A Roman Catholic, he attended St Bede's College where he twice failed to gain University Entrance.[6] After leaving high school, he worked in his family's timber business and received training in carpentry. After qualifying as a builder, he retrained as a teacher and taught woodwork, technical drawing and Māori, over a period of twelve years, at Ellesmere College, and at his alma mater, St Bede's.[6] He stood as a candidate for the Canterbury Regional Council in 1992 on the Citizens' Association ticket, but was unsuccessful.[7]
Brownlee first stood for National in the 1993 election, unsuccessfully contesting the Sydenham electorate against Jim Anderton, the Alliance leader. In the 1996 election he contested the nearby seat of Ilam, and won by a comfortable margin. He remained the MP for Ilam since that point until losing his seat in the 2020 election. Before that his closest brush with defeat occurred in the 2002 election wherein he had a majority of 3,872 votes – 11.52%.[8] Brownlee stood as a list-only candidate in 2023, fuelling speculation he would be National's candidate for speaker should it win the election.[9][10]
As a junior government MP from 1997 to 1999, Brownlee was a member of the education and science committee and the internal affairs and local government committee, and deputy chair of the social services committee. He chaired the Accident Insurance Bill committee in 1998. When National went into opposition in 1999, was appointed the party's new junior whip and spokesperson for ACC. From 1999 to 2001, he was on the transport and industrial relations committee; in 2001, promoted to education spokesperson, he was on the education and science committee.[11]
Brownlee has held senior roles within the National Party since October 2001, when the new National leader Bill English appointed him shadow leader of the House, a position he continued to hold under subsequent leaders Don Brash and John Key. Brownlee was the Leader of the House and a senior minister in the Fifth National Government, including Minister of Foreign Affairs. He returned to the shadow House leadership from 2018 to 2020. He was also deputy leader to Brash from 2003 to 2006 and to Judith Collins in 2020.
Brownlee became Father of the House in October 2022, having the longest uninterrupted membership of the House of Representatives.[2] On 24 November 2023, prime minister-designate Christopher Luxon announced that Brownlee would be nominated to be Speaker of the House.
Opposition, 1999–2008
Brownlee received criticism during the 1999 election campaign when he ejected Neil Able, a 60-year-old Native Forest Action campaigner, from the National Party's 1999 election campaign launch. The ejection took place with what many, including watching journalists, considered excessive force. Neil Able started civil assault proceedings against Brownlee, seeking damages of $60,000. In 2002, a District Court judge found in favour of Able that Brownlee had "used excessive and unnecessary force on Abel when he tried to remove him from a staircase handrail". Brownlee was ordered to pay Able $8,500 in damages.[12][13] Brownlee later sought unsuccessfully to have $48,000 of his legal fees reimbursed by the Government.[14]
Brownlee challenged the vacant deputy leadership of the National Party in 2001, but was defeated by Bill English.[15][16] English eventually succeeded to the leadership later that year. In the English shadow cabinet, Brownlee was spokesperson for local government and energy, as well as shadow Leader of the House.[11] By 2003, Brownlee was seen by Labour Party MP Phil Goff and Scoop columnist Paulo Politico as a potential challenger to English's leadership.[17][18]English was eventually replaced as National Party leader by former Reserve Bank Governor Don Brash. Brownlee was thought to be a possible deputy leader to Brash but declined to pursue the position, which went to Nick Smith.
Shortly after his election, however, Smith opted to take two weeks of stress leave, saying that the protracted leadership disputes had exhausted him. When Smith returned to Parliament, Brownlee challenged him for the deputy leadership. Informed of the challenge,[19] Smith resigned, and on 17 November 2003 Brownlee won the caucus vote unopposed. Initially, Smith alleged that while he was on stress leave, "a campaign to oust me was conducted in the media while I was under the leader's instructions to make no comment."[20] Audrey Young wrote in the New Zealand Herald that Brownlee and Murray McCully were rumoured to have been behind the campaign to oust Smith as deputy leader.[21]
After becoming a deputy leader, Brownlee continued his confrontational and colourful style of political debate. Following the controversy surrounding Brash's Orewa Speech of 27 January 2004, Brownlee became the National Party's spokesman for Maori Affairs in place of Georgina te Heuheu, who resigned from the position after refusing to endorse Brash's comments. Brownlee's approach to this portfolio involved criticising the government's policies regarding perceived special treatment for Māori, an issue at the core of National's 2005 election manifesto.
