Jonathan Young (politician)

Jonathan Young MP
Personal details
Born	1958 (age 58–59)
Nationality	New Zealand
Political party	National Party
Relations	Venn Young (father)
Occupation	formerly Church Minister, teacher

Jonathan Edgar Joseph Young (born 1958) is a National Party Member of the New Zealand House of Representatives for New Plymouth. He was first elected in the 2008 general election, with the country's smallest election night majority.

Jonathan Young is the son of Venn Young, a National MP from 1966 to 1990. Before entering politics, Young was the Senior Minister at CityChurch Waitakere in West Auckland for 18 years. He has also been a primary school teacher and an 'itinerant' teacher of the Māori language, and a financial administrator. In addition, he has been involved in development work in Cambodia.

In the 2008 election, Young was narrowly victorious in the New Plymouth seat against long-standing Labour incumbent Harry Duynhoven. Young's final majority was 105 votes - a margin of 0.3% of the total vote count in that electorate. New Plymouth had been one of the seats that the party had focused on as they had won the party vote in the 2005 election and campaign head Steven Joyce felt that 'it had swung further our way'.

During his time in Parliament, Young voted against the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill in 2013, saying "marriage had always been a heterosexual institution"

Shortly after the New Zealand general election, 2008, Young was criticised by the GayNZ.com website for his statement that 'one of my associates was an ex-lesbian' and for his involvement with Teen Challenge, a Christian youth organisation with links to the ex-gay movement. When commenting further, Young noted, "One of the things I do strongly object to in terms of the people [homosexuals] who have made this choice is the presentation of it as a normal alternative."

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