Reginald George Boorman (6 February 1935 – 30 October 2016) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.

Early life and family

Boorman served in the

Malayan Emergency The Malayan Emergency, also known as the Anti–British National Liberation War was a guerrilla war fought in British Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the military forces o ...

in 1957 with the

New Zealand Army , image = New Zealand Army Logo.png , image_size = 175px , caption = , start_date = , country = , branch = ...

. His first marriage was to Carol McAlpine. His second marriage (in the 1980s) was to Pauline Moran. He had four sons.

Member of Parliament

He unsuccessfully stood for the Labour nomination at the

1980 Onehunga by-election The Onehunga by-election of 1980 was a by-election for the electorate during the 39th New Zealand Parliament. It was prompted by the death of Frank Rogers, a Labour Party MP. It was held on 7 June 1980 and was won by Fred Gerbic, also of the ...

, losing to

Fred Gerbic Frederick Miroslav Gerbic (10 March 1932 – 29 October 1995) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party. Biography Early life and career Gerbic was born in Kaitaia in 1932. He became an electrical lineman and later married Joy Constan ...

. He was selected to contest the

Wairarapa The Wairarapa (; ), a geographical region of New Zealand, lies in the south-eastern corner of the North Island, east of metropolitan Wellington and south-west of the Hawke's Bay Region. It is lightly populated, having several rural service t ...

electorate in

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast As ...

, where he defeated the National Party incumbent

Ben Couch Manuera Benjamin Rīwai Couch (27 June 1925 – 3 June 1996) was a New Zealand politician and rugby union player. He was a team-member of the All Blacks and the New Zealand Māori rugby union team in the 1940s. Early life Couch was born in 192 ...

. Boorman again contested Waiarapa in

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airpor ...

, defeating new National candidate

Wyatt Creech Wyatt Beetham Creech (born 13 October 1946) is a United States-born retired New Zealand politician. He served as the 14th deputy prime minister of New Zealand in Jenny Shipley's National Party government from August 1998 to December 1999. Ea ...

. On election night, Boorman won by a mere 11 votes, but this was reduced to one vote following a full recount. The single vote majority led to Boorman being nicknamed "Landslide" by his Labour Party colleagues and the media, and he used to quip that when he drove over the

Rimutaka Hill The Remutaka Range (spelled Rimutaka Range before 2017) is the southernmost range of a mountain chain in the lower North Island of New Zealand. The chain continues north into the Tararua, then Ruahine Ranges, running parallel with the east co ...

to Wellington, he would "take his majority with him".

Ejection from Parliament

Boorman's election was the subject of a legal challenge by Creech. There were two aspects to this challenge. First, Creech claimed that Boorman had violated new laws about election spending by illegally deducting the (then new) goods and services tax from his spending return, effectively reducing his declared spend by 10%. The second part challenged the validity of more than 200 votes on various grounds. Creech was assisted in his efforts by

Tauranga Tauranga () is a coastal city in the Bay of Plenty region and the fifth most populous city of New Zealand, with an urban population of , or roughly 3% of the national population. It was settled by Māori late in the 13th century, colonised by ...

Winston Peters Winston Raymond Peters (born 11 April 1945) is a New Zealand politician serving as the leader of New Zealand First since its foundation in 1993. Peters served as the 13th deputy prime minister of New Zealand from 1996 to 1998 and 2017 to 2020, ...

, who had won an electoral petition in

Hunua Hunua () is a small settlement in the rural outskirts of south Auckland, New Zealand. Hunua is east of Papakura, from Hunua Falls and lies at the foot of the Hunua Ranges, from where Auckland obtains most of its water supply. The literal tr ...

nine years earlier. The Electoral Court approved Creech's petition. In 1988, after the recount was carried out, Creech was declared to have won the electorate with a majority of 34 votes (9994 to 9960). The Court also found that Boorman had breached the law by overspending on his election campaign. This outcome resulted in him being declared guilty of a corrupt practice, which meant that Boorman would have been expelled from Parliament even if Creech had not won the recount.

Post-parliamentary life

After Parliament, Boorman worked as a taxi driver. Later, Creech would tell of a time that, as the new MP, he called for a taxi and the driver was Boorman. After his defeat, his second wife Pauline Moran stood unsuccessfully for Labour in the Wairarapa electorate. In 1990, Boorman was awarded the

New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal The New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal was a commemorative medal awarded in New Zealand in 1990 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, and was awarded to approximately 3,000 people. Background The New Zea ...

. He died at home in

Whakatāne Whakatāne ( , ) is the seat of the Bay of Plenty region in the North Island of New Zealand, east of Tauranga and north-east of Rotorua, at the mouth of the Whakatāne River. Whakatāne District is the encompassing territorial authority, w ...

on 30 October 2016, and was survived by Moran.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boorman, Reg 1935 births 2016 deaths 20th-century New Zealand politicians New Zealand Labour Party MPs Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives New Zealand MPs for North Island electorates Unsuccessful candidates in the 1987 New Zealand general election New Zealand Army personnel New Zealand military personnel of the Malayan Emergency New Zealand taxi drivers