Colin Craig (born 8 January 1968) is a New Zealand businessman and perennial candidate who was the founding leader of the Conservative Party of New Zealand.
Craig is a millionaire who owns companies that manage high-rise buildings. His current company manages about $1.3 billion of assets. Upon entering politics in 2011, he opposed same-sex marriage, foreign ownership of land and housing, and "anti-smacking" legislation. On 19 June 2015, Craig resigned as leader of the Conservative Party following allegations of inappropriate behaviour surrounding the party's former press secretary Rachel MacGregor (to which he admitted later at a second press conference on 22 June 2015 with his wife) and tensions with the party's governing board. Craig has since admitted to inappropriate conduct with MacGregor but has denied charges of sexual harassment, a claim being challenged in the courts by several people including Craig himself. On 27 June, Craig was formally suspended from the Conservative Party. Since then, his suspension has been invalidated which would enable Craig to contest the Conservative Party's leadership. On 16 November 2015, Craig announced that he would not be contesting the Conservative Party leadership in lieu of a police investigation against him over his Party's spending during the 2014 general election.
Personal life Born in Auckland and raised in the suburb of Howick, Craig attended Macleans CollegeInterview with Audrey Young "" and graduated from the University of Auckland with Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Arts degrees before completing post-graduate study at Massey University. He has one daughter with his wife Helen. His father, Ross Craig, served as a Rodney District councillor until 2010.
Craig is a conservative Christian brought up in the Baptist denomination, but does not attend a church.Andrea Vance (12 May 2012). "The curious case of Colin Craig". Dominion Post. As of June 2014, he is resident in Fairview Heights on Auckland's North Shore.
Views Craig has stated he is not sure that "legislating morality" works well. However, he has described legalisation of same-sex marriage as "social engineering", and is also opposed to gay adoption, adolescent access to abortion, and voluntary euthanasia or assisted suicide. In May 2012, Craig described New Zealand's young men and women as "the most promiscuous in the world" based upon surveys such as David P. Schmitt's International Sexuality Description Project research statistics and anecdotal evidence from New Zealand gynaecologists, a statement which was dismissed by Prime Minister John Key and other political leaders like Tariana Turia and Winston Peters.
Following a series of child poverty items on current affairs show Campbell Live and a fundraising effort from the show to raise money for school lunches, Craig said children sent to school without lunch should go without. Instead, their parents should be charged the "cost of rectifying their bad behaviour".
In September 2012, Craig had 20,000 leaflets delivered to residents in the Helensville electorate, claiming locals had told him Helensville MP and Prime Minister John Key was "too gay" to be their representative in Parliament.
In April 2013 Craig sided with controversial Danish politician Marie Krarup after she called a traditional Maori greeting "grotesque". Craig said no visitors should have to face a "bare-bottomed native making threatening gestures" if they didn't want to.
Following the legalisation of same sex marriage in April 2013, Craig said "the day of reckoning" would come, that it was a "failure of democracy" and that "[it] was not a vote of the people of New Zealand," adding "If it had been, the answer would have been no."
Craig has been known to take offence at satirical articles directed at him, including a piece on the satirical website The Civilian, which he said published a story designed "to make him look ridiculous". He threatened to sue the site unless they published a retraction and paid him $500. Craig withdrew the threat the following day.
In November 2013 Craig rejected the scientific consensus on climate change by claiming that humans were not to blame for climate change, instead blaming sunspots and "the circulation of planets".. 3 News NZ. 15 November 2013.
Political career
March for Democracy Craig first emerged as a conservative activist in 2009 when he organised and funded a "march for democracy" to protest government decisions not to adhere to three citizen's initiated referendums:
the 1999 New Zealand MP reduction referendum, on a proposed reduction in the number of members of parliament (1999 – 81% in favour) the 1999 New Zealand justice referendum, re sundry suggested changes to the justice system (1999 – 92% in favour) the 2009 referendum concerning the repeal of the 2007 amendment of the Crimes Act, the so-called "anti-smacking" law, which removed parental corporal punishment as a defense in criminal assault cases (2009 – 87% in favour).
He spent $450,000 organising the march, and it attracted 5,000 participants. In 2010, Craig contested the Auckland Mayoral election, finishing third with 42,598 votes behind Len Brown, mayor of Manukau City (237,487 votes) and John Banks (New Zealand politician and former mayor of Auckland – 171,542 votes), but ahead of incumbent North Shore City mayor Andrew Williams (3,813 votes).
Conservative Party leadership In 2011 Craig announced the formation of the Conservative Party of New Zealand. The party contested the 2011 general election on a variety of issues, including the introduction of binding referendums, reducing the number of members of parliament while increasing the electoral term by one year, law and order reform (including work for prisoners), a repeal of the New Zealand emissions trading scheme, the protection of state assets (notably the foreshore and seabed), and fiscal conservatism. In September 2011, he announced he would stand in the Rodney electorate for the 2011 general election.
