Source: Radio New Zealand
[embedded content]
Charismatic, gregarious, exuberant, a joker, a showman, a larrikin: such are the epithets for long-serving mayor Tim Shadbolt, who died age 78 last week.
His public funeral service was due to be held in Invercargill on Friday January 16, 2pm at the Civic Theatre.
He would be remembered there not only for a life of service to the community but for his own style, charisma and upbeat charm.
A mayor for about 32 years – split between two cities and three incumbencies – Sir Tim was a dedicated champion of local politics, but was perhaps remembered more for his colourful life and antics.
Coming to prominence as a young anarchic Vietnam war protester, he was confident the movement would have a lasting legacy as an examination of colonialism.
[embedded content]
As an activist he was famously arrested 33 times – including for refusing to pay a $50 fine after using the word ‘bulls…’, and spending 25 days in Mt Eden.
This was allegedly when he wrote his first published book, Bulls… and Jellybeans, published in 1971 independently by Alister Taylor – who was working for the publishing house that previously rejected it.
The student activist soon became something of a political butterfly, running for both New Zealand First and the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party, and for mayoral, council or government roles in multiple locations.
Richard King worked with Sir Tim as Invercargill council’s chief executive for 20 years, but first knew him in those student days, having gone along to his rallies, saying they were “quite boisterous”.
He related a tale his friend told him from when he first moved from activist to politician, appearing in court on “various charges”.
One of Sir Tim Shadbolt’s Christmas cards from years gone by, featuring his son Declan. Supplied/LDR
“The judge looked up and said ‘you again, Shadbolt’, and he’d just been elected mayor of Waitematā, so the judge said ‘I suppose I’m going to have to call you Your Worship now’.
“Tim looked at him and said ‘tell you what, I’ll Honour you, and you can Worship me’. And the case didn’t go that well for him.”
Having worked as a concrete contractor, in the ’80s Shadbolt celebrated that first successful election by towing a concrete mixer behind his mayoral car in the annual Christmas parade.
He later repeated the stunt as mayor of Invercargill, this time towing his mixer behind a mobile green couch for charity – and later swapped the mixer for electric scooters in the southern Christmas parade.
But perhaps his most well remembered media appearance was in cheese ads in 1994, where an increasingly manic Sir Tim – then simply mayor Shadbolt – repeated back the line ‘I don’t mind where as long as I’m mayor’ – a self-deprecating dig, perhaps, at his shift from Auckland to the less tropical climes of Invercargill.
Sir Tim Shadbolt died last week at the age of 78. (File photo) Supplied/LDR – ODT/Stephen Jaquiery
That kind of humour was a trademark of his – and was to his benefit on Dancing with the Stars in 2005, where he came third despite a couple of tumbles.
“I might have had a little lie down and a cup of tea,” he said of one of those falls.
The man certainly had a way with words.
At 30, he secured the Guinness world record for the longest political speech on a soapbox.
Some 35 years later in 2012, he set another Guinness world record – for the longest TV interview by successfully reaching his goal of 26 hours on the regional TV freeview channel CUE, across from interviewer Tom Conroy.
Topics covered included his cameo on The World’s Fastest Indian and supposedly meeting Sir Anthony Hopkins’ “leg double” and “big toe double”, but after reaching 26 hours – about 2am – the mayor was cut off.
Speaking to RNZ the next day – mere hours after also launching New Zealand’s Got Talent he credited the Guinness official’s advice with keeping his vocal chords up to scratch.
“He said ‘you’ve got to crush up fresh pineapple’, he said ‘that’s the way, that’ll get you through it’, and it seemed to work, so that was a lucky break.”
The marathon chat in 2012 raised more than $10,000 for St John Ambulance – one of the mayor’s many charitable efforts.
But big personalities often clash, and Sir Tim also had his share of rivalries and public clashes. Despite occasional acrimony, he clearly wanted to continue championing hard workers, underdogs, and the South.
As an example, criticising his own deputy mayor Neil Boniface in 2009 for a drink driving incident – and on the eve of a chilly trip to Norway – Sir Tim called Invercargill, by comparison, “a paradise, the mediterranean of the South Pacific”.
In 2021, he claimed his deputy Nobby Clark and chief executive Clare Hadley had refused for years to have the council pay for a smartphone worth more than $300 because he was “considered unable to fully use all the features”.
They appeared on paper to relent in 2020 with a $951.20 iPhone 8+ with accessories, but the mayor claimed he never received it – and the council refused to confirm or deny if it was delivered to him.
The council also refused that year to pay for Shadbolt’s annual mailout of Christmas cards on the ratepayer’s dime – despite having done so since the 1980s.
The council argued the auditor-general would find that year’s card – featuring a smiling Tim Shadbolt – inappropriate to fund as it could be interpreted as promoting an individual, rather than the city.
In an email, Sir Tim described the disagreement as “existential”. The compromise eventually arrived at was an e-card, with the savings going towards the mayor’s Christmas dinner.
He was ousted as mayor the following year, after tensions at the council – apparently stemming from his increasing inability to carry out duties.
His driver’s licence had been suspended and he was mostly refusing media interviews, but he remained the confident charmer.
Already New Zealand’s longest-serving mayor at the time, he admitted ahead of the election his “golden years” may be over and he wasn’t enjoying the job like he used to – but if he won again he could “probably do another three or four terms”.
But it wasn’t to be, with former deputy Nobby Clark taking office as mayor on October 15, beating a field of nine other candidates and Sir Tim coming in fourth.
Longtime colleague and friend Richard King, who remembered Sir Tim as having “oozed charisma”, said in the end the man was “crushed by the bureaucracy and political opposition, but he really had a good run”.
“He was the sort of person who could walk into a room without knowing anybody and five minutes later 95 percent of them were eating out of his hand.”
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
