Minister of Transport, Workplace Relations
MP for Mt Roskill, Labour
Aged 40, elected 2016
Referendums: Against End of Life Choice, For legalising recreational cannabis
Fascinating fact: Fantasy job is to be an international cricket commentator
Q: What is your work history?
A: A range of different jobs. After university I initially worked in
retail at the late and very much lamented Hugh Wright's men's clothing stores. I was there for a couple of years. I spent some time in the union movement, worked for Finsec, the financial sector union for quite a few years [as an] organiser and also as a negotiator, spent some time working for Habitat for Humanity helping them with a range of issues including their health and safety system which is something that is relevant to my role now and I also had a few years where I was the main caregiver for my kids. I've got three boys and I was always hoping to have a career in politics and we knew that would mean some time away from home so we tried to get some of that time with the boys when they were pretty young. I also had six years when I was in local government on the local board in my community in Mt Roskill.
Q: Did you ever work as a student?
A: Oh yeah. I had all sorts of jobs. I worked in a roast dinner shop, I worked in a Hugh Wright's, I knocked on doors and sold stuff, all sorts of very typical, not always particularly glamorous student jobs … Probably my most famous and most interesting job was as a Christmas tree salesman guy. Some friends and I set up a small business where we cornered the market in Howick and Pakuranga and we had the main Christmas tree selling operation. That funded our university fees one year.
Q: Tell me about your family now.
A: So I am married to Julie who is active in local government in my community and we have got three lovely boys, Jacob who is 12, Daniel who is 10 and Thomas who is 5. So home life is busy and messy and complicated and of course with the role that I've got and the role that Julie has got, we are constantly juggling our work with trying to keep the family situation going in the various other commitments that we have got.
Q: How did you get into politics?
A: I had always had an interest since I was really quite young. I was in my first year at university when a few things sort of came together. I started university in 1998 so it was sort of that end of the 90s. We had had a long spell of the Bolger-Shipley National Government ... And then we had the power crisis in 1998 where the lights went off in Auckland. It just kind of for me was just kind of a sign that things weren't working well in our society. It was around the time of the Hikoi for Hope as well … There was a real kind of movement for Helen Clark and Labour at that time and I became involved with a few friends at the famous Princes Street branch at university that year.
