A life of achievements, driven by faith
Gordon Copeland
businessman/politician b August 19, 1943 d November 24, 2018
Such was Gordon Copeland’s personal charisma, business and political acumen that many who knew him well believed that, had he chosen to stand for one of the major parties, he would in all likelihood have become a Cabinet minister – or even prime minister.
After graduating with a bachelor of commerce degree from Victoria University, he became an accountant for Europa Oil Company, rising to chief accountant of the company while still in his 20s. Europa was bought by British Petroleum in 1972 and, after a two-year secondment in London, and at only 32, Copeland was appointed chief financial officer of the BP Group of Companies, then New Zealand’s fourth-largest corporation.
He left BP in 1979 to become a financial and business consultant, for private and corporate clients, including a consultancy with PricewaterhouseCoopers, later taking up the role of chief financial officer for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Wellington.
He was invited, at 29, to stand as National’s candidate for Western Hutt in 1972, which he declined for family reasons.
He was eventually elected to Parliament in 2002 as a member of the United Future Party, led by Peter Dunne, which became part of the Labour-led Government headed by Helen Clark. In an MMP environment, the contributions made by minority parties are often little known and even less appreciated. That is reflected in the scant recognition accorded to Copeland’s personal achievements as a member of United Future during his two terms in Parliament from 2002 to 2008.
His achievements as United Future finance spokesman during his parliamentary terms include:
❚ Being instrumental in bringing about the raising, and eventual removal, of the limit on donations qualifying for tax exemption; ❚ Bringing his knowledge and experience in working with charities to the team that worked with finance minister Michael Cullen to draft and enact the legislation establishing the Charities Commission;
❚ Making submissions to Cullen on the unfairness of the taxation system for low single-income families, which, among other factors, led to the creation of Working for Families in 2004;
❚ Lobbying successfully in 2005 for changing the flat tax rate on income from savings from 28 per cent to an individual’s personal income tax rate;
❚ Being instrumental in lowering the company tax rate from 33 per cent to 30 per cent, and the abandonment of Labour’s proposed carbon tax (subsequently changed to the Emissions Trading Scheme) in United Future’s confidence and supply agreement with the Labourled coalition; ❚ Lobbying for the sale of minority shareholdings in state-owned enterprises to the public – rejected at the time by Labour, but subsequently adopted and enacted in National’s first term in office;
❚ Unsuccessfully introducing member’s bills to remove GST from local body rates (which he considered ‘‘a tax on a tax’’) and to add private property rights to the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.
As a committed Christian, and a social conservative, he also successfully led the political opposition to Peter Brown’s Death with Dignity euthanasia bill (defeated by 60 votes to 58), and was prominent in the opposition to the prostitution reform bill (passed by 60 to 59 with one abstention).
He led the opposition to three unsuccessful attempts to introduce Easter Sunday trading; and successfully lobbied for the retention of ‘‘Jesus Christ’’ in the Parliamentary Prayer (since removed).
He was one of only eight MPs (including Winston Peters) who opposed the passing of the antismacking bill, and supported the subsequent launch of a petition for a citizen-initiated referendum for the repeal of the law. When subsequently held, it resulted in an 87 per cent vote in favour of repeal. Despite this, the National government left the legislation in place.
During United Future’s second term in office, with only three MPs, philosophical differences began to arise as a result of Dunne’s decision to take a more liberal stance on social issues, contrasting with Copeland’s socially conservative values. The differences came to a head when Dunne announced that he would be voting in favour of the antismacking bill, which up until then he had opposed.
Copeland considered that this left him with no choice but to resign from United Future, and he did so on May 16, 2007.
The Kiwi Party, whose purpose was to give a voice in Parliament to the Christian churches, which Copeland subsequently helped form to contest the 2008 general election, was disastrously unsuccessful, largely due, in Copeland’s view, to what he considered to be the undesirably prominent involvement of the Destiny Church in the campaign.
After leaving Parliament, Copeland worked as investments manager for the Anglican Pension Fund until his retirement in 2013. Subsequently, he became chair of the Wellington Council of Churches, a trustee of the Te Nikau Rehabilitation Centre, and worked tirelessly for the St Gerard’s Monastery Restoration Fund to raise money for the strengthening of that iconic Wellington building.
Copeland’s Christian faith was the driving force for everything he achieved. Raised in a Pentecostal family and converting to Catholicism in his adult years, he exhibited the very best elements of these two Christian traditions in both his personal spirituality and in his business, political and community activities.
Throughout most of his adult life, he was an innovator and leader in a wide range of Christian ecumenical activities, including Christian Advance Ministries, Catholic Charismatic Renewal, Seven Seas Television (which produced 18 Christian testimony programmes screened on TV One’s ‘‘religious slot’’ in the 1980s), ‘‘Celebrate Jesus 2000’’ (which brought 25,000 people to the Westpac Stadium), ‘‘Light to the Nations’’ Discipleship Group, and ‘‘Encounter Jesus Christ’’ outreaches.
He is survived by his wife Anne, five children, 10 grandchildren and six great-grandchidren. – By Peter McLeod
Sources: As It Is, My time in Parliament and thoughts for our future, by Gordon Copeland (Mary Egan Publishing); Copeland family.