31 Facts About Martyn Finlay

Allan "Martyn" Finlay was a New Zealand lawyer and politician of the Labour Party.

Martyn Finlay was an MP in two separate spells and a member of two different governments, including being a minister in the latter where he reformed the country's justice system.

Martyn Finlay's father died when he was two and his mother was forced by economic circumstances to take in boarders.

Martyn Finlay used to push his brother Harold, ten years older and with polio, two miles to Otago University in his wheelchair.

Martyn Finlay got a scholarship to the London School of Economics and got a PhD in 1938 before becoming a Resident Fellow at Harvard.

Martyn Finlay met many influential intellectuals in London including Harold Laski, who encouraged him to enter politics.

Martyn Finlay returned to NZ in 1939 and was employed as a private secretary to Cabinet Ministers Rex Mason and Arnold Nordmeyer.

Martyn Finlay was impressed by Mason's mastery of the legal system and was impressed that he devised and drafted almost all of his legislation himself.

Martyn Finlay then represented the North Shore electorate from 1946 to 1949, when he was defeated.

Martyn Finlay frequently challenged Prime Minister Peter Fraser in caucus over issues such as compulsory military training, earning him the ire of the party establishment.

Martyn Finlay stood for the Labour nomination at the 1953 Onehunga by-election but lost out to the comparatively inexperienced candidate Hugh Watt.

Martyn Finlay primarily thought the retirement of Nash as leader would be the remedy and after Labour returned to opposition after the 1960 election he began pressing for Nash to resign.

In February 1962 Martyn Finlay withdrew his notice of motion after Nash met with the national executive.

Martyn Finlay still felt Nordmeyer was treated unfairly when he was toppled as leader by Norman Kirk.

Martyn Finlay was one of the Labour Party's most active opponents of New Zealand's military involvement in the Vietnam War and questioned the New Zealand government's support for South Vietnam.

On 6 June 1965, Martyn Finlay chaired an anti-war meeting in Auckland which was sponsored by the Auckland Trades Council, the Auckland Labour Representation Committee, and the Auckland Peace For Vietnam Committee.

Martyn Finlay participated in a teach-in at the University of Auckland on 12 September 1966, which drew about 600 people.

Martyn Finlay was a Cabinet Minister, and was the Attorney-General, Minister of Justice and Minister of Civil Aviation and Meteorological Services from 1972 to 1975 in the Third Labour Government.

Martyn Finlay established the small claims court where "people owed $10 can be heard without having to pay a lawyer $30" and established duty solicitors to look after the interests of poor people charged in court.

Martyn Finlay was made a Queen's Counsel in 1973.

Martyn Finlay attracted world-wide attention with his performance leading the New Zealand team at the World Court in the joint New Zealand-Australia case seeking a ban on French nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll.

Martyn Finlay said later "Ours was a much better case than the Australians and better received by the court," and eventually the court ruled it would be unlawful for France to continue atmospheric testing.

Martyn Finlay set up the Disputes Tribunal and was responsible for much of the work leading to the Matrimonial Property Act which would give divorced wives a right to share in their husband's possessions.

Martyn Finlay ended bread-and-water punishments in prisons and bestowed prisoners the right to write directly to the Minister of Justice without having their correspondence read prior by prison staff.

Martyn Finlay abolished a husband's right to sue his wife's lover for damages removing one of the last legal stipulations of a wife being deemed her husband's property.

Martyn Finlay was the recipient of a harsh verbal attack from then prime minister Robert Muldoon in 1977.

Martyn Finlay was appointed by the government to investigate two industrial relations disputes; in 1984 during a railway workers' dispute in Picton and in 1985 during a refinery expansion in Whangarei.

Martyn Finlay often weighed in on political issues after his exit from parliament.

Martyn Finlay was particularly critical of the economic restructuring by the Fourth Labour Government in the 1980s.

Martyn Finlay was survived by his wife, son and daughter.

Martyn Finlay was an advocate for abortion during the 1970s, but did not find widespread support, though he won favour from younger generations.