Nándor Tánczos Politician

Nándor Steven Tánczos (born 29 May 1966), a member of the New Zealand Parliament from 1999 to 2008, represented the Green Party as a list MP. He briefly lost his seat in the 2005 General Election, but returned to Parliament following the sudden death of Rod Donald just prior to the first sitting of Parliament, as he was next ranked on the party list. In 2006, he contested the male co-leadership of the Green Party, but was beaten by non-MP Russel Norman in a STV vote by delegates from electorates around the country at the 2006 AGM. In 2008, he resigned from Parliament, though he intended to remain a political activist.He was the NZ Green Party spokesperson for the Environment and Sustainable Land Management, Justice, Information and Communication Technology, Constitutional issues and Commerce.Tánczos, one of the more "colourful" of New Zealand's politicians, attracted both strong criticism and enthusiastic support as an MP.The New Zealand media portrayed Tánczos primarily as the voice advocating the liberalisation of the cannabis law in New Zealand, although he also actively campaigns against genetic engineering and in favour of restorative justice. He also has a reputation as New Zealand's first and only Rastafarian MP. His most significant legislative achievement, the Clean Slate Act, conceals non-violent criminal offences if the offender does not re-offend after 7 years. His Misuse of Drugs (Hemp) amendment bill led the way for regulation changes to allow hemp growing in New Zealand. He introduced the Waste Minimisation Bill to parliament with a narrow majority but succeeded in building near unanimous support across parliament. He negotiated the establishment of an Independent Prison Ombudsman, and has advocated for a Criminal Cases Review Office to look at miscarriages of justice, and against unsustainable dairy farming. In addition to his political policies, Tánczos also supports open source software, and uses Ubuntu Linux on his laptop.