Obituary: Former Cabinet minister and Dive! Tutukaka founder Aussie Malcolm dies

Former Dive Tutukaka director Aussie Malcolm, here with dive training manager Michelle Manley in 2004, has died in Whangārei

Former National Cabinet minister, businessman and New Zealand’s first America’s Cup campaign director “Aussie” Malcolm has died in Whangārei after a short illness.

Anthony George Malcolm was in his 84th year, and was surrounded by family and friends, his family said in a statement.

Malcolm was born in Australia, the son of a returning New Zealand trade commissioner, and was nicknamed “Aussie” by his classmates on arrival at Wellington College and was known by that name for the rest of his life.

Originally a social worker, he bought an Auckland advertising agency with industry personality Judy Voullaire and Peter Hansard in the early 1970s, but in 1975 he defeated Labour’s Mike Moore to win the marginal seat of Eden for National. Aussie served three terms as the MP for Eden during which he was variously Associate Minister of Transport, Civil Aviation and Railways, Minister of Health and Minister of Immigration before Labour won the seat back in the landslide of 1984.

A keen yachtsman, he was immediately recruited to manage New Zealand’s first challenge for the America’s Cup, quickly negotiating a million-dollar sponsorship with Consolidated Chemicals, believed to be the largest sporting sponsorship in New Zealand at that time. Sir Michael Fay subsequently took over responsibility for managing and financing the Kiwi challenge and Aussie’s last role was negotiating for Bruce Farr, Ron Holland and Laurie Davidson to co-operate in designing the world’s first fibreglass 12-metre yacht, which finished a close second in the Louis Vuitton challenger series at Fremantle in 1987.

Aussie was in Fremantle as a major investor in a large Kiwi charter boat covering America’s Cup viewing by day and cruising the Swan River in the evening while promoting New Zealand cuisine and wines.

He quickly established himself as an entrepreneur/investor in fields as diverse as manufacturing, medical insurance, aquaculture and yacht-building and was a director of a number of companies. He established the immigration consultancy Malcolm Pacific and New Zealand’s largest dive company, the award-winning Dive! Tutukaka just north of Whangārei, where Aussie then relocated his home.

He was a member of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron for more than 40 years, owning several yachts, circumnavigating the North Island and making extensive expeditions in the United States and Canada in large, purpose-built motorboats.

Aussie’s wife, interior designer Astrid, who also served as an Auckland City Councillor, died in 2000. The couple are survived by three daughters, a son and six grandchildren. A private cremation has been held.