1. Wyatt Creech served as the 14th deputy prime minister of New Zealand in Jenny Shipley's National Party government from August 1998 to December 1999.
23 Facts About Wyatt Creech
1. 2.
Wyatt Creech served in the 3rd Defense Battalion, which saw action at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the Battle of Midway Island in June 1942, and through the whole Guadalcanal Campaign from 7 August 1942 until early 1943.
3.
When Wyatt Creech was three months old, the family returned to New Zealand, settling in Wairarapa where his father became a sheep and beef farmer.
4.
Wyatt Creech received his primary education in Masterton and his secondary education in Wanganui at Wanganui Collegiate.
5.
Wyatt Creech subsequently returned to Wairarapa and established a vineyard in the newly developing wine growing region of Martinborough.
6.
On election night, Wyatt Creech won on the provisional vote count by 65 votes, and attended the first National caucus.
7.
Wyatt Creech challenged that result with a petition under the provisions of the Electoral Act; supported initially by MPs Roger McClay and Winston Peters but not the party hierarchy, according to Wyatt Creech's account in a book by Ross Meurant.
8.
Wyatt Creech then launched a full Electoral Petition on two counts.
9.
Wyatt Creech chaired the cross party committees of MPs that developed the Superannuation Accord and the Employment Accord.
10.
Wyatt Creech supported Jenny Shipley's December 1997 party-room coup against Prime Minister Jim Bolger, and Wyatt Creech became Deputy Leader of the National Party on 8 December 1997.
11.
Wyatt Creech was appointed a member of the Privy Council just before the election.
12.
Wyatt Creech became Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Minister of Health under Shipley.
13.
Wyatt Creech remained as the party's deputy leader until February 2001, when he chose to stand down.
14.
Wyatt Creech did not stand for re-election in the 2002 election.
15.
Wyatt Creech stood down from the board of this company in 2008.
16.
Wyatt Creech stood down from the board of this company in 2013 when their assets were sold to a new producer.
17.
Wyatt Creech served for a two-year period on the boards of Seales Limited, a Waikato-based stock feed manufacturing firm, the Cognition Education Trust, a trust supporting education research in New Zealand.
18.
In September 2009, Wyatt Creech joined the New Zealand Fire Service Commission as Deputy Chair.
19.
Wyatt Creech served as part of the Solomon Islands International Election Observer Team in the 2001 General Election in that nation.
20.
Wyatt Creech led the New Zealand Election Observer Team in the August 2010 General Election in Solomon Islands.
21.
Wyatt Creech served on the International Election Observer Team for the Falkland Islands referendum on its future status in 2013.
22.
Wyatt Creech served from December 2004 until June 2006 as a director of investment and property company Bluechip.
23.
In 1990, Wyatt Creech was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.