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Tony Brunt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tony Brunt
1st Leader of the Values Party
In office
30 May 1972 – 25 August 1974
DeputyGeoff O'Neill
Succeeded byReg Clough
Member of the Wellington City Council
In office
12 October 1974 – 11 October 1980
ConstituencyAt-large
Personal details
Born
Anthony John Brunt

1947 (age 76–77)
Auckland, New Zealand
Political partyValues
Alma materVictoria University
ProfessionJournalist

Anthony John Brunt (born 1947) is a New Zealand journalist, activist and politician. He was the founder and leader of the environmentalist Values Party in the 1970s.

Biography

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Early life

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Brunt was born in Auckland in 1947 and later became a journalist. He briefly changed profession and became a trade union organiser before returning to his career in journalism.[1] He then moved to Wellington to study political science at Victoria University of Wellington.[2]

Political career

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Brunt became politically active and formed the environmentalist Values Party in the early 1970s and served as its inaugural leader. He founded the party to serve as a response to the "barren and miniaturist" political culture that existed in New Zealand at the time.[3] Then aged 25, Brunt was the youngest leader of a political party in New Zealand history.[4] He went on to contest the Wellington electorate of Island Bay at the 1972 election, where he placed third out of six candidates, gaining 7.6% of the vote.[5]

Two years later, he stood for the Wellington mayoralty and City Council on a Values ticket. He placed third for mayor but was easily elected to the council. Brunt's candidacy for the mayoralty was viewed as having drawn away many left-wing voters from the Labour Party. Labour mayor Frank Kitts lost office in a very close race and blamed the Values vote for his defeat.[6] In 1977 he again stood for both positions and was again elected only as a councillor, topping the poll with more votes than any other candidate.[7] Brunt opposed extending the Wellington Urban Motorway to the foot of Mount Victoria.[8] While he was a member of the Council, Brunt was also employed by the Commission for the Environment as an investigating officer.[9] He did not stand for re-election in 1980.

Later activities

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In the 1980s Brunt was chairman of the campaign committee of the Save the Rivers campaign to protect New Zealand's best wild and scenic rivers.[10] Brunt later moved back to Auckland and settled in the suburb of Hillsborough. In 2000, he became the chairman of the Friends of Puketutu Trust, a lobby group campaigning for the Manukau Harbour island of Puketutu to be classified as a regional park.[11]

Publications

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Notes

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  1. ^ "New Councillor". The Evening Post. 16 October 1974.
  2. ^ Davison, Isaac (30 May 2012). "Political party marks 40 year milestone". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
  3. ^ O'Brien, Tova (1 June 2012). "Forty years since first green party". Newshub. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
  4. ^ "Tony Brunt, 'Reluctant Midwife' to Lusty, Growing Values Party". The Evening Post. 18 November 1972. p. 5.
  5. ^ Norton 1988, pp. 256.
  6. ^ "Values Eye No. 1 City Job". The Dominion. 20 April 1977.
  7. ^ Smyth, A.J. (25 October 1977). Declaration of Election Results (Report). Wellington City Council.
  8. ^ Yska, Redmer (2006). Wellington: Biography of a City. Auckland: Reed Books. p. 216. ISBN 9780790011172.
  9. ^ "Values Name Three More Candidates". The Evening Post. 20 April 1977.
  10. ^ "River protection 'inadequate'". The Press. 21 October 1981. p. 11.
  11. ^ Rudman, Brian (23 August 2000). "Gem of an idea for our project". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 23 February 2017.

References

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  • Norton, Clifford (1988). New Zealand Parliamentary Election Results 1946–1987: Occasional Publications No 1, Department of Political Science. Wellington: Victoria University of Wellington. ISBN 0-475-11200-8.
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Party political offices
New political party Leader of the Values Party
1972–1974
Succeeded by
Reg Clough