Frank Grover (born 19 March 1940) is a former New Zealand politician. He was an MP from 1996 to 1999, representing first the

Alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or sovereign state, states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an a ...

and then the Christian Heritage Party in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

Early life

Grover was born in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

on 19 March 1940, the son of Madge Grover (née Troutbeck) and Percival Gordon Grover. Before entering politics, Grover had a background in law, having received an LLB from University of Auckland. He worked as a magistrate in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

from 1979 to 1983.

Political career

The Liberals

Grover was originally a member of the National Party, but became disillusioned with National's economic policy under Minister of Finance Ruth Richardson. Richardson promoted strong

free market In economics, a free market is an economic market (economics), system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of ...

economic theories, which were popular with some sections of the party, but resented by more conservative elements. Gilbert Myles and Hamish McIntyre, two National MPs who believed that Richardson's reforms were deeply harmful to society, split from the party in 1992, founding the new

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

. Grover was one of those who accompanied them. Soon afterwards, the Liberals chose to join the Alliance, a broad left-wing coalition which they saw as the most significant opponent of Richardson and her allies. Some members of the Liberals, quite possibly including Grover, were unhappy at this decision, however – while they opposed Richardson's reforms, they did not see themselves as left-wing. Following the failure of either Myles or McIntyre to be re-elected, Myles decamped to the newly founded New Zealand First party and McIntyre retired. Grover assumed the leadership of the Liberals in 1994.

Member of Parliament

Grover was elected to Parliament in the 1996 election as an Alliance list MP. He disagreed with the Alliance on a number of issues, however, and on 11 June 1999, not long before the 1999 election, he officially quit the Alliance to join the Christian Heritage Party. This gave the CHP its only ever seat in Parliament. In 1998 Grover had indicated that he would stand for the Christian Democrat Party, but when they became Future New Zealand he decided to join the CHP instead. Grover's switches was strongly criticised by other parties, particularly the Alliance but also New Zealand First, which had also experienced defections. For the election, Grover was ranked sixth on Christian Heritage's list, but the party failed to win any seats. Grover therefore left Parliament.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grover, Frank 1940 births Living people Politicians from Auckland Alliance (New Zealand political party) MPs University of Auckland alumni Christian Heritage Party of New Zealand MPs New Zealand Liberal Party (1991) politicians New Zealand list MPs New Zealand National Party politicians Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Unsuccessful candidates in the 1993 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 1999 New Zealand general election