21 Facts About Stan Rodger

Stan Rodger was president of the Public Service Association between 1970 and 1973 and Member of Parliament for Dunedin North from 1978 to 1990.

Stan Rodger was educated at Kaikorai Primary School and King Edward Technical College.

In 1968, he married Anne Patricia O'Connor and the couple went on to have two children, including Craig Rodger who became the Beverly Professor of Physics at the University of Otago.

In 1957, Stan Rodger began his career in the public service in Dunedin working at the Ministry of Works and Development, later moving to Wellington to take up another position at the Ministry.

Stan Rodger remained at the Ministry of Works and Development until 1974 when he transferred to the newly created Housing Corporation.

Stan Rodger became involved with the Public Service Association and became vice-president from 1967 to 1970.

Aged only 22 at the time Stan Rodger was informed by Arnold Nordmeyer that his age was against him.

Stan Rodger stood unsuccessfully for the Labour Party in the 1963 election for Waitaki and in the 1966 election for Otago.

Stan Rodger represented the electorate of Dunedin North in Parliament from 1978 to 1990, when he retired and was replaced by Pete Hodgson.

Stan Rodger was appointed Minister of Labour and State Services by Prime Minister David Lange in the Fourth Labour Government.

Stan Rodger negotiated with unions to agree to an initial three-month extension of the wage freeze until a solution to exit the freeze could be decided.

Stan Rodger represented the government at the annual conferences of the International Labour Organization as well as the Asian Region Conference of the ILO in Jakarta in 1985.

Stan Rodger was never enthusiastic about the public service reforms, but publicly went along with them nevertheless.

The Business Round Table was critical of Stan Rodger for holding up labour market reforms, though fellow ministers thought this was unfair due to his high workload.

On 11 December 1989, Stan Rodger publicly announced, to much surprise, he would retire from parliament at the 1990 election.

Stan Rodger had planned to do so far in advance, confidentially telling Lange on 21 August 1988 of his retirement intentions as well as sending a sealed envelope to Keith Eunson, the editor of the Otago Daily Times with instruction not to open until 11 December 1989.

Stan Rodger missed out on election, but took the defeat benignly.

In December 1990, after exiting parliament, Rodger took up a position at the University of Otago as the assistant registrar and secretary of the School of Dentistry.

Stan Rodger was later appointed director of the Southern Regional Health Authority and in 1997 was appointed a member of a board of review into RHAs.

Stan Rodger was a vocal critic of Sukhi Turner's performance as mayor of Dunedin and endorsed former Labour MP Clive Matthewson at the 1998 mayoral election.

In 2000, Stan Rodger was appointed chair of the review team tasked with conducting a ministerial review of the Education Review Office.