After pre-election polling in this electorate, Craig claimed to have 47% support while the National Party candidate Mark Mitchell had 36.3%. Prime Minister and National Party leader John Key said that the Conservative Party faced a "massive hurdle" to get a seat in Parliament. According to preliminary election results, Mitchell won the seat with 52.6% of the vote, and Colin Craig came second with 21.4% of the vote. The Conservative Party also gained 2.76% of the vote nationwide, the fifth-largest share of any party and more than four of the parties that actually won seats, but this was insufficient for any Conservatives to enter Parliament because of the 5% of the party vote or one electorate seat required by the mixed-member proportional voting system operating in New Zealand.
Since the Conservative party's conception, Craig has donated $4 million. He is one of the party's two major donors besides Waikato businessman Laurence Day. Craig stood as a candidate in the East Coast Bays electorate in the 2014 general election but failed to win the electorate. His party received 4.1% of the vote; less than 5% of the voting threshold which denied them a seat in the New Zealand Parliament. On 18 September 2014, the Conservative Party's press secretary Rachel MacGregor resigned, citing his alleged manipulative behaviour. When questioned by the media, Craig denied the allegations and offered to discuss the issue with MacGregor following the 2014 general election.
In February 2014, the-then Green Party co-leader Russel Norman alleged that Colin Craig held misogynistic and homophobic attitudes during a speech at the Big Gay Out event in Auckland. Norman's comments prompted Craig to file a defamation suit and to demand that Norman issue an apology. In response, Norman and the Green Party announced that they would contest the lawsuit. On 10 October 2014, following the 2014 general election, both parties settled the lawsuit out of court and agreed to bear their own legal expenses.
2015 leadership dispute In June 2015, Colin Craig drew criticism from elements of the Conservative Party when he participated in a sauna interview hosted by TV3 reporter David Farrier, which they felt badly reflected on Craig's public image. The interview was part of the television channel's new Sauna Session current affairs series. Following sexual harassment allegations that were published on the right-wing blogger Cameron Slater's blog Whale Oil, Craig resigned as party leader on 19 June 2015 and also agreed to "facilitate a review" of the leadership. Craig was also criticised by elements of the Conservative Party for postponing a leadership vote at a scheduled board meeting that month.
On 20 June 2015, Colin Craig announced that he was not ruling out a return to the Conservative Party's leadership if he found sufficient support from the Party's members. He also threatened to sue several media outlets over allegations that he had paid off his former secretary MacGregor over a complaint of sexual harassment to the New Zealand Human Rights Commission. On 21 June, The New Zealand Herald reported that Craig had settled a "financial dispute" with MacGregor for around NZ$16,000 to $17,000 approximately eight weeks earlier. The television channel One News also reported that there was a serious falling-out between Craig and several Conservative board members. One board member, John Stringer, has accused Craig of lying to the board and other inappropriate behaviour. In response, Craig has denied these allegations and threatened to take action against Stringer for speaking to the media.
During the press conference held on 22 June 2015, Craig admitted that he had acted inappropriately towards his press secretary Rachel MacGregor but denied any charges of sexual harassment. In response, MacGregor accused the former Conservative leader for breaching a confidentiality agreement the pair had reached under Human Rights Commission mediation and disputed his version of the events. Craig's wife Helen Craig also announced that she was standing by her husband and characterised the charges against him as "false allegations." Both Craig and MacGregor have also denied that they were involved in a romantic relationship. Both Craig and MacGregor have also indicated that they would support the lifting of the confidentiality agreement in order to allay uncertainty and speculation.
According to the Herald, several board members of the Conservative Party including John Stringer, Christine Rankin, and Laurence Day have indicated support for a change of leadership. A board meeting has been scheduled for 27 June 2015 and Day has also called for Craig to be expelled from the party. Following the resignation of six Conservative Party board members, Craig indicated that a new board and a new leader would later be elected by the Party over the weekend. Craig has not ruled out contesting the leadership poll. It is currently unclear whether the dissolution of the board would favor Craig or any other contender for the Conservative Party's leadership.
On 27 June 2015, Colin Craig was formally suspended from the Conservative Party by the party's newly appointed board which consisted of John Stringer and four newly appointed members. Four of the five board members with the exception of Stringer voted to suspend the former Conservative leader's membership. The conference took place in a room at the Heartland Hotel near Auckland International Airport. According to One News, Craig has since challenged the legality of Stringer and the board's actions; claiming that Stringer had been suspended from the Party. He has also not ruled out contesting the Conservative Party's leadership. Craig's remarks have been dismissed by Stringer, who has become the Party's interim leader.