Sir Geoffrey Palmer

Geoffrey Palmer was the Member of Parliament for Christchurch Central from 1979 until 1990. He became Deputy Leader of the Opposition in 1983. With the election of the Fourth Labour Government in 1984 he became Deputy Prime Minister, Leader of the House of Representatives, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice. After the re-election of the Labour Government in 1987 he dropped the role as Leader of the House and took up the portfolio of Minister for the Environment. On succeeding David Lange as Prime Minister, he dropped the legal portfolios but kept the environmental portfolio.

Geoffrey Palmer has been responsible for much constitutional legislation and law reform. These measures include the Constitution Act 1986 and the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. He was also centrally involved in the legislative changes that changed the nature of the state sector in New Zealand. In particular he was involved in the preparation and passing of the State Owned Enterprises Act 1986, the State Sector Act 1988 and the Public Finance Act 1989. As Minister for the Environment he was responsible for the introduction of the Resource Management Bill which led ultimately to the Resource Management Act in 1991.

Geoffrey Palmer holds a BA in Political Science and an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington and a Doctor of Law Degree (JD), cum laude from the University of Chicago. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by Hofstra University in New York and Washington University in St. Louis.

When Geoffrey Palmer was elected to Parliament, he was a Law Professor at Victoria University. He had an academic career in the United States at the University of Iowa and the University of Virginia prior to taking up chair in New Zealand in 1974.

Geoffrey Palmer has had a long background in working on reforms of the tort system, particularly the changes that led to the Accident Compensation Act 1972 and subsequent developments. He was also involved with the Woodhouse Committee of Inquiry in Australia between 1973 and 1974 and was later in Australia as a consultant to the Australian Government.

Geoffrey Palmer is a laureate of the United Nations Environment Programme’s "Global 500 Roll of Honour". He is a Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has been a visiting committee member of the University of Chicago Law School. He was Foundation President of the New Zealand branch of the International Law Association.

When Geoffrey Palmer left politics, he returned to academic life teaching half the year at the University of Iowa in the United States and half the year in New Zealand at Victoria University of Wellington.

In 1994 he became a foundation partner in the Wellington specialist public law firm, Chen and Palmer, Level 6, NGC House, 22 The Terrace, P.O. Box 2160, Wellington, phone 499 8990.

Geoffrey Palmer is the author of 10 books and more than 40 law review articles. The books are:

Tort in Transition: A New Zealand Collection of Cases and Materials on Tort in the Accident Compensation Era (with R.S. Clark and P.D. McKenzie), 1976;

The Welfare State Today (edited and contributor), 1977;

Compensation for Incapacity: A Study of Law and Social Change in New Zealand and Australia, 1979;

Unbridled Power, An Interpretation of New Zealand’s Constitution and Government, 1987;

Environmental Politics: A Greenprint for New Zealand, 1990;

New Zealand’s Constitution in Crisis: Reforming our Political System, 1992;

Public Law in New Zealand: Cases, materials, Commentary and Questions (with Mai Chen), 1993;

International Environmental Law and World Order (with Lakshman Guruswamy and Burns Weston), 1994, 2nd edition 1999;

Environment – The International Challenge, 1995;

"Parliament" in Butterworths The Laws of New Zealand (1996);

Bridled Power: New Zealand Government under MMP (with Dr Matthew Palmer), 1997.

Geoffrey Palmer is an Honorary Lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington where he teaches Administrative Law and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Iowa Law School.

He married Margaret Eleanor Hinchcliff in 1963. They have one son and one daughter.