Blair
Mulholland
Life Lived Laissez-Faire
Life Lived Laissez-Faire
Welcome to the website of
social and political commentator Blair Mulholland. Here you'll
find commentary on current events, as well as details of my stance on various issues, my career and background, my twin daughters, and some of my other interests and hobbies.
About Blair
Commentator and campaigner Blair Mulholland has spent his adult life as an activist for greater social, political and economic freedom in his native New Zealand.
Blair was born in 1976 on Auckland's North Shore where he spent his preschool years, although he grew up primarily in Christchurch. Following a return to the city of his birth as an adult, he attended the University of Auckland where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Political Studies. While studying, he was twice elected to the Students' Association executive as the Clubs and Societies Officer and was part of a successful campaign to make Students' Association membership voluntary for students.
After completing his studies and living for a year in London, Blair was employed as the ACT Party's Campaign Co-ordinator for the 2002 general election. He then continued working for ACT Party Leader Richard Prebble and Deputy Leaders Ken Shirley and Muriel Newman in ACT's Auckland office over the next three years. He was part of a team that in 2003 ran a successful campaign to put tax cuts on the national agenda (at a time when tax cuts were not universally seen as desirable). In 2005 he helped Muriel Newman fight for a "PC Free New Zealand" in the lead-up to that year's election.
Blair has also engaged keenly in local body politics. At the 2004 Council elections he worked on the Auckland Citizens and Ratepayers Now campaign in the Hobson ward. In 2007 Blair became a founding member of local body ticket 1Auckland.com and stood both for the Auckland City Council and the Eden Albert Community Board in a campaign that controversially split centre-right votes in the ward.
Since 2005 Blair has worked as a Liquor Licencing Consultant and Office Manager in the private sector, but has continued to be politically involved. In 2006, he initiated an online petition to the Governor General requesting that royal assent be refused to Labour's corrupt backdating of electoral funding laws. The petition attracted over 46,000 signatories - a first of its kind in New Zealand. At the 2008 general election, Blair managed ACT candidate Kenneth Wang's campaign for the seat of Botany, taking Kenneth from 3% polling at the start of the campaign to 16% of the vote on election day and second place over Labour in the majority of booths. Switching allegiances to National at the start of 2009, Blair was one of three nominees to seek the National Party's candidacy in the Mt Albert byelection, and served on the Rodney Electorate Committee of Speaker Hon. Dr Lockwood Smith until October 2009.
Blair was born in 1976 on Auckland's North Shore where he spent his preschool years, although he grew up primarily in Christchurch. Following a return to the city of his birth as an adult, he attended the University of Auckland where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Political Studies. While studying, he was twice elected to the Students' Association executive as the Clubs and Societies Officer and was part of a successful campaign to make Students' Association membership voluntary for students.
After completing his studies and living for a year in London, Blair was employed as the ACT Party's Campaign Co-ordinator for the 2002 general election. He then continued working for ACT Party Leader Richard Prebble and Deputy Leaders Ken Shirley and Muriel Newman in ACT's Auckland office over the next three years. He was part of a team that in 2003 ran a successful campaign to put tax cuts on the national agenda (at a time when tax cuts were not universally seen as desirable). In 2005 he helped Muriel Newman fight for a "PC Free New Zealand" in the lead-up to that year's election.
Blair has also engaged keenly in local body politics. At the 2004 Council elections he worked on the Auckland Citizens and Ratepayers Now campaign in the Hobson ward. In 2007 Blair became a founding member of local body ticket 1Auckland.com and stood both for the Auckland City Council and the Eden Albert Community Board in a campaign that controversially split centre-right votes in the ward.
Since 2005 Blair has worked as a Liquor Licencing Consultant and Office Manager in the private sector, but has continued to be politically involved. In 2006, he initiated an online petition to the Governor General requesting that royal assent be refused to Labour's corrupt backdating of electoral funding laws. The petition attracted over 46,000 signatories - a first of its kind in New Zealand. At the 2008 general election, Blair managed ACT candidate Kenneth Wang's campaign for the seat of Botany, taking Kenneth from 3% polling at the start of the campaign to 16% of the vote on election day and second place over Labour in the majority of booths. Switching allegiances to National at the start of 2009, Blair was one of three nominees to seek the National Party's candidacy in the Mt Albert byelection, and served on the Rodney Electorate Committee of Speaker Hon. Dr Lockwood Smith until October 2009.
Blair is currently living in San Antonio, Texas along with his twin daughters Bella and Scarlett, and resides on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula when in New Zealand.