died Thursday morning<\/a>.<\/p>\nTributes flowed for Sir Tim after his long-time partner Asha Dutt confirmed the 78-year-old’s passing later that afternoon in a statement, on behalf of the family.<\/p>\n
Sir Bob Harvey served as mayor of Wait\u0101kere City between 1992 and 2010, before the territory merged with the Auckland Council.<\/p>\n
A lifelong friend of Sir Tim’s, the former mayor and advertising executive said New Zealand had lost “someone very special”.<\/p>\n
“New Zealand has lost a giant of protest, political nous, humour, intelligence, smartness, and just a superb New Zealander,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We’ve lost an icon of this country.”<\/p>\n
Following a period of staunch activism in his younger years, Sir Tim would enter politics, serving as the mayor of Waitemat\u0101 City from 1983 to 1989.<\/p>\n
![\"Tim](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4OG1TU9_copyright_image_104535.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nTim Shadbolt with a group of protesters outside the Auckland Town Hall in 1973.
\nPhoto: Te Ara \/ Public Domain\n<\/p>\n
A true blue “westie”, Sir Tim shaped the reputation of Auckland’s western suburbs, Sir Bob said.<\/p>\n
But it was his friend’s ability to zero in on the mood of the nation, including issues that troubled New Zealanders, which generated deep admiration.<\/p>\n
“He understood instinctively the issues that moved us, that supported us, and often sometimes divided us. This was a very smart political man,” Sir Bob said.<\/p>\n
Sir Tim first came to national prominence in the 1960s as a student activist on issues like the Vietnam War and apartheid.<\/p>\n
He was seen as a key figure in the anti-Vietnam War movement during the late 60s and early 70s, a period where he was arrested 33 times, including once for using the word “bullshit”.<\/p>\n
“We realised that there was a fog of war, and that was something that we should never be into, and I supported him totally,” Sir Bob said.<\/p>\n
“I remember being put in paddy wagons with him when [US President] Lyndon Johnson was here. We were helping people bloodied by brutality and the rioting that went on around that.<\/p>\n
“Him and I were brothers in protest and we celebrated the fact that we could do that.”<\/p>\n
![\"Sir](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4NAA0WV_copyright_image_198939.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nSir Bob Harvey.
\nPhoto: New Zealand Herald, NZH-1100342.\n<\/p>\n
Sir Tim’s eight terms as Invercargill mayor between 1993 and 1995, and again between 1998 and 2022, helped make him one of the country’s longest-serving mayors.<\/p>\n
But during a turbulent final spell in office for Sir Tim, marred by questions over council performance and clashes with his elected members, Sir Bob appealed to his friend to call it a day.<\/p>\n
“I came down, as a politician and a lifelong friend, to ask him not to stand again. He refused to believe things were not right,” he said.<\/p>\n
“He didn’t take that well and I think that’s a real sadness for all his triumphs. He didn’t know when to leave the stage.”<\/p>\n
Nobby Clark would ultimately claim the Invercargill mayoralty race in 2022.<\/p>\n
However Sir Tim’s refusal to step away was also born of a deep affection for “life and politics”.<\/p>\n
“Everything’s political and he spotted that, he understood that,” Sir Bob said.<\/p>\n
“He was, without fear or favour, totally committed to this country. He was the voice of reason and the voice of sanity at a time when New Zealand was on some bumpy waters.<\/p>\n
“It’s a life really, really well lived.”<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir Tim Shadbolt died on Thursday at the age of 78. Photo: Otago Daily Times \/ Stephen Jaquiery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-224993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-podcasts","13":"tag-public-radio","14":"tag-radio-new-zealand","15":"tag-rnz","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Sir](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4M8S7D3_image_crop_124624.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n