Former deputy PM passes away

Publish Date
Sunday, 7 January 2018, 11:54AM
Photo / Getty Images

Photo / Getty Images

Former deputy prime minister Jim Anderton has died.

The former Alliance leader "passed away peacefully overnight at Cashmere View Hospital in Christchurch", his widow Carole said in a statement.

Funeral details will be announced in due course. He was two weeks short of his 80th birthday.

Megan Woods, who succeeded Anderton as Wigram MP in 2011 and is now Minister of Energy, said Anderton "hadn't been well for a while".

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand had lost a man of integrity, compassion and dedication to public service.

Anderton was awarded the insignia of a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in September last year. A small group of family and friends, former Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Helen Clark, and Mayor Lianne Dalziel, were at the ceremony.

Anderton appeared frail and was in a wheelchair at the ceremony. It was held at Nazareth House, where he was living.

Former National MP Philip Burdon said then that Anderton was "particularly frail" due to old age.

"He was really very frail and there was no way he could go to Wellington for the ceremony," Burdon said.

- This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission.

Take your Radio, Podcasts and Music with you