Shadbolt was born in the Auckland suburb of Remuera in 1947. His father died in a flying accident in 1952. He was on the school council and appointed prefect.
Activist: 1960s and 1970s
Shadbolt became a founding student of Rutherford College, Auckland, and attended the University of Auckland from 1966 to 1970, taking a year off in 1967 to work on the Manapouri Power Project in Southland. He was a member of the Auckland University Students Association executive, and editor of Craccum in 1972. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, he became prominent in the Progressive Youth Movement, a radical left-wing organisation, and was arrested 33 times during political protests, most famously for using the word "bullshit"; this incident influenced the title of his 1971 autobiography Bullshit & Jellybeans. After 1970, he founded a commune and concrete cooperative at Huia.
Local politician: 1980s–present
Waitemata
Shadbolt claims he stood for Mayor of Waitemata City in 1983 because he did not want to see the incumbent Tony Covic re-elected unopposed. He won the election. He famously celebrated, much to some people's disgust, by towing his concrete mixer behind the mayoral Daimler in the 1983 Henderson Christmas parade. He won again in 1986 heading a political ticket called "Tim's Team", but in 1989 lost the following mayoral election in the newly formed Waitakere city to Assid Corban. During his term as mayor he became infamous by twice losing the mayoral chains. He stood in the electorate of West Auckland at the 1990 New Zealand general election as an independent. He placed fifth with 3.06 per cent of the vote. Later that year, he unsuccessfully stood in a by-election for Mayor of Auckland City, polling a distant eighth place. Two years later he stood again for Mayor of Auckland City, where he finished third place with a slightly increased share of the vote. Later that year, he stood in the Wellington Central by-election as an independent candidate, polling less than half a percentage point.
In 1993, Shadbolt ran successfully for the position of Mayor of Invercargill. In 1994, he contested the Selwyn by-election as a candidate for New Zealand First, but was placed fourth, and remained Mayor of Invercargill. He was defeated in 1995. In the 1996 general election he stood unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party. In 1998, Shadbolt was re-elected to the mayoralty and has remained the mayor ever since. In 2001 he was re-elected unopposed. In October 2002, Shadbolt told a conference of New Zealand's Disabled Persons Assembly that Invercargill had "an innovative approach to public transport, currently centred on 'Freebie the Bus' travelling the 'Purple Circle'". He said he hoped that in future all buses in Invercargill would be free and accessible. In 2004 and 2007, he won his fourth and fifth mayoral terms by huge margins. In 2010, he won his sixth Invercargill mayoral election. Shadbolt received 16,466 votes over mayoral candidates Suzanne Prentice and Carl Heenan. The 2010 election win made Shadbolt the longest-serving mayor in New Zealand, with this being his 8th mayoral term. On 8 October 2016 he again won re-election as Invercargill's mayor. He said this was his toughest campaign yet. "I’ve had two candidates both going flat-out and it was a tough election", he said. "In the past I’ve had either no contenders, but this time I had a television producer and a sitting councillor who had also been an investigative journalist, so it was pretty tough opposition." He was returned for another term in 2019.
Outside politics
Family
Shadbolt has one son from an early marriage. He met his second wife, Miriam Cameron, in 1970. They have two sons. Cameron left Shadbolt in 1989 after alleged repeated domestic violence. They divorced three years later. Shadbolt's current partner is lawyer Asha Dutt and they have one son.
Notable activities
He has presented several television documentaries, and the series That's Fairly Interesting. In the 1990s he appeared in an advertisement promoting New Zealand cheese, where he humorously repeated the phrase "I don't care where as long as I'm mayor", referencing his dual mayoralties. He admitted later that the phrase was developed by an advertising agency. In 2001, he appeared as a contestant on a celebrity special of The Weakest Link. In 2005, New Zealand Toastmasters awarded him the Communicator of the Year award. He also played in the movie The World's Fastest Indian, portraying a good friend of Burt Munro who organised social events for Invercargill's motorcycling community. He also participated in the New Zealand version of Dancing with the Stars where he placed 3rd. In 2006 Shadbolt played the part of the Narrator in The Rocky Horror Show by the Invercargill Musical Theatre. He continued his theatre experiences by appearing in 2007 in the Invercargill Musical Theatres production of Sea Cruise. In 2010, Shadbolt appeared on the comedy gameshow 7 Days as the guest participant in the roundYes, Minister. In 2012, Shadbolt set the Guinness World Record for the longest television interview. He was interviewed for 26 consecutive hours by interviewer Tom Conroy. In doing so the pair also set the record for the longest single event in New Zealand television history. Shadbolt later said he would have liked to keep going. The record was broken in 2013 by Norwegian novelist Hans Olav Lahlum. He was knighted in the 2019 New Year Honours List as a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
