Colin Craig
| Colin Craig | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 1st Leader of the Conservative Party | |
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In office 3 August 2011 – June 2015 |
|
| Deputy | Christine Rankin |
| Succeeded by | Leighton Baker |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
8 January 1968 Auckland, New Zealand |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse(s) | Helen Craig |
| Children | 1 |
| Occupation | Businessman and politician |
| Religion | Christian (raised Baptist) |
| Website | votecolincraig |
Colin Craig (born 8 January 1968) is a New Zealand businessman who was the founding leader of the Conservative Party of New Zealand. Craig is a millionaire who owns companies that manage high-rise buildings. His current company manages about $1.3 billion of assets. He is against same-sex marriage, foreign ownership of land and housing and "anti-smacking" legislation. In June 2015, Craig resigned as leader of the Conservative Party following allegations of inappropriate behaviour surrounding the party's former press secretary Rachel MacGregor and tensions with the party's governing board. Craig has since admitted to inappropriate conduct with MacGregor but has denied charges of sexual harassment. On 27 June, Colin Craig was formally suspended from the Conservative Party. Since then, his suspension has been invalidated which would enable Craig to contest the Conservative Party's leadership. On 16 November 2015, Craig announced that he would not be contesting the Conservative Party leadership in lieu of a police investigation against him over his Party's spending during the 2014 general election.
Born in Auckland and raised in the suburb of Howick, Craig graduated from the University of Auckland with Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Arts degrees before completing post-graduate study at Massey University. He has one daughter with his wife Helen. His father, Ross Craig, served as a Rodney District councillor until 2010.
Craig is a conservative Christian brought up in the Baptist denomination, but doesn't attend a church. As of June 2014, he is resident in Fairview Heights on Auckland's North Shore.
Craig has stated he is not sure that "legislating morality" works well. However, he has described legalisation of same-sex marriage as "social engineering", and is also opposed to gay adoption, adolescent access to abortion, and voluntary euthanasia or assisted suicide. In May 2012, Craig described New Zealand's young men and women as "the most promiscuous in the world" based upon surveys such as David P. Schmitt's International Sexuality Description Project research statistics and anecdotal evidence from New Zealand gynaecologists, a statement which was dismissed by Prime Minister John Key and other political leaders like Tariana Turia and Winston Peters.
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