David Clark
Labour's new Dunedin North candidate Dr David Clark says
he sees the retention of key services, including neurosurgery
at the Dunedin Hospital, as one of his major roles.
Dr Clark (37) was selected on Saturday, almost certainly
guaranteeing him a seat in Parliament next year, when current
Dunedin North MP Pete Hodgson retires.
Dr Clark is the the Dunedin North Labour Electorate Committee
chairman, warden at Selwyn College, and has worked as a
Treasury analyst and as an adviser to Labour list MP David
Parker, also of Dunedin.
The other candidates to replace Mr Hodgson, the Dunedin North
MP for 20 years, were New Zealand Nurses Organisation
industrial adviser Glenda Alexander and former student leader
Simon Wilson.
Dr Clark grew up in Beachlands, just south of Auckland, and
was schooled in Auckland.
After a year in Germany as an exchange student, he moved to
Dunedin in 1991, completing degrees in German language and
literature, and another in theology.
He became a Presbyterian minister, and worked as an assistant
minister at St Lukes in Auckland., before returning to
Dunedin to complete a PhD in existential philosophy.
Married with one son, he said he had spent 12 years of his
life at Selwyn, both as a student and as a warden.
Asked why he moved from a life in the church to the maelstrom
of politics, he said he was still performing some religious
functions, with a civil union and two weddings coming up.
Of political life, he said: "It's about having an influence
in a different way."
A former Otago representative cyclist, Dr Clark is also
deputy chairman of the Otago Community Trust, a member of the
University of Otago's vice-chancellor's alcohol advisory task
force and a celebrant.
With his wife, he owns land in Waitati, where he said he
hoped to build.
- david.loughrey@odt.co.nz
David Clark
- Dunedin North Labour electorate committee chairman
- Warden at Selwyn College
- Former Treasury analyst
- Former adviser to Labour list MP David Parker, also of
Dunedin Presbyterian minister
- Married, one son
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