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Simon Upton

The Right Honourable Simon Upton
Simon Upton at a sustainable development Forum in Prague, November 2014
4th Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment
Incumbent
Assumed office 16 October 2017
Prime Minister	Bill English Jacinda Ardern Chris Hipkins Christopher Luxon
Preceded by	Jan Wright
9th Minister for the Environment
In office 29 November 1993 – 10 December 1999
Prime Minister	Jim Bolger Jenny Shipley
Preceded by	Rob Storey
Succeeded by	Marian Hobbs
In office 2 November 1990 – 3 October 1991
Prime Minister	Jim Bolger
Preceded by	Geoffrey Palmer
Succeeded by	Rob Storey
30th Minister of Health
In office 2 November 1990 – 27 March 1993
Prime Minister	Jim Bolger
Preceded by	Helen Clark
Succeeded by	Bill Birch
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for National Party list
In office 12 October 1996 – 11 January 2001
Succeeded by	Alec Neill[n 1]
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Raglan
In office 14 July 1984 – 12 October 1996
Preceded by	Marilyn Waring (in 1978)
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Waikato
In office 28 November 1981 – 14 July 1984
Preceded by	Lance Adams-Schneider
Succeeded by	Rob Storey
Personal details
Born	(1958-02-07) 7 February 1958 (age 66)
Political party	National

Simon David Upton PC (born 7 February 1958) is a former New Zealand politician and member of Parliament from 1981 to 2001, representing the National Party, and the current Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.

Upton was educated at Southwell School, St Paul's Collegiate School and the University of Auckland, where he gained degrees in English literature, music and law, and Wolfson College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar.

Having joined the National Party in 1976, he served as Chairman of the New Zealand Young Nationals among other positions and became the then-youngest MP for Waikato in the 1981 election. In the 1984 election, he was elected MP for Raglan, which he held until the 1996 election, when he chose to become a list MP.

Upton became one of New Zealand's youngest ever Ministers in the Cabinet in 1990, when he became Minister of Health, Minister for the Environment, and Minister of Research, Science and Technology. As Environment minister, Upton promoted the enactment of the Resource Management Act 1991. He was responsible for establishing the Crown Research Institutes. One of Upton's most controversial actions whilst holding the health portfolio was introducing public hospital outpatient charges of $50 per night, this was later abandoned as the 1993 election approached.^[1] He also has an interest in sustainable development, and chaired the OECD's Round Table on Sustainable Development and is a founding member of the Board of the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction.^[2]

Upton was sworn to the Privy Council in 1999.^[3]

After National was defeated at the 1999 election Upton was appointed Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, Superannuation and Culture and Heritage by leader Jenny Shipley.^[4]

He resigned from Parliament in 2001, and moved to France. He took up a full-time post at the OECD as the chair of the Round Table on Sustainable Development which he held until 2005. He was also a part-time consultant at PriceWaterhouseCoopers for several years. In April 2010 he was appointed as the head of the OECD Environment Directorate, in Paris, France.^[5]

In April 2017, he was appointed by Parliament to be the next Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. He replaced the previous commissioner, Dr Jan Wright, when her second five-year term ended in October 2017.^[6]

He has two adult children.^{[citation needed]}

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Simon Upton.

• Simon Upton's website
• NZ Vice Chancellors' Committee (PDF) "1982/Rt Hon Simon David Upton/Auckland/Wolfson "