Nanaia Mahuta

Nanaia Mahuta
Mahuta in 2023
28th Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office
6 November 2020 – 11 November 2023
Prime MinisterJacinda Ardern
Chris Hipkins
Preceded byWinston Peters
Succeeded byGrant Robertson
11th Minister of Disarmament and Arms Control
In office
1 February 2023 – 11 November 2023
Prime MinisterChris Hipkins
Preceded byPhil Twyford
Succeeded byGrant Robertson
12th Minister of Local Government
In office
26 October 2017 – 1 February 2023
Prime MinisterJacinda Ardern
Chris Hipkins
Preceded byAnne Tolley
Succeeded byKieran McAnulty
In office
5 November 2007 – 19 November 2008
Prime MinisterHelen Clark
Preceded byMark Burton
Succeeded byRodney Hide
44th Minister for Māori Development
In office
26 October 2017 – 6 November 2020
Prime MinisterJacinda Ardern
Preceded byTe Ururoa Flavell
Succeeded byWillie Jackson
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Hauraki-Waikato
In office
8 November 2008 – 14 October 2023
Preceded byNew constituency
Succeeded byHana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Tainui
In office
27 July 2002 – 8 November 2008
Preceded byNew constituency
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Majority3,430[1]
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Te Tai Hauāuru
In office
27 November 1999 – 27 July 2002
Preceded byTuku Morgan
Succeeded byTariana Turia
Majority6,233[1]
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Labour party list
In office
12 October 1996 – 27 November 1999
Personal details
Born (1970-08-21) 21 August 1970 (age 54)
Auckland, New Zealand
Political partyLabour
SpouseWilliam Gannin Ormsby
RelationsTipa Mahuta (sister)
Korokī Mahuta (grandfather)
Te Atairangikaahu (aunt)
Children3
Parent
Occupation
  • Politician
  • anthropologist
  • diplomat

Nanaia Cybele Mahuta[2] (born 21 August 1970) is a New Zealand former politician who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of New Zealand from 2020 to 2023. A member of the New Zealand Labour Party, Mahuta served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for 27 years, at first for the party list and then for three different Māori electorates, latterly for Hauraki-Waikato. Mahuta served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 6 November 2020 to 11 November 2023. She received international recognition as the first woman (and first Māori woman) to hold the Foreign Affairs portfolio. In October 2022, Mahuta became the Mother of the House, having served continuously in the House of Representatives since the 1996 general election.[3] She lost her seat in parliament in the 2023 general election to Te Pāti Māori candidate Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, who was subsequently Baby of the House.

Mahuta was born into the kāhui ariki in Auckland, the daughter of Sir Robert Mahuta, who was the adopted son of Māori king Korokī. Affiliated to Ngāti Mahuta, her father was the elder brother of the Māori queen Te Atairangikaahu, and she is a first cousin of current Māori monarch Kiingi Tūheitia.[4] Elected to Parliament at the age of 26, Mahuta has had a long and influential career in the Labour Party. She was also Minister of Local Government, Minister of Youth Development and Minister of Customs in the Fifth Labour Government and Minister of Local Government and Minister for Māori Development in the Sixth Labour Government.

Mahuta took a generally progressive platform as Minister of Foreign Affairs. She called on the Israeli government to stop evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in illegally-occupied East Jerusalem. Mahuta introduced the Russia Sanctions Act 2022, which after unanimous approval imposed various sanctions targeting Russian elites and assets deemed to be complicit in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As part of New Zealand's membership of the Five Eyes alliance, she condemned the disqualification of pro-democracy Hong Kong legislators as a breach of Hong Kong's autonomy and rights under the Sino-British Joint Declaration. She was the first female MP to wear a moko kauae (a traditional Māori facial tattoo), which was widely praised as a powerful symbol of Indigenous women.[5][6] In 2018, she was listed as one of the BBC's 100 Women.[7] Domestically, she was a proponent of the Three Waters reform programme and co-governance.[8][9]

  1. ^ a b "Elections NZ 2005: Official Count Results — Tainui" (PDF). Parliament.nz. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 February 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  2. ^ "Mahuta, Nanaia: Members Sworn". Hansard. New Zealand Parliament. 25 November 2020. Retrieved 13 November 2023.
  3. ^ "Members of Parliament – Longest, shortest, oldest, youngest". New Zealand Parliamentary Service. Archived from the original on 25 October 2022. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
  4. ^ "Tainui's Sir Robert Mahuta dies". TVNZ. 1 February 2001. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  5. ^ Roy, Eleanor Ainge; de Jong, Eleanor (11 August 2016). "'This is who I am', says first female MP to wear Māori facial tattoo in NZ parliament". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
  6. ^ Manch, Thomas (27 November 2020). "National portrait: Nanaia Mahuta, the foreign minister no-one saw coming". Stuff. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
  7. ^ "BBC 100 Women 2018: Who is on the list?". BBC News. 19 November 2018. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
  8. ^ "Minister Nanaia Mahuta offers three waters co-governance defence". RNZ. 10 June 2022. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  9. ^ Porter, Gideon (21 October 2022). "Co-governance new reality says Mahuta". Waatea News: Māori Radio Station. Retrieved 30 November 2022.