In April 2013, Brownlee was represented New Zealand in London at the funeral of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.[27]
Minister of Energy and Resources
In August 2009, Brownlee was criticised by Forest and Bird Spokesperson Kevin Hackwell for playing down government discussions to possibly allow more mining within conservation areas. Hackwell was reported as stating that "If the Government's to go down this line they could be buying a fight with the people of the Coromandel, with the people of New Zealand generally, who have put these areas aside and want them protected for their conservation values".[28] The New Zealand mining industry was reported as welcoming the move.[29]
In early December 2009, Forest and Bird released a leaked document that included the proposal to remove part of the conservation status of Mount Aspiring National Park to allow mining.[30] The result of the controversy was that the government decided not to explore considerations amongst significant debate on the issue in the House, in submissions to the Select Committees and within the National Party's own parliamentary caucus.[31]
Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery
As the Government's most senior Christchurch-based MP, Brownlee led the Government's work in earthquake recovery after the 2010, 2011 earthquakes and 2016 earthquakes. Following National's re-election in 2011 and 2014, Brownlee additionally served as Minister of Transport, Minister of Defence, and Minister of Civil Defence. When Bill English became Prime Minister, Brownlee succeeded Murray McCully as Minister of Foreign Affairs.[32]
On 14 September 2010, Brownlee introduced the Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Act 2010 into the house with leave to pass the legislation in one sitting. This Bill was passed by the time the House adjourned at 10.02 pm.[33]
Brownlee had little sympathy for attempts to preserve heritage buildings, saying not long after the 2011 quake: "My absolutely strong position is that the old dungers, no matter what their connection, are going under the hammer."[34]
In 2012, it was reported that the idea of using part of Christchurch's residential red zone for an international rowing regatta course known as East Lake had found the support of Brownlee as Earthquake Recovery Minister.[35]
In September 2012, Brownlee accused residents in Christchurch's newly created TC3 zone of "carping and moaning" for comments they made in a survey conducted by the main local newspaper. The comments were about perceived inaction by the authorities, including the government. He apologised soon after.[36]
On the withdrawal Brownlee stated "I suspect few New Zealanders knew the country had such considerable mineral potential before we undertook this process, and I get a sense that New Zealanders are now much more aware of that potential". He went on that it might contribute to economic growth and further stated that "New Zealanders have given the minerals sector a clear mandate to go and explore that land, and where appropriate, within the constraints of the resource consent process, utilise its mineral resources for everyone's benefit". An additional announcement from Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson pronounced that future National Park land would receive protections, stating that, "This is an added layer of protection for New Zealand's most highly valued conservation land..."[37]
Minister of Transport
In March 2012, Brownlee made controversial comments about Finland in a parliamentary session. Rejecting a New Zealand Labour Party plan to model the economy on Finland, he said Finland: "has worse unemployment than us, has less growth than us, can hardly feed the people who live there, has a terrible homicide rate, hardly educates its people, and has no respect for women." Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, said that Finland would not take any action as the comments were clearly a device for internal politics rather than an attack on Finland. He continued to say: "I doubt he even knows where Finland is."[38]
In November 2014 Brownlee was fined $2000 by New Zealand's Civil Aviation Authority for a breach of airport security that occurred at Christchurch Airport on 24 July 2014. An official inquiry found that Brownlee and two of his aides had evaded airport security screening by entering a departure lounge through an exit door while in a rush to board a domestic flight.[39]
In May 2017, less than a week after being appointed as Foreign Minister, Brownlee was publicly corrected by Prime Minister Bill English, after claiming that a New Zealand-sponsored United Nations Security Council Resolution on Israel (about settlements in occupied territories) was "premature".[40] The Prime Minister said Brownlee was "still getting familiar" with the language used by his predecessor, Murray McCully, who had authorised the sponsorship of the resolution.[40] Responding to questions in Parliament on Brownlee's behalf, Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett commented that Brownlee's use of the word "premature" was because the Government "would have liked to give Israel notice of the resolution, and our part in that, but did not."[41][42]
English said he had confidence that Brownlee was clear on New Zealand's position now, a position that had not changed since the Government had chosen to push through the resolution.[40] Brownlee had been a Cabinet minister at the time; however, the decision to co-sponsor the resolution (described by McCully and Bennett as being in line with New Zealand's "long-standing position") had not gone to Cabinet.[41][43]
Opposition, 2017–2023
From 2018 to 2020, Brownlee served in Opposition as Shadow Leader of the House, and was the National Party Spokesperson for Disarmament, NZSIS, and GCSB. He was the deputy chairperson on the Privileges, Standing Orders, and Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Select Committees, as well as a member of the Business Committee and the Parliamentary Service Commission.[11]
On 14 July 2020, Brownlee was elected by the National Party parliamentary caucus as the Deputy Leader of the National Party following a leadership election held after the resignation of Party Leader Todd Muller that same day. Judith Collins was elected as the leader of the National Party.[44][45]
In August 2020, Brownlee was widely criticised during the COVID-19 pandemic for comments he made that were widely interpreted to be promoting misinformation and conspiracy theories regarding the NZ Government response to the pandemic. In particular, his comments were considered to imply that the Government was withholding information about confirmed cases, without providing any evidence that this was the case.[46] Brownlee was also accused of attacking the integrity of independent public servants and promoting the propagation of misinformation.[47][48]
During the 2020 New Zealand general election, Brownlee lost his seat of Ilam to Labour candidate Sarah Pallett by a final margin of 3,463 votes.[49] Dominic Harris of news website Stuff described it "perhaps the most unlikely of election night coups".[50] Despite this defeat, Brownlee returned to Parliament due to his high ranking on the National Party list.[51]
On 6 November 2020, Brownlee announced his resignation as deputy leader of National.[52] He was succeeded by Shane Reti.[53]
Brownlee announced on 2 August 2022 that he would seek re-election at the 2023 New Zealand general election, although would not attempt to win back Ilam, instead opting to contest as a list only candidate, indicating he may become Speaker of the House should National form a Government following the election.[54]
In September 2022, Brownlee was criticised by Rodney Jones and Jason Young for his response to the United Nations Xinjiang Report in saying that China is "dealing with a terrorist problem" and that China’s anti-terrorism laws were comparable to New Zealand’s and those of other countries.[55]
In early November 2023, Brownlee accompanied the caretaker Deputy Prime Minister, Carmel Sepuloni, to the 2023 Pacific Islands Forum in his capacity as National’s foreign affairs spokesperson.[57] There, he met with several non-Pacific representatives from Cuba, Portugal, France and South Korea in Rarotonga.[58]
Sixth National Government, 2023–present
Brownlee performs a hongi with Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro, after appointment as speaker, 5 December 2023
^Young, Audrey (18 November 2003). "McCully at centre of Nats whisper row". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 15 August 2010. The whisper goes that Mr McCully was so appalled that new leader Don Brash backed Dr Smith for the deputy leadership over Ilam MP Gerry Brownlee that as soon as Dr Smith had been bundled out of the building Mr McCully and Mr Brownlee began a campaign to ensure that Dr Brash would never want him back.
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