Graeme Lee

Graeme Ernest Lee (born 1 September 1935) is a former New Zealand politician. Originally a National Party MP, he broke away to found the Christian Democrat Party.

Early life and family Lee was born in Paeroa on 1 September 1935, the son of Ernest Walter Lee and Muriel Myrtle Lee (née Weight). His father was a builder, and later served as mayor of Paeroa from 1959. In 1977, Lee was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal.

Member of Parliament

Lee was first elected to Parliament in the 1981 election, winning the seat of Hauraki as the National candidate. Lee replaced Leo Schultz, a prominent National MP. He retained his seat from then until the 1996 election, although a change of electoral boundaries resulted in the seat which covered the Thames-Coromandel district being renamed Coromandel in 1996.

Lee, a principally conservative member of the National Party caucus would later come to believe that the National Party was drifting away from conservatism, but initially resolved to fight the shift from within the party. After a three year period as a Cabinet Minister in the Bolger government, Lee resigned from the National Party in 1993.

Lee had a reputation as one of the more conservative MPs in Parliament, and was particularly active in opposing Fran Wilde's homosexual law reform bill.

In 1990, Lee received the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal. Eventually, in late 1995, the Christian Coalition was established. In the 1996 election, however, the Coalition narrowly missed out on entering Parliament. It later collapsed amid many accusations and recriminations.

In the 1997 Queen's Birthday Honours, Lee was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for public services.

Lee had told his family that if he failed to remain in Parliament, he would retire from politics. After his departure from politics, he became involved as CEO for the Christian housing provider Habitat for Humanity and wrote an autobiography about his religious views and political life within the National and Christian Democrat parties, as well as his ongoing political stance. For his current organisational affiliation, see concluding paragraph and links section.

The party then renamed itself Future New Zealand and contested the 1999 elections. It later merged with Peter Dunne's United Party to form United Future New Zealand in 2000. The party received 8 seats at the 2002 election. However, most New Zealanders realised that this was merely a cosmetic change during the 47th New Zealand Parliament, with most of the caucus professing either fundamentalist Protestant or conservative Catholic religious beliefs.

Later years Graeme Lee was a minister at Auckland's Greenlane Christian Centre for a brief period of time, and was also one of the co-ordinators of Vision New Zealand, a national evangelical/ecumentalist umbrella group. Subsequently, Lee was involved in organising the New Zealand itinerary of an American televangelist, Greg Laurie, in 2011.

He has been leading the New Zealand branch of Christians for Israel, a Christian Zionist group.

His daughter, Denise Krum, stood for United Future in the 2008 general election. However, UFNZ Leader Peter Dunne was the only UFNZ MP returned to Parliament, due to his anchoring constituency seat. Krum joined the National Party in 2009, becoming a deputy chair of the Northern Region. She unsuccessfully applied to become National Party candidate for the Epsom electorate, but became a National Party List MP candidate at the 2011 New Zealand general election. However, she was ranked at 69 on the National Party list and consequently did not enter Parliament. Krum later ran successfully for the Auckland Council and was elected Councillor in 2013 for the Maungakiekie-Tamaki Ward.