Mechanic to MP –with cancer in between

When Dan Rosewarne was looking at career options as a teen, being a politician was the last thing on his mind.

He’d struggled in school and left with low expectations and low spirits.

“I vividly recall seeing the college careers adviser after deciding to leave school early. She outright said that I may as well just get a trade — as if it was some kind of second-tier option. I left school deflated, as if I was a failure,” Dan says.

But he took that advice and trained as a motor mechanic, later joined the army and eventually blew the dire predictions of the school’s careers advisor out of the water by ending up at the Beehive.

At the start of his apprenticeship in autoengineering he undertook work experience at MTA member Inlet Motors in Pauatahanui, north of Wellington, with then-owner Hans Hendriks, and attended courses at Wellington Polytech.

“For some reason, that just clicked with me. I loved being outside, working hard, diagnosing faults, it gave me confidence,” he says.

Contacted by Radiator 25 years later, Hans, now retired, remembers Dan as being “very young, a bit lost with what he wanted to do. He definitely didn’t have an attitude like many of them do, he was a hell of a nice kid”.

Told Dan was now an MP, a surprised Hans said: “I never would have seen him doing that!”

Halfway through qualifying, he visited a trade expo in Wellington where the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) was spruiking for recruits; it piqued his interest.

“At school, the military camp was across the road, and joining up was always in the back of my mind.”

He flunked the test to join up, but luckily the recruiter saw value in him and a few months later he was on a bus to Waiouru for three months’ basic training.

Dan finished his apprenticeship at Burnham Military Camp and also acquired an A Grade mechanic qualification.

Trouble spots

Then he was off to Afghanistan as a mechanic. “On long range patrols we would take our toolboxes along with weapons and protection and if anything broke down, we would be ready with our gear.

“We would go into villages and there might be a generator that needed sorting but there was also a threat, you always had to have that in the back of your mind, you never knew what you were going to walk into,” he says.

“I was around 23 years old at the time and it was quite exciting.”

He went on to spend 23 years in the NZDF and was involved in the responses to many of the recent disasters at home.

Dan climbed through the ranks to the level of staff sergeant to captain and was commissioned as an officer.

“The army did for me what the education system couldn’t: they refined my reading and writing skills, developed my leadership qualities, built my resilience, and gave me the opportunity to pursue further study.”

He also served on several operational deployments, to Afghanistan in 2005 and 2012, and the Solomon Islands in 2008.

Shock diagnosis

Then eight years ago his life and the course of his career changed dramatically.

“I'll never forget the day my doctor sat me down and said I had leukaemia,” Dan says.

“As a 33-year-old fit young man with a young family, it hit me hard, in an instant, I felt like I had moved from that strong father figure — the provider — to a patient whom my family wanted to wrap in cotton wool.

“I would lie awake at night wondering what would happen if I could no longer work full time. Would I have to sell the family home? Were my kids going to miss out on everyday things? No one could tell me.”

His term of engagement with the NZDF was almost up and he worried that the army wouldn’t renew his contract.

“But three days after talking to the chaplain, an extension of service came in the mail with a remark from my career manager that went, ‘You have spent the last 15 years looking after us; now it’s our turn to look after you’.”

Thanks to a new immunotherapy drug he made a full recovery, and Dan felt he had a responsibility to contribute the people of New Zealand, to do what he could do to give them the healthcare, the housing, and the economic security that they deserve.

A political mission

He decided to join the Labour Party as it was aligned with his thinking and soon found himself on a path to the Beehive.

“As a young man, I never really aspired to be an MP, I always thought that it would be out of reach for a Kiwi battler like myself,” Dan says.

“One thing led to another, and I got the privilege to stand in my home, the Waimakariri electorate, for both the 2017 and 2020 general elections.” He lost both but came into Parliament on the Labour list, after the resignation of Kris Faafoi. On entering the House, Dan made a pledge to improve pathways for young people to get into apprenticeships, and for businesses to take on apprentices.

“The Defence Force doesn’t just defend New Zealand and its interests, it is also an organisation that trains young apprentices, it is a place where a young person can enter and can do their automotive heavy engineering unit standards or other apprenticeships.

“It is a training institution in its own right and is often overlooked as a viable career path,” Dan says.

“The trades have done so much for me.”