Neil Morrison

Neil Morrison
2nd Leader of the Democratic Party
In office 23 August 1986 – 22 August 1988
Deputy	Gary Knapp
Preceded by	Bruce Beetham
Succeeded by	Gary Knapp
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Pakuranga
In office 14 July 1984 – 15 August 1987
Preceded by	Pat Hunt
Succeeded by	Maurice Williamson
Personal details
Born	(1938-01-11)11 January 1938 New Zealand
Died	19 September 2007(2007-09-19) (aged 69) New Zealand
Political party	Social Credit
Spouse	Gabrielle Morrison
Children	2
Occupation	Mechanic

Neil Joseph Morrison (11 January 1938 – 19 September 2007) was a New Zealand politician of the Social Credit Party.

Political career

New Zealand Parliament

Years	Term	Electorate		Party
1984–1985	41st	Pakuranga			Social Credit
1985–1987	Changed allegiance to:				Democrats

He won the Pakuranga seat in the 1984 election by 172 votes, from two-term MP Pat Hunt (his election night majority was 419). During the 1984 election campaign, Hunt coined the unflattering term "Skoda brigade and Crimplene suit contingent" for Social Credit supporters after losing to Morrison. Gary Knapp retained East Coast Bays, but the party leader Bruce Beetham lost his Rangitikei seat. Soon after being elected he began advocating to change the name of the Social Credit Party to the New Zealand Democratic Party in an effort to rejuvenate following a huge drop in support between the 1981 and 1984 elections.

In 1986 Beetham lost the leadership of the party to Morrison. On the night he was elected, the new leader implied in a TV interview that the Social Credit national dividend policy was out of date and would be dropped. This was in response to a question from the interviewer, which he might not have listened to carefully. The next day when Beetham said he was considering resigning because the new leadership was rejecting basic Social Credit philosophy, Morrison publicly retracted his comment and affirmed that the national dividend would remain an important part of Social Credit policy.

In the 1987 election Morrison was defeated by National candidate Maurice Williamson, and Knapp was defeated by another National candidate. Morrison later left the Social Credit Party and instead joined ACT New Zealand where he found himself together with Hunt who had joined the party too. When appearing together at the inaugural ACT conference in 1994 Morrison acknowledged that many Social Creditors liked crimplene and one of his branch members drove a Skoda.

He was a Manukau City Councillor, and about to run for re-election when he died in 2007.

References

• Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First published in 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.
• New Zealand Herald obituary