However, he soon came into conflict with the party's leadership, and became an outspoken critic of the Fourth Labour Government's free-market reforms, called Rogernomics.

He graduated as a qualified teacher, but spent only two years in a teaching role (at St Peter's College, Auckland) before moving on to work as a child welfare officer in Wanganui.

[4] Cardinal Reginald Delargey said that there were difficulties with Jim Anderton and his employment ended "when he put us in a position where we had to make a choice between him or the Pope".

[10] Anderton had another tilt at the Auckland City mayoralty in 1977, but was again beaten by the incumbent though he did manage to reduce Robinson's majority by nearly 1,500 votes.

Following the sudden death of Frank Rogers in 1980 there was intense press speculation that Anderton (who was the proprietor of a business situated in the electorate) would stand to replace him in the Onehunga by-election.

In February 1982 Rowling gave a speech at a Labour regional conference in Timaru where he suggested Labour should cut formal ties with trade unions, citing the party's public perception being too closely linked with unions and that there had been a large demographic shift in the membership from the working class to middle-class liberals.

Anderton and other unionists such as Jim Knox, the secretary of the New Zealand Federation of Labour, were opposed and argued for a continuing union presence in the party.

Anderton publicly disagreed with Rowling stating that the SUP had no influence in the Labour Party and that "The entire membership of the SUP could be written on the back of a postage stamp.

[20] As a result of this failure maverick Labour MP Roger Douglas publicly questioned Rowling's leadership qualities and his lack of direction.

[21] Anderton got involved in the public discourse over the Mount Erebus disaster where an Air New Zealand plane crashed in Antarctica on 28 November 1979.

After commenting publicly on the matter Bob Owens, the chairman of Air New Zealand, invited Anderton to a meeting with himself and chief executive John Wisdom.

The meeting got heated with Anderton being confrontational in tone (particularly after Owens admitted to having not read Mahon's report in full and did not intend to) and lasted only 8 minutes.

A group of MPs (Michael Bassett, Roger Douglas, Mike Moore and Richard Prebble) organised a challenge for the presidency at the 1982 party conference.

[26] At the conference Anderton was challenged by Allan O'Neill, president of the Auckland Carpenters Union, but won easily 1,120 votes to 126.

Douglas and his allies, Richard Prebble and David Caygill, were determined to implement radical reforms of the country's economic system, known unofficially as "Rogernomics".

[32] His stance of vocally and publicly opposing Labour's neoliberal direction led him to eschew the prospect of becoming a cabinet minister in the Lange ministry.

When Anderton disobeyed party instructions to vote in favour of selling the Bank of New Zealand (which Labour had explicitly promised not to do), he was suspended from caucus.

[3] Fellow MP and then-cabinet minister Michael Bassett commented "while Anderton liked to portray his differences as ideological, we knew from past experience that his real problem was that he wasn't the one in control of the government, and he could see no way of seizing power".

A long-serving office manager and campaign director, Jeanette Lawrence, said Anderton retaining his seat at the 1990 general election was the "happiest she ever saw him".

In parliament, Anderton attacked the policies of the new National Party government, particularly Ruth Richardson's continuation of Rogernomics (Ruthanasia).

[41] When Alliance list MP Alamein Kopu declared herself an independent and supported the National-led coalition, Anderton blasted her, saying her behaviour "breached every standard of ethics that are known.

"[42] After the collapse of the National-New Zealand First coalition Anderton started a "Go Now" petition on 27 August 1998 calling on the government to resign and hold an election.

Campaigning on opposition to the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment, they won 15% of the vote in a traditionally conservative electorate and finishing just two points behind Labour.

Realising that the cost of a split in the left-wing vote would be a continuance of the National government, Labour and the Alliance agreed to form a coalition after the 1999 election.

Anderton, along with fellow Alliance MP Laila Harré, was also an invaluable advocate in the creation and implementation for 12 weeks paid parental leave.

There were complaints that Anderton was too dominant in the party's decision-making and over the fact that he supported the government's stance on the bombing of Afghanistan, while the executive and wider membership opposed it.

In order to get around the waka-jumping legislation which Anderton had supported, he technically remained the Alliance's parliamentary leader until the writ was dropped for the 2002 election.

However, he was the only Progressive who returned to Parliament by a narrow margin after many left-wing voters voted for Labour to prevent a National government from being elected due to a split on the left.

[50] However, following the 2010 Canterbury earthquake Anderton announced he would stand down as MP for Wigram if elected mayor so he could fully focus on rebuilding the city.

[58] On 3 September 2017, he had a special investiture ceremony at Nazareth House attended by the Governor-General (Dame Patsy Reddy), the Mayor of Christchurch (Lianne Dalziel), and former Prime Minister Helen Clark.