Peter Davis (New Zealand)

Professor Peter Davis (BA S'ton, MSc Lond, PhD) is a sociologist and the husband of New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark. He met Clark — then a political-science lecturer — in 1977^[1] and they married in 1981 after her campaign for election to Parliament.

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Professor Davis specialises in medical sociology, and he currently works as the Director of the Social Statistics Research Group and Professor of Sociology at the University of Auckland, with part-time appointments in the School of Population Health and the Department of Statistics, also at the University of Auckland. Previously he served as Professor of Public Health at the University of Otago's Christchurch School of Medicine. During that time he commuted from home in Mount Eden in Auckland to Christchurch, while his wife commuted to Premier House in Wellington, New Zealand.

He has previously served on the Auckland Area Health Board, and was a representative in 1989 when his wife (Health Minister at the time) suspended that body. At times, due to the public-policy aspect of his research, some^[who?] have alleged a conflict of interest given the political nature of his wife's work. However, his peers regard his academic work as impeccable, and he has achieved international recognition in his field, having worked as a consultant for the World Health Organisation.

Davis, born in England in 1947, spent his childhood in Tanzania where his father worked for a mining-company.^[2] His father was born in China and his mother in India, but a great-great-grandfather had grown up in New Zealand.^[1] Davis gained a Masters degree in sociology and statistics at the London School of Economics.^[1] He moved to New Zealand in 1970 to work at the University of Canterbury^[1] and completed a PhD at the University of Auckland.^[2]

In September 2006, the Investigate magazine printed photographs of a "mystery man" kissing or embracing Davis. Newspapers revealed the man as Dr Ian Scott, a former openly gay Labour Party candidate in the 1981 general election. The magazine appeared to imply that Davis was gay. However, Davis, Clark and Scott deny such allegations, dismissing Scott's action as unexpected, spur-of-the-moment joviality during election-night celebrations. Clark characterised the speculation about her husband's sexuality as "completely baseless".^[3]

References

• University of Auckland - press release
• Wayne Thompson: "PM's spouse eases long-distance stress" in The New Zealand Herald, Friday February 06, 2004
• Department Profile