Nanaia Mahuta

Nanaia Cybelle Mahuta^[3] (born 21 August 1970) is a New Zealand politician who was a cabinet minister in the Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand. She was Minister of Customs, Minister of Local Government, Minister of Youth Development, Associate Minister for the Environment and Associate Minister of Tourism.^[4] She has strong links to the Māori King Movement, being the daughter of Sir Robert Mahuta, who was the adopted son of King Korokī and the elder brother of Māori Queen Te Atairangikaahu. She has an MA (Hons) in social anthropology.^[5] In 2016 she acquired a Māori facial tattoo and became the first female MP to wear one in the New Zealand parliament.^[6]

Member of Parliament

Mahuta was first elected to Parliament in the 1996 elections, when she became a list MP. In the 1999 elections, she won the Te Tai Hauauru electorate, and in the 2002 elections, she won Tainui. Before the 2008 general election the electorate boundaries were changed and it was renamed Hauraki-Waikato. She held the seat with a majority of 888.^[2]

Foreshore and seabed controversy

In 2004, she joined Tariana Turia, another Labour MP, in voting against the first reading of her party's legislation on the controversial foreshore and seabed issue. She did not, however, join Turia when she quit Labour to found the Māori Party. In the bill's second reading, she again voted against her party, but in the third reading, she changed her position and supported it, saying that while it had "serious flaws, ... at the end of the day, it was the right thing to do".

Cabinet minister

In the 2005 general election Mahuta held her electorate seat of Tainui. Subsequently, Mahuta as part of the Labour-Progressive coalition government, was Minister of Customs, Youth Development and Associate Environment and Local Government. Mahuta lost her portfolios when Labour were defeated in the 2008 general election.

In opposition

Following the defeat of the Labour government in the 2008 election, Phil Goff appointed Mahuta as spokesperson for Maori Social Development.^[7]

In 2009 Mahuta's Resource Management (Enhancement of Iwi Management Plans) Amendment Bill, which proposed giving more weight to Māori in resource-management decisions, was drawn from the members' ballot.^[8] The bill was defeated at its first reading in August.^[8]

On 15 June 2010, Opposition Leader Phil Goff appointed Mahuta as Portfolio Spokesperson for Energy and as Associate Portfolio Spokesperson for Law and Order. (Shane Jones had previously held the energy portfolio). At the same time, in addition to the portfolio appointments, both Mahuta and Charles Chauvel moved to the parliamentary opposition front bench.

On 14 October 2014 Mahuta became a candidate in the 2014 Labour Party leadership election. She was unsuccessful, and Andrew Little became the leader of the Labour Party.^[9]

References

External links

• Official website