Career
Terris was first elected as the member for Western Hutt in 1978. In 1984 he was not selected for Cabinet but was given the "consolation prize" of Deputy Speaker (hence also Acting Speaker), and Chairman of Committees of the House of Representatives from 1984 to 1990. In May 1990 Terris submitted a private members bill to force a binding referendum on the electoral system.
His bill was defeated but a referendum eventually occurred in 1992.
Terris represented the Western Hutt electorate until 1990, when he was defeated by National"s Joy McLauchlan, one of a number of losses contributing to the fall of the Fourth Labour Government. Terris later served as the between 1995 to 2004 as an Independent.
He is the only person ever to have been both Member of Parliament and Mayor in the Hutt Valley. An ordained Anglican priest, Terris spent his early working life in radio and television
See
www.nzonscreen.com/person/john-terris/biography
As of 2013, Terris serves as the President of Media Matters in New Zealand, an advocacy group which campaigns against what it regards as gratuitous sex and violence in the electronic media.
He published his autobiography Being Who You Are in 2004. In 2013 he published a handbook on How To Make a Speech and How To Run A Meeting. His latest book, released in July 2014 and called September Showdown is a light-hearted look at the perils of a parliamentary career.
He has an interest in heritage issues and regularly contributes to the Radio New Zealand programme Sounds Historical.
Terris has also produced a series of six video documentaries on local subjects called Village to City, as well as a series of six interviews with local Hutt people who lived through World World War II, both of which he has donated to the Hutt City Libraries. He became a Rotary Paul Harris Fellow in 2005.
