Peter Byard Davis (born 25 April 1947) is a New Zealand sociologist, professor, and the husband of

Helen Clark Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008 and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...

, who was the

Prime Minister of New Zealand The prime minister of New Zealand () is the head of government of New Zealand. The prime minister, Christopher Luxon, leader of the New Zealand National Party, took office on 27 November 2023. The prime minister (informally abbreviated to P ...

from 1999 to 2008.

Early life

Davis was born in

Milford on Sea Milford on Sea, often hyphenated, is a large coastal village and civil parish in the New Forest district, on the Hampshire coast, England. The parish had a population of 4,660 at the 2011 census and is centred about south of Lymington. Touri ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, England, on 25 April 1947, and spent his childhood in

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

, where his father worked for a mining company. His father was born in China and his mother in India, but a great-great-grandfather had grown up in New Zealand. He was educated at Bradfield College. Davis gained a master's degree in sociology and statistics at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

. He moved to New Zealand in 1970 to work at the

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...

and completed a PhD at the

University of Auckland The University of Auckland (; Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. Initially loc ...

. He became a naturalised New Zealander in 1972. He was part of a team investigating oral health in New Zealand and was joint editor of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology. In 1976 he was appointed a lecturer at the

school of medicine. In

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

he stood unsuccessfully for the

Auckland City Council Auckland City Council was the local government authority for Auckland City, New Zealand, from 1989 to 1 November 2010, when it and Auckland's six other city and district councils were amalgamated to form the Auckland Council. It was an elec ...

on a Labour Party ticket. In 1988 he was elected to the

Auckland Regional Authority The Auckland Regional Council (ARC) was the regional council (one of the former local government authorities) of the Auckland Region. Its predecessor the Auckland Regional Authority (ARA) was formed in 1963 and became the ARC in 1989. The ARC ...

for the Mount Albert ward.

Personal life

Davis met Clark, then a political-science lecturer at Auckland, in 1977 and they married in 1981. In May 2025, Davis attracted controversy after responding to the discovery of

antisemitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

graffiti in

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

with a social media post stating " you reap what you sow." His remarks were widely interpreted as downplaying or rationalising the hate crime, leading to condemnation from community leaders and human rights advocates. The Israel Institute of New Zealand called for Davis's resignation from The Helen Clark Foundation, arguing that his comments were incompatible with its mission of promoting social cohesion and inclusivity.

Career

Davis specialises in

medical sociology Medical sociology is the sociological analysis of health, Illness, differential access to medical resources, the social organization of medicine, Health Care Delivery, the production of medical knowledge, selection of methods, the study of action ...

, and from 2004 to 2017 worked as the Director of the COMPASS (Centre of Methods and Policy Application in the Social Sciences) Research Centre he established at the University of Auckland. In 2014 he was awarded a James Cook Research Fellowship for a research project titled "New Zealand as a 'social laboratory'". He is now Professor Emeritus in the School of Population Health and Honorary Professor in the Department of Statistics at the

. Previously he served as Professor of Public Health at the University of Otago's Christchurch School of Medicine. He has previously served on the Auckland Area Health Board, and was a representative in 1989 when his wife (Health Minister at the time) suspended that body. Davis has achieved international recognition in his field, having worked as a consultant for the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

. In 2019 Davis became a

City Vision City Vision is a centre-left coalition of two political parties, the New Zealand Labour Party and the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, and community independents who contest Auckland Council (and previously Auckland City and Auckland Regiona ...

candidate for the Auckland District Health Board and was subsequently elected. He is a

trustee Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, refers to anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the ...

and former chair of

The Helen Clark Foundation The Helen Clark Foundation () is a New Zealand-based independent, non-partisan public policy think tank hosted by Auckland University of Technology. Formation The foundation was formed in 2019 and is named after Helen Clark, the 37th prime min ...

board, an organisation he helped found in 2019.

Notes

References

University of Auckland
press release * Wayne Thompson
"PM's spouse eases long-distance stress"
in ''

The New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation in New Zealand, ...

'', Friday 6 February 2004
University of Auckland profile

of the University of Auckland , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Peter 1947 births Alumni of the London School of Economics Alumni of the University of Southampton English emigrants to New Zealand Helen Clark Living people Medical sociologists Naturalised citizens of New Zealand People from Milford on Sea Sociology educators Spouses of prime ministers of New Zealand University of Auckland alumni Academic staff of the University of Auckland Academic staff of the University of Otago Auckland regional councillors Auckland District Health Board members James Cook Research Fellows