Michael Kenneth Moore ONZ AO PC[1] (28 January 1949 – 2 February 2020) was a New Zealand politician, union organiser, and author.

[3] He was raised in Moerewa and while aged only two his mother pushed him around town in a pram which concealed Labour Party leaflets, which had been made illegal under the emergency powers enacted during the 1951 waterfront dispute.

However Moore declined wishing to remain in Eden to show confidence in Labour and its new leader Bill Rowling's ability to win the election.

Several months later Moore then sought to be Labour's candidate in the newly formed Papatoetoe electorate but again missed out on selection against Grey Lynn MP Eddie Isbey.

He also told them he was intending to use his acceptance speech to tell the members and media that the party hierarchy 'could stick their nomination up their arses'.

During his walk to the podium Moore changed his mind and accepted the candidature as the now relieved Faulkner and Walding looked on.

Initially he was passed over for a position, however after fellow MP Richard Prebble refused to join the shadow cabinet, in protest of being given portfolios he did not want, it resulted in Moore taking his place.

In a three-way contest, in which all candidates were from Christchurch to reflect geographical proportionality, Moore won the first ballot.

[26] Leader David Lange later expressed relief at Palmer's success thinking that Moore would have been an un-reassuring deputy due to his inherent ambition.

[27] Nevertheless, Lange saw fit to promote Moore to number 3 in the party rankings and appointed him shadow minister of overseas trade and tourism.

[32] In 1988 Lange recalled Palmer from overseas to be acting Prime Minister to prevent Moore (who was ranked third in cabinet) doing so.

Moore stood again for the leadership and this time won, defeating backbench MP Richard Northey 41 votes to 19, and consequently became New Zealand's 34th Prime Minister.

Moore energetically hit the campaign trail and made an impact immediately by handling hecklers and interjectors visibly better than Palmer had done.

"[2] The irony was not lost on Moore that Clark's allies had installed candidates in the seats Labour had picked up from his campaign who then voted to replace him, making his success the architect of his own downfall.

He thought that Clark and Cullen's semi-repudiation of Rogernomics was conducted purely to make themselves look better and labelled their remembrances as 'manufactured history'.

[46] Clark performed poorly in opinion polls after becoming leader and by early 1996 there was an active movement within Labour to replace her either with Moore or frontbencher Phil Goff.

[47] In September 1996 Moore accepted Clark's long-standing offer of the position of Shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs and Overseas Trade, saying he could no longer stay "on the sidelines".

[50] The deal with his rival and successor Supachai Panitchpakdi meant that he served only half of the usual six-year term in the post.

That 2001 meeting also saw the successful accession to the WTO of China and Taiwan, which along with Estonia, Jordan, Georgia, Albania, Oman, Croatia, Lithuania and Moldova joined during Moore's term, bringing the majority of the world's population within the rules-based trading system.