Norman Douglas

Norman Vazey Douglas (15 March 1910 – 26 August 1985) was a New Zealand trade unionist and left-wing politician. He joined the New Zealand Labour Party in 1932, but when John A. Lee was expelled from the party in 1940, Douglas followed to join the new Democratic Labour Party. He rejoined the Labour Party in 1952 and represented the electorate in Parliament from 1960 until his retirement in 1975, serving time on the Opposition front bench.

Biography Early life Douglas was born in Hikurangi in 1910, the son of a policeman. He was raised in a series of several small towns due to his father's job transfers. In 1925 he left school whilst in Mercer and became an apprentice baker. He lost his left arm in a duck-shooting accident in May 1927 leading him to give up baking and undertake secondary schooling at Pukekohe Technical High School for two years. There he became an avid reader and came under the influence of his teacher, Norman Shields, who introduced Douglas to left-wing ideology. He served three years as a councillor, chairing the council's library committee, until he was defeated standing for re-election in 1938. He then became the assistant secretary of the Auckland Coach and Car Builders' Union and the Auckland Brewers', Wine and Spirit Merchants' Employees' Union in 1936, and then secretary of both unions the following year, remaining in that post for the latter union until 1963. He was secretary of the Auckland Trades Council from 1939 to 1941 and led the Labour Party's Junior Labour League.

When Lee was expelled from the Labour Party in 1940, Douglas left also and helped him set up the Democratic Labour Party (DLP). Soon after the DLP was created the party had an opportunity to gain another seat in parliament at a in . Douglas was approached by the DLP membership to contest the by-election in an effort to boost the new party's publicity, but he declined to stand. He was a member of the party's national executive and edited John A. Lee's Weekly. He ran for Parliament in a in and in the for the electorate as a DLP candidate but was defeated. He then operated a bookselling business for about 15 years from 1944, first with Lee and then on his own after he and Lee fell out in 1954. In October of that year Douglas was selected to replace him in the seat. He retained the position until 1970 when he did not seek re-election. Douglas also sat on the Opposition front bench. He served as spokesperson for a succession of portfolios from 1967 to 1972 including education, social security and industrial relations and immigration. Douglas was downhearted by Labour's shock defeat at the 1969 election and he notified national secretary of the party that he would not seek re-election at the 1972 election, a decision which he later reneged. In 1975 he was appointed a member of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Board.

Later life and death In retirement Douglas worked at his family's herbal product business, Red Seal Laboratories. In the 1976 New Year Honours, Douglas was appointed a Companion of the Queens Service Order for public services.

He remained politically active and at the 1978 general election he was fervently involved in his son Malcolm's successful campaign for the electorate.

Personal life Douglas married Dorothy Jennie Anderton, a daughter of fellow politician Bill Anderton, in 1937. They had one daughter and three sons. Two sons, Roger Douglas and Malcolm Douglas, also became Labour MPs, the former becoming Minister of Finance and later founder and leader of the right-wing ACT New Zealand party.