Michael Laws

Michael Laws (born 1957) is a New Zealand politician, broadcaster and writer/columnist. He served two terms as a Member of the New Zealand Parliament, representing the National Party (1990–96). He was elected as Mayor of Whanganui in 2004, and was re-elected in 2007. Before the October 2010 elections he announced his retirement from the mayoralty, but in 2013 entered the "race" for the Whanganui mayoralty again. He was elected a Whanganui district councillor and district health board member, was a Radio Live morning talkback host and a longstanding The Sunday Star-Times columnist, but resigned all positions in 2014 to take full-time care of his youngest children, after their mother suffered a severe stroke.

Laws was born in Wairoa on 26 June 1957. He moved with his parents to Whanganui where he received his pre-tertiary education at Tawhero Primary School, Whanganui Intermediate School, and Whanganui Boys' College. His father, Keith Laws, a schoolteacher, became Rector (Principal) of Waitaki Boys' High School (Oamaru) and then of Scots College, Wellington.

On leaving school, Laws spent two holidays spells at the Whakatu freezing works before entering the University of Otago, where he graduated with first-class honours in history and earned a University Grants Committee Postgraduate Scholarship. He also won an Otago University sporting blue. He later obtained a Master of Arts from Victoria University. During his time at Otago he attracted controversy as a key member of a student organisation that supported the 1981 Springbok Tour. He also became an accomplished public speaker and captained both the New Zealand Universities and New Zealand debating teams in the early-mid-1980s.

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