Phillip Albert Amos (4 September 1925 – 8 June 2007) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.
Biography
Early life
Amos was born in Wanganui in 1925, the son of John Amos. He received his education at Otorohanga District High School, later renamed as Otorohanga College. He attended Auckland Teachers College followed by the University of Auckland.
He was a Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) pilot in the Pacific in World War II. After demobilizing in 1946 he went to Teachers' College and University, where he studied both anthropology and politics. He had a passion for human rights and was strongly opposed to racism, in particular the apartheid system in South Africa and Rhodesia. This lead him to sign up with the Princes Street branch of the Labour Party in 1949 contrasting with the strong National Party affiliation in his father's family.
As a teacher Amos aspired to be his own boss and chose to work at a sole-charge school to avoid taking orders from a principal. He then won promotion to a two-teacher school which he could also be principal of. He later taught at intermediate and secondary schools as well. Amos and his wife Jill worked as teachers in isolated communities where they were confronted by the challenges facing Maori and Pacific people due to rural isolation and later urban migration. There they taught student notions such as non-violence, racial equality and belief in parental involvement in schools. Such attitudes were then uncommon in New Zealand education circles.
Political career
In he stood for Labour in the Rodney electorate, coming second. He was then elected the Member of Parliament for Manurewa from defeating cabinet minister Leon Götz. He was appointed Labour's education spokesperson by leader Norman Kirk while the party was in opposition.
Kirk appointed Amos Minister of Education in the Third Labour Government from 1972 to 1975, and also served as the last Minister of Island Affairs from 1972 to 1974. As Minister of Education, he passed the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act which drove the integration of Catholic and private schools with a system which provided them with state funding and worked towards the reduction of class sizes. Allowing private schools to voluntarily integrate with the state system without sacrificing their particular character was seen as outside the traditional Labour Party policy sphere. The integration policy was seen as the governments greatest contribution in the education space. Other accomplishments as Minister of Education were doubling the number of children enrolled in pre-school education, expanding community education and technical institute services, increasing opportunity for students to learn Maori, reducing class sizes and provided a standard bursary for all students in tertiary studies.
In he was defeated in an upset in the normally safe Labour seat by Merv Wellington. Amos found Kirk's leadership and vision inspiring and thought his death in 1974 to be a crushing blow to Labour. Consequently, he was unsurprised when in 1975 the Labour government was defeated by the National Party.
Later life
In July 1976, less than a year after he had lost his parliamentary seat and cabinet post, he protested the visit of the 20,000 tonne American cruiser in his small yacht the Dolphin. He impeded its entry to Auckland Harbour. The cruiser was forced to stop mid-stream to allow grappling hooks to be thrown to pull the Dolphin clear. Afterwards Amos was arrested and charged with obstruction. He was convicted, but the conviction was overturned on appeal by criminal defense lawyer David Lange. Amos' protest instantly became a headline-grabbing piece of political drama from which he took a lot of personal satisfaction at bringing public attention to the anti-nuclear issue. Lange would later become Prime Minister and passed a law banning the visit by nuclear propelled or armed ships with Amos' support.