1. George Gair was once deputy leader of the National Party in the New Zealand Parliament, and was considered by many to be a possible contender for the leadership itself.
32 Facts About George Gair
1. 2.
George Gair was a graduate of Victoria University and University of Auckland.
3.
George Gair worked as a journalist at The New Zealand Herald from 1945 to 1947 then travelled to Japan before moving to Melbourne where he worked for The Sun News-Pictorial from 1949 to 1950 before returning to New Zealand after accepting a position at the Auckland Star between 1950 and 1952.
4.
George Gair married Esther Mary Fay Levy in about 1950, and the couple went on to have three children, including make-up artist and body painter Joanne George Gair.
5.
From 1952 to 1957 George Gair was a public relations officer in Auckland.
6.
George Gair became involved in the organisational wing of the National Party, and briefly served on the parliamentary staff of Keith Holyoake from 1958 to 1960.
7.
George Gair was an organiser for the National Party in the Onehunga and Roskill electorates.
8.
George Gair then became the deputy chairman of National's Auckland division and a dominion councillor of the party.
9.
George Gair first stood for the National Party nomination for the Remuera electorate in the 1966 election, losing the nomination to Allan Highet.
10.
George Gair then went across the bridge and contested and won the North Shore nomination from retiring National MP Dean Eyre.
11.
George Gair was successful, and was elected to Parliament that year.
12.
In Parliament, George Gair came to be regarded as a competent and diligent administrator.
13.
George Gair briefly became Minister of Customs in 1972 at the end of the Second National government, but this was interrupted when National lost the 1972 election to the Labour Party under Norman Kirk.
14.
George Gair had supported Marshall for the leadership and liked him on a personal level, however by early 1974 had come to the belief that National would have a better chance of winning the next election under the then deputy leader Robert Muldoon.
15.
When National was returned to power in the 1975 election, George Gair was returned to cabinet in the Third National government.
16.
Between that time and National's defeat in the 1984 election, George Gair held a number of challenging portfolios, including serving as Minister of Health and Minister of Social Welfare.
17.
George Gair served as Minister of Housing, Minister of Energy, Minister of Transport, Minister of Railways and a number of other roles.
18.
In 1980, when a number of party dissidents began to plot against Muldoon's leadership, George Gair was on the list of potential replacements.
19.
However, George Gair was regarded as too liberal to gain majority support within the party.
20.
George Gair was not involved in planning this bid, but was supportive of it, and worked hard to convince Talboys that a challenge was a good idea.
21.
George Gair continued to advocate a challenge, but Talboys was adamant that preserving party unity was more important than curbing Muldoon's damaging leadership style.
22.
Later, after Talboys had retired from politics, George Gair supported another Muldoon opponent, Derek Quigley, to replace Talboys as deputy leader.
23.
George Gair was appointed by McLay as Shadow Minister of Labour and Employment.
24.
Bolger quickly defeated McLay, and George Gair himself took the position of deputy leader.
25.
George Gair was additionally given the coveted finance portfolio by Bolger.
26.
Shortly after George Gair became deputy leader, he found himself at odds with a number of his colleagues .
27.
George Gair was somewhat ambivalent towards the bill, believing that while change was "long overdue", certain aspects of the bill went too far.
28.
George Gair found the entire episode highly stressful, and spoke of his desire for reconciliation.
29.
Rather than attempt to beat off the challenge, the genial George Gair retired voluntarily and backed Bolger's preferred deputy Don McKinnon who narrowly defeated Richardson by a single vote to take his place as deputy leader.
30.
George Gair later served as the High Commissioner to London.
31.
George Gair served as the 3rd Mayor of North Shore City from 1995 until 1998, defeating incumbent Paul Titchener.
32.
In 2010 George Gair completed a master's degree at Auckland University of Technology, with a thesis on managing change as a minister of the Crown supervised by Marilyn Waring and Grant Gillon.