Hunt was born in Lower Hutt, but grew up in Palmerston North. He had a twin brother, David, who died four days after they were born. Hunt's father was a child welfare officer, reassigned to the Manawatu in 1942. Hunt was educated at Palmerston North Boys' High School and later Auckland Grammar School, later he enrolled at the University of Auckland, where he gained a BA degree in history. In 1958 Hunt was elected editor of the Auckland University Students' Association's Craccum magazine for the 1959 year. While at University Hunt is also credited with founding the Princes Street Labour branch. After graduating, Hunt became a History, English and Latin teacher from 1961 to 1966 at Kelston Boys High School in West Auckland where he also coached cricket. He was then a university tutor. Hunt also has a long-standing relationship with the Department of Political Studies at the University, which for many years has collected and archived Hunt's personal and professional papers.
Member of Parliament
In 1966, Hunt was elected to Parliament in Auckland's New Lynn electorate replacing the retiring Rex Mason, whom Hunt was to later write a biography of in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. He remained MP for New Lynn until 1996, when he became a list MP after losing in to National's Clem Simich. Hunt was returned twice more as a list MP; losing to National's Brian Neeson in the, and as a list-only candidate in the. In mid-January 1970, United States Vice PresidentSpiro Agnew visited Wellington. Hunt along with several other Labour Members of Parliament including Bob Tizard, Arthur Faulkner, and Martyn Finlay boycotted the state dinner to protest American policy in Vietnam. However, other Labour MPs including Opposition Leader Norman Kirk attended the function which dealt with the Nixon Doctrine. Hunt was appointed junior government whip upon Labour's victory in. He was later promoted further in 1974 by Prime Minister Bill Rowling to the position of Chairman of Committees.
He was elected Speaker unopposed when the fifth Labour government came to power in 1999. Hunt had previously served as Chairman of Committees from 1974 to 1975 which had since been rebranded as the Deputy-Speaker. Hunt became the eighth Chairman of Committees to later serve as Speaker. He retained his position following the election in 2002 serving in total as Speaker for six years from 1999–2005.
In December 2004, it was announced that he would retire from politics and replace Russell Marshall as New Zealand High Commissioner in London, a move that had long been anticipated. He was replaced as Speaker by Margaret Wilson on 3 March 2005, and left Parliament on 30 March. As a list MP, his vacant parliamentary seat was filled by the next available candidate on the Labour Party list, Lesley Soper. Some controversy arose in mid-2005, when recently after he arrived in London, Hunt was told publicly by the New Zealand Prime MinisterHelen Clark that he could not apply for the U.K pension as it was not appropriate given his position of New Zealand High Commissioner and the fact that he was already collecting a New Zealand parliamentary pension. On 21 November 2007 the New Zealand Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, announced that the next High Commissioner to London would be Derek Leask from March 2008.
Hunt was also the subject of a documentary, "Father of the House", directed by Simon Burgin and Xavier Forde, which was filmed in Wellington in 2005. The film was a finalist in the DocNZ film festival in the same year. It has also been regularly screened on the Documentary Channel on Sky Television since 2006.
