Phil Amos

Phillip Albert Amos (4 September 1925 – 8 June 2007) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party. He was of Māori (Kāi Tahu) and descent.

Biography Early life Amos was born in Wanganui in 1925, the son of John Amos. He received his education at Otorohanga District High School, later renamed as Otorohanga College. He attended Auckland Teachers College followed by the University of Auckland.

He was a Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) pilot in the Pacific in World War II. After demobilizing in 1946 he went to Teachers' College and University, where he studied both anthropology and politics. He had a passion for human rights and was strongly opposed to racism, in particular the apartheid system in South Africa and Rhodesia. This lead him to sign up with the Princes Street branch of the Labour Party in 1949 contrasting with the strong National Party affiliation in his father's family.

Political career

In he stood for Labour in the Rodney electorate, coming second. He was then elected the Member of Parliament for Manurewa from defeating cabinet minister Leon Götz. He was appointed Labour's education spokesperson by leader Norman Kirk while the party was in opposition.

Kirk appointed Amos Minister of Education in the Third Labour Government from 1972 to 1975, and also served as the last Minister of Island Affairs from 1972 to 1974. As Minister of Education, he passed the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act which drove the integration of Catholic and private schools with a system which provided them with state funding and worked towards the reduction of class sizes. His wife Jill went back to New Zealand in 1979 and they later divorced.

In 1985 he made headlines in New Zealand again after it was rumoured he had died following a failure to reply to an invitation from David Lange to attend a reception he was also attending in Dar-es-Salaam. Amos later said his "disappearance" was just an invention of the media.

Death Amos was a heavy smoker most of his life. He had been admitted to hospital several times in the months before he died in Auckland on 8 June 2007 of lung failure, aged 81.

Awards and recognition Amos was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal. In the 1994 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Companion of the Queen's Service Order for public services.