Louisa Wall

Louisa Wall
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Manurewa
Incumbent
Assumed office 12 April 2011
In office 4 March 2008 – 8 November 2008
Personal details
Born	(1972-02-17) 17 February 1972 Taupo, New Zealand
Nationality	New Zealand
Political party	New Zealand Labour Party
Previous teams	Silver Ferns (netball) Black Ferns (rugby)

Louisa Hareruia Wall (born 17 February 1972) is a New Zealand Member of Parliament and former national representative netball and rugby union player.

Early and personal life

Born in Taupo and brought up in Waitahanui near Taupo, Wall has Ngāti Tūwharetoa and Waikato ancestry. She was named after her father's cousin Louis, who died on the day she was born.^[1] Wall attended secondary school at Taupo-nui-a-Tia College. She earned qualifications from the Waikato Institute of Technology, the University of Waikato and Massey University; and worked in the health field.^[2] She identifies openly as lesbian.^[3]

Sport

In 1988 Wall became the youngest member of the "Young Internationals" netball squad to train under former New Zealand Captain and New Zealand Coach, Lyn Parker. In 1989 the selectors named her in the Silver Ferns netball team (New Zealand's national representative netball team) at the age of 17. Wall also represented New Zealand in the Black Ferns women's rugby team.

Political career

Louisa Wall

Medal record
Representing  New Zealand
World Cup
	1998 Amsterdam	Rugby

In the 2005 election Wall stood unsuccessfully in the Port Waikato electorate and occupied the 46th position on the Labour list. She became a Labour Party MP on 4 March 2008 to replace retiring list MP Ann Hartley.

In the 2008 election she stood in Tāmaki Makaurau, against Māori Party leader Pita Sharples. She failed to win the seat, and due to her low list placing (position 43) did not return to Parliament as an MP. However, in December 2010, she was selected to represent Labour in Manurewa for the 2011 election due to the retirement of George Hawkins. After Darren Hughes resigned from Parliament in April 2011, and people higher on Labour's list, such as Dave Hereora, Judith Tizard and Mark Burton, decided not to take up the list position, Wall was returned to Parliament as a Labour List MP serving in the 49th New Zealand Parliament.^[4] She subsequently won the Manurewa electorate and was returned to the 50th New Zealand Parliament; she had opted not to be on Labour's party list for that 2011 election.^[5] She was back on the list (in position 12) for the 2014 election but won her electorate comfortably.^[6]

In May 2012, Wall submitted a bill to legalise same-sex marriage in New Zealand to the private member's bill ballot, and it was subsequently drawn from the ballot and introduced to Parliament in late July 2012.^[7] On 29 August 2012, the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill passed its first reading with a vote of 80-40. On 17 April 2013, the bill was passed into law, making New Zealand the 13th nation to allow same-sex marriage. At the third reading, Wall gave a speech^[8] likening the passing of the bill to Treaty of Waitangi settlement acts previously passed by the New Zealand parliament.^[9] Wall said the passing of the bill was like winning a "World Cup final".^[10]

References

External links

• Parliamentary website page
• Labour Party website page
• GayNZ.com's Louisa Wall profile page