Zealand Order of Merit, for public services. Lee had told his family that if he failed to remain in Parliament, he would retire from politics. After his departure from politics, he became involved as CEO for the Christian housing provider Habitat for Humanity and wrote an autobiography about his religious views and political life within the National and Christian Democrat parties, as well as his ongoing political stance. For his current organisational affiliation, see concluding paragraph and links section. The party then renamed itself Future New Zealand and contested the 1999 elections. It later merged with Peter Dunne's United Party to form United Future New Zealand in 2000. The party received 8 seats at the 2002 election. However, most New Zealanders realised that this was merely a cosmetic change during the 47th New Zealand Parliament, with most of the caucus professing either fundamentalist Protestant or conservative Catholic religious beliefs. Later years Graeme Lee was a minister at Auckland's Greenlane Christian Centre for a brief period of time, and was also one of the co-ordinators of Vision New Zealand, a national evangelical/ecumentalist umbrella group. Subsequently, Lee was involved in organising the New Zealand itinerary of a US Pentecostal televangelist, Greg Laurie, in 2011. He has been leading the New Zealand branch of Christians for Israel, a Christian Zionist group. His daughter, Denise Krum, stood for United Future in the 2008 general election. However, UFNZ Leader Peter Dunne was the only UFNZ MP returned to Parliament, due to his anchoring constituency seat. Krum joined the National Party in 2009, becoming a deputy chair of the Northern Region. She unsuccessfully applied to become National Party candidate for the Epsom electorate, but became a National Party List MP candidate at the 2011 New Zealand general election. However, she was ranked at 69 on the National Party list and consequently did not enter Parliament. Krum later ran successfully for the Auckland Council and was elected Councillor in 2013 for the Maungakiekie-Tamaki Ward. Notes References See also Christian politics in New Zealand https://web.archive.org/web/20060403000432/http://vision.org.nz/ Vision New Zealand (evangelical/ecumentalist umbrella group) |- |- |- 1935 births Living people Members of the Cabinet of New Zealand New Zealand National Party MPs Leaders of political parties in New Zealand Christian Coalition (New Zealand) politicians Christian Democrat Party (New Zealand) politicians People from Paeroa Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives New Zealand MPs for North Island electorates Unsuccessful candidates