Dan Sullivan

Daniel Giles Sullivan (18 July 1882 – 8 April 1947) was a New Zealand Member of Parliament, Cabinet Minister and Mayor of Christchurch.

Biography Early life and career Sullivan was born in Waltham, Christchurch on 18 July 1882. His parents were the Irish-born labourer and carter Florance (Flurence) Sullivan and Mary Dow who was from Scotland. The Sullivans were a large family and rather poor, resulting in Sullivan selling newspapers to financially assist his family. Due to this, his formal education was cut short at age 11 but not before passing proficiency. Regardless, he continued to self-educate and voraciously read on a wide range of topics, but particularly biographies and social history. He was particularly influenced by the ideas of German land nationalisation advocate Michael Flürscheim, but also closely read Henry George and Karl Marx.

After one year working in a market garden he then became an apprentice french polisher. Sullivan joined the trade union movement following the influence of a foreman who was active in the Christchurch United Furniture Trades Union (CUFTU). Aged 16 he became secretary of the committee organising the union's annual picnic (his first elected office) and briefly was a delegate of the union to the Canterbury Trades and Labour Council. He travelled to London in 1900 after completing his apprenticeship. His trip was made under the guise of improving his techniques as a polisher, but he also visited places he had read about and wished to learn more about trade unions. Along the way Sullivan sold furniture that he had hand made himself door to door across Australia to help fund his trip to Britain. Sullivan joined the New Zealand Labour Party, which superseded the IPLL in 1910, and stood as its candidate for the Riccarton electorate in . A year later, Sullivan was appointed secretary of the first of the Labour Unity Conferences that would form the moderate United Labour Party (ULP). He was later part of the faction of the ULP that joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP) after the second of the unity conferences. He then served as a member of the Christchurch strike committee during the Great Strike of 1913. In , he contested Avon again as the SDP candidate but was again unsuccessful. During World War I he opposed conscription though he served on the executive of the Christchurch Patriotic Committee and on the local Citizens' Defence Corps. A popular candidate, he topped the poll in four elections. He was chair of the council's housing committee, where he formulated a scheme to allocate funds from the council to be lent to prospective homeowners' mortgages. From 1927 to 1930, he chaired the finance committee. He was succeeded as mayor by John Beanland of the Citizens' Association.

Member of Parliament

In the , the incumbent, George Russell suffered a crushing defeat by Sullivan. As Minister of Public Health, Russell was held responsible by large parts of the population for New Zealand's unpreparedness for the 1918 flu epidemic. He represented the Avon electorate in the House of Representatives for 28 years from to 1947. From 1921 to 1935, he was Labour's senior whip. During the 1920s, Sullivan and James McCombs led the opposition to Harry Holland within the Parliamentary Labour Party caucus. In 1923, he unsuccessfully challenged Holland for the leadership himself, and stood for the deputy leadership subsequently as well, but lost to Michael Joseph Savage 11 votes to 16.

In 1935, Sullivan was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal.

Sullivan was a leading Cabinet Minister in the First Labour Government of New Zealand. He was appointed by Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage as the Minister of Industries and Commerce between 1935 and 1947, Minister of Railways from 1935 to 1941 and was later the high-profile wartime Minister of Supply and Munitions. Sullivan had always been a vocal advocate for expanding manufacturing in New Zealand and his role as Minister of Industries and Commerce allowed him to put his ideas into practice. He encouraged the development of new industries but was often frustrated by limited progress. He also oversaw exchange controls particularly due to wartime shortages, but this opened new opportunities to develop a broader range of manufacturing industry in New Zealand, which Sullivan enthusiastically took advantage of. Sullivan Park in Avonside was named for him in 1948.

Personal life He married Daisy Ethel Webster on 23 November 1905. Despite Sullivan being a staunch Roman Catholic, the pair were married in Merivale at the Anglican Church of St Mary. His wife, son and daughter survived him. He was described as a "clever attractive and ambitious man".