Tim Shadbolt
Sir Timothy Richard Shadbolt (born 19 February 1947) is a New Zealand politician. He is the Mayor of Invercargill and was previously Mayor of Waitemata City. Early life. Shadbolt was born in the Auckland suburb of Remuera in 1947. His father died in a flying accident in 1952. He was on the school council and appointed prefect. Activist: 1960s and 1970s. Shadbolt became a founding student of Rutherford College, Auckland, and attended the University of Auckland from 1966 to 1970, taking a year off in 1967 to work on the Manapouri Power Project in Southland. He was a  member of the Auckland University Students Association executive, and editor of "Craccum" in 1972. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, he became prominent in the "Progressive Youth Movement", a radical left-wing organisation, and was arrested 33 times during political protests, most famously for using the word "bullshit"; this incident influenced the title of his 1971 autobiography "Bullshit & Jellybeans". After 1970, he founded a commune and concrete cooperative at Huia. Local politician: 1980s–present. Waitemata. Shadbolt claims he stood for Mayor of Waitemata City in 1983 because he did not want to see the incumbent Tony Covic re-elected  unopposed. He won the election. He famously celebrated, much to some people's disgust, by towing his concrete mixer (named "Karl Marx") behind the mayoral Daimler in the 1983 Henderson Christmas parade. He won again in 1986 heading a political ticket called "Tim's Team", but in 1989 lost the following mayoral election in the newly formed Waitakere city (an enlarged Waitemata city) to Assid Corban. During his term as mayor he became infamous by twice losing the mayoral chains. He stood in the electorate of West Auckland (which incorporated Waitemata) at the 1990 New Zealand general election as an  independent. He placed fifth with 3.06 per cent of the vote. Later that year, he unsuccessfully stood in a by-election for Mayor of Auckland City, polling a distant eighth place. Two years later he stood again for Mayor of Auckland City and also for Mayor of Dunedin, where he finished third place in both elections but performed marginally better in Dunedin. Later that year, he stood in the Wellington Central by-election as an independent candidate, polling less than half a percentage point. Invercargill. In 1993, Shadbolt ran successfully for the position of Mayor of Invercargill. In 1994, he  contested the Selwyn by-election as a candidate for New Zealand First, but was placed fourth, and remained Mayor of Invercargill. He was defeated in 1995. In the 1996 general election he stood unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party. In 1998, Shadbolt was re-elected to the mayoralty and has remained the mayor ever since. In 2001 he was re-elected unopposed. In October 2002, Shadbolt told a conference of New Zealand's Disabled Persons Assembly that Invercargill had "an innovative approach to public transport, currently centred on 'Freebie the Bus' travelling the 'Purple Circle'". He  said he hoped that in future all buses in Invercargill would be free and accessible. ("The Freebie" and "Purple Circle" are zero-fare bus routes in Invercargill.) In 2004 and 2007, Shadbolt won his fourth and fifth mayoral terms by huge margins. In 2010, he won his sixth Invercargill mayoral election. Shadbolt received 16,466 votes over mayoral candidates Suzanne Prentice (5,361 votes) and Carl Heenan (682 votes). On 8 October 2016 he again won re-election as Invercargill's mayor. He said this was his toughest campaign yet. "I’ve had two candidates both going flat-out and it was  a tough election", he said. "In the past I’ve had either no contenders, but this time I had a television producer and a sitting councillor who had also been an investigative journalist, so it was pretty tough opposition." Shadbolt was returned for another term in 2019. In November 2020, however, an independent review of the Invercargill City Council commissioned by the Department of Internal Affairs raised concerns about the council's performance, and in particular said Shadbolt was "struggling to fulfil significant aspects of his job", and as a result there is a leadership void at the council. Shadbolt  rubbished the report, saying it is flawed and he has been singled out as a scapegoat. In mid-August 2021, Deputy Mayor of Invercargill Nobby Clark pushed for a vote of no confidence in Shadbolt's leadership. Shadbolt had drawn criticism from fellow councillors for using Invercargill City Council (ICC) properties