and introduced in 2018.[37] It was adopted by the Government and became law after Finlayson's retirement.[38]

Finlayson left parliament in January 2019 after announcing his intention in November 2018 to return to his legal career.[4] As part of his legacy, it was noted that at that time he had appointed all the Supreme Court other than the Chief Justice, all 10 members of the Court of Appeal, and 37 of the 46 High Court Judges.[39] [40] He has said the highlights of his political career had been:

Political views

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Finlayson describes himself as a "liberal conservative."[5] He does not like populist politics or populist politicians such as Donald Trump or Winston Peters.[4] He criticised the National Party leadership after he left Parliament in 2019 and repeated this criticism in his 2022 memoir, Yes, Minister.[41][42][43]

In 2013, Finlayson voted against the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill, a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry in New Zealand.[44] He was the only openly gay member of Parliament to vote against the bill and cited his opposition came from his belief that "the state should not be involved in marriage at all."[43][45]

He voted against the first reading of the End of Life Choice Bill in 2017.[46]

After leaving politics, Finlayson has commented publicly on partnership under the Treaty of Waitangi and co-governance of public assets between the Crown and iwi/Māori. As Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, Finlayson oversaw the introduction of formal shared governance as part of Treaty settlements, including the establishment of the Waikato River Authority which shares governance of the Waikato River between Waikato Regional Council and local iwi.[47] Finlayson described co-governance as parties with shared interests and shared responsibility jointly setting priorities and managing a resource, although he noted that co-governance does not mean "co-government" and it would be impractical to apply to all government functions.[48][49] The Labour Government which succeeded the government Finlayson had been part of promoted further opportunities for co-governance between iwi and the Crown, including in its Water Services Reform Programme. The National Party and ACT New Zealand opposed Labour's co-governance reforms and campaigned in the 2023 general election on rolling them back.[50][51] Finlayson distanced himself from these perspectives, stating that co-governance "should be embraced, not feared."[47] After the election, in which ACT campaigned for a referendum on rewriting the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi,[52] Finlayson said he would not support such a referendum because it would "bring all the nutcases out" and cause division,[53] but would support a review of the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975.[54]

Selected published works

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  • Chris Finlayson; James Christmas (19 July 2021). He Kupu Taurangi: Treaty Settlements and the Future of Aotearoa New Zealand. Huia Publishers. p. 296. ISBN 978-1-77550-615-7. OL 39650317M. Wikidata Q124540179.

Personal life

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Finlayson has described himself as being an "odd fish" since he is gay as well as being a Catholic.[5] He has no partner, and says he is celibate.[5]

He is a distant cousin on his mother's side of former Labour MP Annette King. King was a second cousin to Finlayson’s mother through her Russ side (the Russ family were a large Nelson family) and is also related to Chester Borrows.[55][56]

