John Robertson

John Struan Robertson (born 6 December 1951) is a New Zealand politician and company director.

Robertson was elected to the New Zealand House of Representatives in 1990 as the Member of Parliament for Papakura. A centrist and originally a member of the New Zealand National Party, he changed allegiance to the United New Zealand Party in 1995. He has twice served in local government: as Papakura city mayor from 2004 to 2007 and as Waitomo district mayor since 2019.

Member of Parliament

After a career as a chartered accountant, Robertson was elected to the New Zealand House of Representatives 1990 as the Member of Parliament for Papakura. He succeeded the retiring former Minister of Education, Merv Wellington. Robertson was re-elected in the 1993 general election.

In 1995, he was one of seven centrist MPs who established United New Zealand. Robertson's Papakura electorate was disestablished before the 1996 election; he stood instead for where he finished second to National's Warren Kyd. United New Zealand did not poll high enough to be entitled to any list MPs, so Robertson left Parliament.

Local government career Robertson was later appointed chair of Infrastructure Auckland, a council-owned organisation which ran the Ports of Auckland and owned the America's Cup village. He served in this role from 2000 to 2004.

He was elected Mayor of Papakura and served from 2004 to 2007, when he was defeated. After his election loss he became dean of business at Manukau Institute of Technology. Robertson was appointed as the chair of the commission. While Local Government Minister David Carter initially said that this commission was expected to remain until October 2015, it was not removed until October 2016.

Robertson contested and won the Waitomo district mayoralty in the 2019 local elections, defeating incumbent Brian Hanna. He was re-elected in 2022.

Honours In the 2008 Queen's Birthday Honours, Robertson was appointed a Companion of the Queen's Service Order for public services and services to local body affairs.