to store his personal belongings. In response, Shadbolt alleged that he was the victim of workplace bullying and criticised the leaking of a mayoral email to the media. On 17 August, it was reported that Invercargil City Council CEO Clare Hadley had illegally accessed an email written by Shadbolt  and used it against him during a closed council meeting. Following her apology, Shadbolt and councillors also welcomed an external investigation into the email leak. An informal survey conducted by the "Otago Daily Times" found that 82% of respondents (157 individuals) believed that Shadbolt should resign as Mayor of Invercargill. Shadbolt is New Zealand's second longest-serving mayor, after George Perry who was mayor of Hokitika for 31 years. Legal problems. In June 2015, the Invercargill City councillor Karen Arnold filed a defamation case against Shadbolt and Stuff media company (then known as Fairfax New Zealand) at the Wellington  High Court, alleging that Shadbolt had defamed her in four columns published in the Fairfax–owned "Southland Times" newspaper between October 2014 and April 2015. Shadbolt and Arnold had clashed about the Invercargill City Council's holding company Holdco borrowing an extra NZ$130 million but then declining to invest in a kākāpō centre. Following a three week trial between February and March 2018 at the Invercargill High Court, the jury rejected Arnold's claims that Shadbolt and Stuff had defamed her on 18 March 2018. Shadbolt welcomed the ruling as a victory for freedom of expression. Following the defamation, Arnold  was ordered to pay both Stuff and Shadbolt NZ$186,000 but declared bankruptcy. In March 2020, Shadbolt tried to get the Invercargill City Council to cover $448,000 worth of expenses incurred during his defamation trial under an indemnity clause in the Local Government Act. When the Council and insurance company rejected his application, Shadbolt sued the ICC. By late September 2020, Newshub reported that Shadbolt was facing bankruptcy, owing over NZ$350,000 in legal fees. Outside politics. He has presented several television documentaries, and the series "That's Fairly Interesting". In the 1990s he appeared in an advertisement promoting New Zealand  cheese, where he humorously repeated the phrase "I don't care where as long as I'm mayor", referencing his dual mayoralties. He admitted later that the phrase was developed by an advertising agency. In 2001, he appeared as a contestant on a celebrity special of The Weakest Link. In 2005, New Zealand Toastmasters awarded him the "Communicator of the Year" award. He also played in the movie "The World's Fastest Indian", portraying a good friend of Burt Munro who organised social events for Invercargill's motorcycling community. He also participated in the "New Zealand version" of "Dancing with  the Stars" where he placed 3rd. In 2006 Shadbolt played the part of the Narrator in The Rocky Horror Show by the Invercargill Musical Theatre. He continued his theatre experiences by appearing in 2007 in the Invercargill Musical Theatres production of Sea Cruise. In 2010, Shadbolt appeared on the comedy gameshow 7 Days as the guest participant in the round "Yes, Minister". In 2012, Shadbolt set the Guinness World Record for the longest television interview. He was interviewed for 26 consecutive hours by interviewer Tom Conroy. In doing so the pair also set the record for the longest single event  in New Zealand television history. Shadbolt later said he would have liked to keep going. The record was broken in 2013 by Norwegian novelist Hans Olav Lahlum. Personal life. Shadbolt has one son from an early marriage. He met his second wife, Miriam Cameron, in 1970. They have two sons. Cameron left Shadbolt in 1989 after alleged repeated domestic violence. They divorced three years later. Shadbolt's current partner is lawyer Asha Dutt and they have one son. Shadbolt was hospitalised for two weeks in April 2006 after rolling the mayoral car near Winton while returning from a work trip  to Queenstown. He suffered three broken vertebrae, a bruised lung, and damage to his kidneys. His two passengers were uninjured. He was charged with careless driving and could have faced a maximum fine of $3000, however he was instead discharged and ordered to pay $300 each to St John New Zealand and the Winton volunteer fire brigade. He was knighted in the 2019 New Year Honours List as a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (KNZM). In June 2021, Shadbolt revealed that he had been diagnosed with muscle tension dysphonia.