Murray Robert Smith was a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 politician of the Labour Party

New Zealand Labour Party

The New Zealand Labour Party is a New Zealand political party. It describes itself as centre-left and socially progressive and has been one of the two primary parties of New Zealand politics since 1935....

He was elected for the Whangarei

Whangarei (New Zealand electorate)

rightWhangarei is a New Zealand Parliamentary electorate.National Party MP Phil Heatley has held it since 2008.-Population Centres:The electorate includes the following population centres:* Whangarei* Hikurangi* Ruakaka...

 electorate with the swing to Labour in the 1972 general election

New Zealand general election, 1972

The New Zealand general election of 1972 was held to elect MPs to the 37th session of the New Zealand Parliament. The Labour Party, led by Norman Kirk, defeated the governing National Party.-Background:...

 but was defeated in the next election in 1975

New Zealand general election, 1975

The 1975 New Zealand general election was held to elect MPs to the 38th session of the New Zealand Parliament. It was the first election in New Zealand where 18-20 year olds and all permanent residents of New Zealand were eligible to vote, although only citizens were able to be...

.

Formerly a Public Trust accountant, he was made managing director of the Development Finance Corporation and executive chairman of New Zealand Railways

New Zealand Railways Department

The New Zealand Railways Department, NZR or NZGR and often known as the "Railways", was a government department charged with owning and maintaining New Zealand's railway infrastructure and operating the railway system. The Department was created in 1880 and was reformed in 1981 into the New...

 by Labour

Fourth Labour Government of New Zealand

The Fourth Labour Government of New Zealand was the government of New Zealand from 26 July 1984 to 2 November 1990. It enacted major social and economic reforms, including reformation of the tax system. The economic reforms were known as Rogernomics after Finance Minister Roger Douglas...

. From his time in Parliament, he was a friend of Roger Douglas

Roger Douglas

Sir Roger Owen Douglas , is a New Zealand politician who formerly served as a senior New Zealand Labour Party Cabinet minister. He became arguably best-known for his prominent role in the radical economic restructuring undertaken by the Fourth Labour Government during the 1980s...

, and of Michael Bassett

Michael Bassett

Michael Edward Rainton Bassett, QSO is a former Labour Party member of the New Zealand House of Representatives and cabinet minister in the reformist fourth Labour government...

 who said that his contribution to New Zealand went well beyond what he managed in three short years to do for the people of Whangarei.

He was born in Hamilton, and died in Raglan. He joined the Bahá'í community in 1989, becoming the chief executive officer in New Zealand in 1991 and deputy secretary-general of the Bahá'í international secretariat in 1994.