Nanaia Mahuta

Nanaia Mahuta

Nanaia Cybelle Mahuta is the Member of Parliament for Hauraki-Waikato. She is the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Sixth Labour Government since 2020. She was previously a cabinet minister in the Fifth Labour Government, serving then as Minister of Customs, Minister of Local Government, and Minister of Youth Development.

About Nanaia Mahuta in brief

Summary Nanaia MahutaNanaia Cybelle Mahuta is the Member of Parliament for Hauraki-Waikato. She is the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Sixth Labour Government since 2020. Mahuta was previously a cabinet minister in the Fifth Labour Government, serving then as Minister of Customs, Minister of Local Government, and Minister of Youth Development. In 2018, she was listed as one of BBC’s 100 Women. She has strong links to the Māori King Movement; her father was the adopted son of King Korokī and the elder brother of Makaori Queen Te Atairangikaahu. She and her husband have three children together, although the first died shortly after birth, along with four children from Ormsby’s previous relationship.

In 2016, she acquired a Makea facial tattoo and became the first female MP to wear one in the New Zealand parliament. In September 2019, Mahuta delivered a tearful and emotional speech as Parliament officially apologised for a police raid in 1916 on Rua Kenana Iharaira’s compound in the North Island’s Bay of Plenty region. She stood for the Labour Party leadership in August 2014, but was unsuccessful and Andrew Little became the leader of the Labour Government. She also served as associate ministers for the trade and export growth, the environment and housing portfolios, and Associate Minister of Tourism.