Larry Walter Sutherland (15 April 1951 – 21 June 2005) was a New Zealand politician, and an MP from 1987 to 1999, representing the Labour Party. Early life and career Sutherland was born in Christchurch in 1951 and was raised in a Halswell orphanage. He attended Lincoln High School and after completing his education he worked many different jobs as a labourer, farm worker and forester. He eventually moved to Nelson where he trained as a sawfiler. There he became involved in the trade union movement, serving as a union secretary. He also became regional representative of the Wellington and Nelson Shop Employees' Union and president of the Nelson Trades Council. He was also a member of the Nelson Community Education Council, Nelson Polytechnic Council and the Nelson Public Relations and Promotion Committee. His work in the union movement around Nelson brought him into close contact with the Labour MP for Tasman (and later Prime Minister) Bill Rowling. Sutherland joined the Labour Party himself and worked with Rowling, first as treasurer of the Tasman Labour Party electorate committee, and subsequently as its chairman. Sutherland would later attribute his political acumen to Rowling's tutelage. He then sought nomination as Labour candidate for Nelson, in 1980 during Mel Courtney's split with the Labour Party. He was narrowly defeated for the nomination by Philip Woollaston. That same year he unsuccessfully sought the position of vice-president of the Labour Party. He moved back to Christchurch in 1984 and worked as a union official and continued his political involvement. He was assistant secretary of the Canterbury, Westland and Nelson Shop Employees' Union and chairman of the Labour Party's Canterbury Regional Council. Political career Sutherland was first elected to Parliament in the 1987 election as MP for the Christchurch electorate of Avon, replacing the retiring Mary Batchelor after a tight three-way contest for the Labour candidacy. His first term in Parliament was a very stressful time for him. Labour ministers such as Roger Douglas and Richard Prebble were leading the party down a right-wing track (Rogernomics). Traditional Labour members resisted but were outnumbered and Sutherland saw himself as "in opposition in his own caucus". When high-profile Labour MP Jim Anderton quit the party to form the NewLabour Party in protest of Rogernomics, Sutherland was widely tipped to follow him to the new party. His decision to stay and fight for "old Labour" values drew criticism from