40 Facts About Mel Courtney

Melvyn Francis Courtney was born on 2 October 1943 and is a New Zealand politician.

Mel Courtney is a Nelson City Councillor and a former Labour then Independent Member of Parliament for Nelson, in the South Island of New Zealand.

Mel Courtney grew up in the suburb of Spreydon, and was educated at Christchurch Technical College.

Mel Courtney's family wished to get a state house, but faced constant rejection from state housing officials.

Mel Courtney's father had problems with alcohol and eventually left the family.

Mel Courtney studied business administration and trained in the grocery industry in Christchurch.

In 1968, Mel Courtney married his wife, Wendy, and the couple went on to have three children.

Mel Courtney's family moved from Christchurch to Nelson in 1970.

Mel Courtney owned and operated Courtney Enterprises which, in the mid-1970s, owned two supermarkets and had fifty employees in Nelson.

Mel Courtney was the vice-chairman of the Sydenham Labour Representation Committee and organised campaigns in the electorate for Mabel Howard and later Norman Kirk in the 1960s.

Mel Courtney was a Labour candidate for the Christchurch City Council in 1968, but was not elected.

Mel Courtney was an elected member of Nelson City Council for six years during the 1970s under mayor Roy McLennan; for some of that time, he was a member of parliament.

When Nelson's MP Sir Stan Whitehead died in early January 1976, Mel Courtney stood for the Labour nomination in the subsequent by-election.

Mel Courtney waged a local issues campaign and proved "an excellent choice" as a candidate.

Mel Courtney stressed Nelson's needs as a community as the major theme of his campaign, which was managed by MPs Colin Moyle and Arthur Faulkner.

Moyle, Faulkner and Labour leader Bill Rowling spoke at meetings in support of Mel Courtney and defended him from attacks by National that he was the wrong choice of a candidate and that Palmer was more suitable, highlighting that Mel Courtney had lived and worked in Nelson for the last six years while Palmer had not.

Mel Courtney represented the Nelson electorate from 1976 to 1981 and was opposition spokesman for horticulture and fisheries for five years.

Mel Courtney was a recipient of both the Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977 for service to the community and the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal in recognition of services to New Zealand.

In July 1976 Mel Courtney presented a petition to Parliament, signed by over 20,000 people, asking the Government to reconsider its decision to allow nuclear warships into New Zealand ports.

In September 1976 Mel Courtney followed up and put a parliamentary question to the Prime Minister, Robert Muldoon, to ascertain the cost of the USS Truxtun visit alone to the New Zealand taxpayer and it was estimated to be at least $110,000.

In December 1976, Mel Courtney said in a written statement that the National Government had borrowed more than $1000 million after only a year in office.

Mel Courtney said this contrasted with the Prime Minister presenting himself to the electorate as "the man who was going to stop borrowing".

New Zealand only began to reduce lead in petrol in 1986 and did not remove it completely until 1996, twenty years after Mel Courtney raised the issue.

Mel Courtney saw the momentum that had been gained under the prime ministership of the charismatic Labour leader Norman Kirk was being eroded and lost by Rowling.

Mel Courtney firmly believed that change was needed in the leadership in order to beat Robert Muldoon and the National Party.

Mel Courtney has commented: "The leaders of political parties are not always right and they don't have a monopoly on good judgment".

Mel Courtney saw the key priorities for New Zealand as multidisciplinary scientific research, environmental assessment and protection, and fisheries monitoring and surveillance.

In May 1979, Mel Courtney broke ranks with trade unions and publicly disagreed with a strike action by butchers.

Mel Courtney "championed the cause of small businesses" within the Labour caucus and described them as the "lost tribe" of New Zealand's commercial world.

In June 1980, Mel Courtney was against the "Think Big" policy for the fishing industry.

In February 1981 Mel Courtney announced that he had let his membership of the Labour Party lapse.

In March 1981 Mel Courtney withdrew from the Labour Party caucus and sat in the New Zealand House of Representatives as an independent.

In September 1981 Mel Courtney introduced a private members' bill into parliament that enabled the Nelson based Cawthron Institute to widen its scope.

In October 1981 Mel Courtney supported a motion in parliament that would allow a Social Credit MP to become a representative on the Electoral Boundaries Commission alongside the two major parties, Labour and National.

Mel Courtney took 37.0 per cent of the total vote, 3.4 percentage points behind the Labour candidate, and nearly three times as many votes as the National candidate's share of the vote.

Mel Courtney came out of political retirement for the 2016 local elections.

Mel Courtney was re-elected with 8,601 votes in the 2019 local elections.

Mel Courtney stood unsuccessfully in the 2019 mayoral election, placing second to incumbent mayor Rachel Reese.

Mel Courtney owned and operated supermarkets in Nelson and at its peak, he had five of them.

Mel Courtney returned to live in Nelson in late 2014 or early 2015.