37 Facts About Bruce Beetham

Bruce Craig Beetham was an academic and politician from New Zealand, whose career spanned the 1970s and early 1980s.

Bruce Beetham attended New Plymouth Boys' High School from 1951 to 1955.

Bruce Beetham then went on to the Auckland Secondary Teachers College where he eventually acquired a BA in History and later an MA.

Bruce Beetham worked as a secondary school teacher and worked in New Plymouth, Taupo and Piopio before lecturing at Hamilton Teachers' College.

The Bruce Beetham family were Anglican but he instead joined a Presbyterian bible class and prior to training as a teacher he gave serious consideration to entering the ministry.

Bruce Beetham married Raewyn Natalee Mitchell, a dental nurse, on 21 August 1965 in Matamata.

Bruce Beetham joined the then Social Credit Political League, during the 1969 general election campaign, after attending a talk by Don Bethune the Social Credit candidate for Hamilton West.

Later, Bruce Beetham was elected as one of the vice presidents of the party in 1971.

Bruce Beetham's rapid rise in the Social Credit ranks was complete when he was elected Leader in 1972.

Bruce Beetham presided over Social Credit's 1972 and 1975 election campaigns, in which they failed to get any members elected.

In 1976, Bruce Beetham was elected Mayor of Hamilton in a by-election to replace Mike Minogue, who had resigned to take up a seat in Parliament.

Bruce Beetham's frustrations caused by political gridlock, as well as the difficulty of simultaneously leading a national political party while serving as a Mayor, were factors in his decision not to seek a second term as Mayor in 1977.

On 18 February 1978, Bruce Beetham won election to Parliament in a by-election for the Rangitikei electorate, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of its long-time member, the Parliamentary Speaker, Sir Roy Jack.

Bruce Beetham retained the seat in the general election later that year, and the Social Credit Political League polled 16 percent of the vote nationwide, its best result to date.

However, Muldoon did not deliver on most of his pledges which made Bruce Beetham and Knapp look naive.

In line with his party's policies, Bruce Beetham attempted to organise a barter trade deal with Fiji.

Bruce Beetham lost his Rangitikei seat in 1984, mainly because of electoral boundary changes; suspicions have lingered since that the redistribution may have been politically motivated.

Bruce Beetham was then asked to stand in the Timaru seat at a by-election in June 1985.

Bruce Beetham did not rule out standing, but inferred it unlikely and would do so only if Social Credit's previous candidate in the seat was unwilling to stand again.

Bruce Beetham did not stand after Lynley Simmons, who had been Social Credit's candidate for Timaru in 1981 and 1984, agreed to be the candidate.

In 1985 Social Credit rebranded itself as the New Zealand Democratic Party, a move Bruce Beetham had little enthusiasm for.

Internal dissent began to set in and Knapp tried to convince Bruce Beetham to stand aside as leader.

Bruce Beetham refused to resign and Knapp resigned as deputy leader in protest.

In 1986, Bruce Beetham lost the leadership of the party to Neil Morrison who had been elected an MP in 1984.

The next day Mr Bruce Beetham said he was considering resigning because the new leadership was rejecting basic Social Credit philosophy.

Bruce Beetham contested his old seat under the party's new name in 1987; in 1990 he broke away from the Democrats and assumed leadership of a new party, under the old Social Credit banner and stood in Palmerston North instead of Rangitikei.

Bruce Beetham represented Rangitikei on the Wanganui Hospital Board from 1986 to 1991.

Bruce Beetham was elected the representative for Rangitikei on the Manawatu-Wanganui Regional Council in 1989 and remained a member until his death.

Bruce Beetham was a member of the Massey University Council, chairman of the board of the Palmerston North College of Education and an executive member of the New Zealand Council for Teacher Education.

Bruce Beetham died of heart failure in 1997 at the age of 61 in Palmerston North Hospital.

Bruce Beetham had been in hospital for nearly two weeks after an angina attack.

Bruce Beetham was survived by his wife, Beverley, four children and two stepsons.

Bruce Beetham's death necessitated a by-election for the Manawatu-Wanganui Regional Council.

Bruce Beetham was known as a liberal on human rights, a conservative on moral and social issues, and a pragmatist on economic matters.

Bruce Beetham disliked confrontation, preferring to work for consensus in decision-making.

Bruce Beetham was opposed to abortion, adhering to Social Credit's traditional conservatism on social issues.

In 1977, Bruce Beetham was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal.