Jenny Kirk
MNZM
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Birkenhead
In office
15 August 1987 – 27 October 1990
Preceded byJim McLay
Succeeded byIan Revell
Personal details
Born
Jennifer Norah Kirk

(1945-02-18)18 February 1945
Died30 September 2021(2021-09-30) (aged 76)
Whangārei, New Zealand
Political partyLabour

Jennifer Norah Kirk MNZM (18 February 1945 – 30 September 2021) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.

Biography

Kirk was born in 1945 and was educated at Westlake High School and later the Auckland Business College. She had several jobs in both New Zealand and Australia as a secretary, hotel worker, motel manager and journalist. She was involved in the National Organisation for Women and on several Parent Teacher Associations and school committees.[1]

She married aged 21 and had two sons before the marriage ended via divorce. In October 1986 she remarried to Owen Saunders.[2]

In 1983 she joined the Labour Party and was a delegate on the Glenfield Labour electorate committee from 1983 to 1985 and became the founding chairperson of the Birkenhead-Northcote branch of the Labour Party in 1986. From 1985 to 1986 she was an electorate secretary for Judy Keall the Member of Parliament for Glenfield.[2]

New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate Party
1987–1990 42nd Birkenhead Labour

She represented the Birkenhead electorate[3] from the 1987 election; when she defeated the National candidate for the seat, Barry Gustafson, after Jim McLay retired. After being elected she shared a flat in Wellington with Keall. She was the chairperson of Labour's caucus health committee where she was an advocate of continued state involvement in healthcare, particularly to assist poor people.[4] In 1990 she was defeated[5] by the new National candidate, Ian Revell.

She became Chief Executive of the National Foundation for the Deaf from 1990 to 1994. At the 1995 local-body elections she was elected as a member of the North Shore City Council for the Birkenhead ward. Re-elected three years later, she served on the council until 2001.[6] Kirk was instrumental in the construction of the Northern Busway which connects the North Shore to central Auckland after securing funding from Mark Gosche the Minister of Transport.[7]

In 1993, Kirk was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal.[8] In the 2002 Queen's Birthday and Golden Jubilee Honours, she was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to local-body and community affairs.[9] Kirk died in Whangārei on 30 September 2021.[10]

Notes

  1. ↑ Who's Who 1987, p. 62–63.
  2. 1 2 Who's Who 1987, p. 63.
  3. ↑ Thomas, Ben (27 June 2008). "Bassett: politics, partners and Pope". The National Business Review. Retrieved 18 February 2010.
  4. ↑ "Constant Compromise With Alien Environment". The New Zealand Herald. 28 December 1987. p. 9.
  5. ↑ "Conservative With Eye on Links to U.S. Wins New Zealand Vote". Associated Press. 28 October 1990. Retrieved 18 February 2010.
  6. ↑ "Results". Sunday News. 11 October 1998. p. 5.
  7. ↑ "Former Labour MP and North Shore councillor Jenny Kirk dies aged 76". Stuff.co.nz. 8 October 2021. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
  8. ↑ "The New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal 1993 – register of recipients". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 26 July 2018. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  9. ↑ "Queen's Birthday and Golden Jubilee honours list 2002". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 3 June 2002. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  10. ↑ "Jenny Kirk death notice". The New Zealand Herald. 6 October 2021. Retrieved 6 October 2021.

References

  • Who's Who in the New Zealand Parliament 1987. Wellington: Parliamentary Service. 1987.
  • Ministers and Members in the New Zealand Parliament by G.A. Wood (University of Otago Press, 2nd edition 1996) ISBN 1-877133-00-0
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