The Christchurch Central by-election of 1979 was a by-election during the 39th New Zealand Parliament. It was prompted by the death of Bruce Barclay, a Labour Party MP, and resulted in Geoffrey Palmer, also of the Labour Party, being elected to replace him for the seat of Christchurch Central. Palmer would eventually go on to become Prime Minister. The by-election was somewhat embarrassing for the National Party, whose candidate was pushed into third place by Social Credit's Terry Heffernan.
Bruce Barclay, the incumbent MP, died on 28 June 1979. He had been ill for some months prior to his death where it was reported he was suffering from cancer and had already had two surgical operations. His absence was noticed at Labour's first caucus meeting in February 1979 and Labour leader Bill Rowling stated he had visited Barclay earlier and expressed concern at his health after Barclay had become unable to perform his electorate duties earlier in the month.
As Christchurch Central was a safe Labour seat, there was a large amount of interest in the candidacy from the local Labour Party. There were 18 nominated candidates for the nomination. They were:
Despite the large field of candidates, there were three who emerged as frontrunners by the time nominations had closed; McCann, Matthewson and Palmer â and it was widely known that Palmer was Rowling's preferred choice. The selection meeting was held on 23 July at Linwood Intermediate School with over one hundred delegates present. A straw poll of members showed a majority of support for Palmer. The nominees were shortened to three; McCann, Matthewson and Palmer who were invited for interviews with the selection panel. Palmer was chosen and his success as the nominee was announced by party president Jim Anderton to the members present at 2:00 am.
National selected 29-year-old insurance consultant David Duncan. He was chairman of National's St Albans branch.
The Social Credit Party selected a high school teacher Terry Heffernan as their candidate. He had stood for the nearby seat of in . Heffernan had a high-profile endorsement from former Labour MP and party vice-president Gerald O'Brien, reaffirming his rift with Labour.
The following table gives the election results:
Labour increased its vote slightly but the largest gains were made by the Social Credit Party, who came second in an urban seat for the first time in its history. National were pushed into third place who saw their vote shrink to the point where its candidate only just managed to avoid losing their deposit.