David Garrett (politician)

David Garrett (born 1957) is a lawyer and former member of the New Zealand House of Representatives. He entered parliament at the 2008 general election as a list MP for ACT New Zealand, having been ranked fifth on that party's list. He was ACT's spokesman on law and order until he resigned from the party on 17 September 2010.[1] On 23 September 2010, he resigned from Parliament, following revelations that he had fraudulently obtained a passport in the name of a dead infant. The passport falsification offence occurred over twenty five years previously, in 1984.[2]

David Garrett
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for ACT party list
In office
2008 – 2010
Succeeded byHilary Calvert
Personal details
Born1957
Gisborne
Political partyACT (until September 2010)
Other political
affiliations		Socialist Unity
Labour
ResidenceKaukapakapa
ProfessionLawyer

Early years

David Garrett was born in 1957 in Gisborne, where he grew up as one of six children.[3] He went to school at Campion College, Gisborne, before spending a decade working as an oil industry labourer on rigs and pipelines around the world. He then started a second career as a lawyer, practising in Tonga, where he set up a firm that is still running. In New Zealand Garrett became a member of the Socialist Unity Party and was a Labour Party activist.[4] He also worked as a lawyer and a pro-bono legal adviser to the Sensible Sentencing Trust.[5]

Member of Parliament
New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate List Party
2008–10 49th List 5 ACT
2010 49th List Independent

He joined the ACT party three months before the 2008 election, when he was approached to stand for ACT in an arrangement made between Rodney Hide, ACT leader, and Garth McVicar, chairman of the Sensible Sentencing Trust. He was elected as a list MP, having been ranked fifth on the ACT party list. He resigned from the ACT party on 17 September 2010 less than 48 hours after it was revealed he had used the identity of a dead child to obtain a false passport.[1] He was formally confirmed as an independent MP at the beginning of the following week but resigned from Parliament in disgrace shortly thereafter.[2]

Legislation

Garrett is the author of the "three strikes" legislation which was supported by the National Party and incorporated into the Sentencing and Parole Reform Bill which became law in May 2010.[6] Under this law, certain crimes involving violence or sexual offending are deemed "strike" offences. An offender receives a normal sentence and a warning for a first strike offence, a sentence without parole for a second, and the maximum sentence for the offence without parole for a third.

Offending

He has a conviction for assault in Tonga in 2002.[7] He was discharged without conviction three years later for stealing the identity of a dead child to obtain a passport. Garrett admitted in Parliament that he had used a dead baby's identity to obtain a passport 26 years before. He said he used a method made known in the novel The Day of the Jackal, and obtained the birth certificate of a child who died in infancy around the same time Garrett was born.[8]

The revelations of the identity theft offence also led to him being censured by the Law Society's Lawyers and Conveyancer's Committee. The Society suspended him from holding a lawyer's practising certificate for a year and ordered him to pay court costs of $8,430. The hearing related to a false affidavit Garrett had sworn to the court while he faced the charge of stealing the identity of a dead child to get a passport in 2005. He was a practising lawyer at the time but did not mention the Tongan conviction. He told the court: "The worst I could be accused of is incurring some parking and speeding fines."[9]

After parliament

Garrett returned to Auckland and continues to practice law, in Tonga.[10]

Further reading

References
  1. "Embattled ACT MP David Garrett quits party". Radio New Zealand. 17 September 2010. Retrieved 17 September 2010.
  2. Nicky Park (23 September 2010). "Disgraced NZ MP quits politics". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
  3. Wall, Tony (4 December 2011). "Ex-MP Garrett's life in ruins". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  4. Gower, Patrick (11 November 2008). "New MP looking for action on tougher sentencing". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 4 April 2009.
  5. "Sensible Sentencing Trust defends Garrett". One News (New Zealand). 16 September 2010. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
  6. ""Three Strikes" Legislation—Reasons for Government Support". House of Representatives. 4 May 2010. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
  7. "Act MP admits to assault conviction". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  8. Sensible Sentencing Trust defends Garrett, TVNZ News 16 September 2012
  9. Ex-MP David Garrett pleads not guilty, NZ Herald 8 November 2011
  10. "Personnel". Tongalawyers.com. 21 March 2012. Archived from the original on 29 May 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
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