John Banks and Adoption
Biography
1946-
Also known as John Morris
New Zealand politician
Banks was a New Zealand National Party MP from 1981 to 1999 and has been Minister of Tourism; Sport, Fitness and Leisure; Local Government; and Civil Defence (he resigned his cabinet posts in 1996). In 2001 he was elected mayor of Auckland.
His parents were both convicted criminals and he spent his first 14 years as a foster child in a large family of farm laborers (10 children), the Morrises, who worked for a leading National Party MP, who became Banks' mentor. He then lived with his birth parents for two years, but was sent to boarding school when they were again sent to prison.
He has had contact with his birth sister, but that has stopped.
He also has had a career as a restaurateur (and is the former chairman of the New Zealand Licensed Restaurant and Cabaret Association) and property developer, and he is a licensed pilot. He and his wife adopted three Russian children in 1995.
References
McLeod, Rosemary. "Is John Banks Mad?" North and South, February 1993, pp. 44-48, 50-53 New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa. 1998 edition, edited by Alister Taylor. (Auckland: New Zealand Who's Who Publications, 1998)
- Adoption Celebrities
- Adopted Persons
- Adoptive Parents
- European
- New Zealand
- 20th Century
- 21st Century
- Government, Politics, Civil Service, Public Administration
- Military and Defense
- Restaurants
- Sports
- Transportation
- Adoptees/fosterees Who Are/were Also Adopters or Foster Parents
- Formal, American/European-Type Fostering
- Child Removed from Home by Social Services
- Parent(s) in Prison or Labor Camp, Executed
- Others ("Strangers")
- Child in and out of Care
- Both Parents Unable or Unwilling to Care for Child
- Birth Sibling(s) Separated