References

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Citations

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  1. ^ "Ministerial List for Announcement on 17 November 2008" (PDF) (Press release). New Zealand Government. 17 November 2008. Retrieved 20 November 2008.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Finlayson, Christopher – New Zealand Parliament". www.parliament.nz. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  3. ^ "National MP Chris Finlayson to leave Parliament in new year". The New Zealand Herald. 28 November 2018. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Claire, Trevett (14 December 2018). "National MP Chris Finlayson's farewell tour". The New Zealand Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Hubbard, Anthony (30 May 2010). "The man in the middle". Sunday Star-Times. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  6. ^ Finlayson 2022, p. 20.
  7. ^ "Finlayson, Christopher: Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Bill — Second Reading – New Zealand Parliament". www.parliament.nz. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  8. ^ "Hon Chris Finlayson and Claire Szabó appointed to the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra board | Ministry for Culture and Heritage". mch.govt.nz. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  9. ^ Finlayson 2022, p. 22.
  10. ^ Finlayson, Christopher (14 July 2009). "Treaty Settlements: Speech for Ta Apirana Ngata Memorial Lecture". beehive.govt.nz. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  11. ^ Finlayson 2022, p. 39.
  12. ^ Finlayson, Christopher F. (1 June 2012). "Memories of George Barton". Victoria University of Wellington Law Review. 43 (1): 7–10. doi:10.26686/vuwlr.v43i1.5041. ISSN 1179-3082.
  13. ^ "Hon Christopher Finlayson KC". Bankside Chambers. Retrieved 23 March 2023. Mr Finlayson is a foundation author of McGechan on Procedure, the leading text on the practice and procedure of the Senior Courts of New Zealand.
  14. ^ Pursuant to regulation 4 of the Queen’s Counsel Regulations
  15. ^ "Appointment of Queen's Counsel" (20 December 2012) 151 New Zealand Gazette 4437 at 4463.
  16. ^ "Christopher Finlayson | Barrister, Arbitrator | Bankside Chambers". www.bankside.co.nz. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  17. ^ "'It's unforgivable': The real reason Louisa Wall quit politics". NZ Herald. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  18. ^ "2005 Official Count Results – Mana". Electoral Commission. 1 October 2005. Archived from the original on 11 October 2007. Retrieved 30 December 2007.
  19. ^ Finlayson 2022, p. 60.
  20. ^ "Chris Finlayson's election diary for the Spectator | Kiwiblog". 27 September 2014. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  21. ^ Finlayson, Chris (27 September 2014). "Diary Australia". The Spectator.
  22. ^ Finlayson 2022, p. 103.
  23. ^ "Part V – Electorate Summary of Votes for Registered Parties" (PDF). Electoral Commission. Retrieved 9 October 2014.
  24. ^ "Official Count Results – Rongotai". Electoral Commission. 4 October 2014. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  25. ^ "National Security and Intelligence role created". Scoop Media. New Zealand. 6 October 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
  26. ^ Finlayson 2022, p. 105.
  27. ^ "National War Memorial Park (Pukeahu) Empowering Bill passes first reading". The Beehive. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  28. ^ Chapman, Katie (23 July 2012). "Minister rules out axing NZSO". Stuff. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  29. ^ "Future of NZSO assured". The Beehive. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  30. ^ "Wilkinson resigns as Labour Minister". NZ Herald. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
  31. ^ "Craig Foss picks up climate change portfolio". NZ Herald. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
  32. ^ "Judith Collins resigns as a Minister". The Beehive. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
  33. ^ "Attorney-general breaks rules by not declaring company directorship". Stuff. 10 June 2010. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
  34. ^ Finlayson 2022, p. 53.
  35. ^ Finlayson 2022, p. 89.
  36. ^ "Book of the Week: Hooton on Finlayson". Newsroom. 18 August 2022. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  37. ^ "Contempt of Court Bill – New Zealand Parliament". www.parliament.nz. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  38. ^ "Administration of Justice (Reform of Contempt of Court) Bill — Second Reading – New Zealand Parliament". www.parliament.nz. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  39. ^ "Hehir on Finlayson standing tall | Kiwiblog". 23 October 2018. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  40. ^ "Chris Finlayson to leave Parliament early next year". 28 November 2018. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  41. ^ Malpass, Florence Kerr and Luke (29 June 2021). "National Party is self-destructing, former minister says". Stuff. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
  42. ^ Cooke, Henry (29 June 2021). "Judith Collins dismisses Finlayson criticisms: 'He left two leaders ago'". Stuff. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
  43. ^ a b Finlayson 2022.
  44. ^ "Gay marriage: How MPs voted". The New Zealand Herald. 18 April 2013.
  45. ^ Finlayson, Chris (11 October 2020). "We are not a nation of dissenters, but a nation of conformists". The Spinoff. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
  46. ^ "Euthanasia bill passes first reading in Parliament". The New Zealand Herald. 17 December 2017. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
  47. ^ a b Buchanan, Connie (28 May 2022). "Chris Finlayson: Co-governance should be embraced — not feared". E-Tangata. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
  48. ^ "Co-governance: The misunderstood political hot potato and likely election dominator?". www.minterellison.co.nz. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
  49. ^ Bankside Chambers (26 August 2022). "Politics, law, competence and co-governance: an interview with Hon Christopher Finlayson QC". www.bankside.co.nz. Archived from the original on 30 October 2023. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
  50. ^ "Rātana gets political: Christopher Luxon calls co-governance conversation 'divisive, immature'". Newshub. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
  51. ^ "Election 2023: ACT launches campaign with vow to end co-governance". RNZ. 17 September 2023. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
  52. ^ McClure, Tess (22 September 2023). "How David Seymour hopes to move New Zealand to the right". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
  53. ^ "Watch: Treaty referendum would be 'a disaster', warns former National minister". Stuff.co.nz. 13 November 2023. Retrieved 13 November 2023.
  54. ^ "Talk about the Treaty - Finlayson suggests a way to do it". NZ Herald. 30 October 2023. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
  55. ^ Finlayson 2022, p. 59.
  56. ^ "Today in Politics". Stuff.co.nz. Fairfax Media. 26 September 2013. Retrieved 23 February 2014.

Bibliography

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chris Finlayson.
Political offices
Preceded by Attorney-General
2008–2017 		Succeeded by
Minister Responsible for Treaty of Waitangi negotiations
2008–2017 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage
2008–2014 		Succeeded by
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