Damian Francis Light (born 31 October 1983) is a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

politician who was the leader of the

United Future United Future New Zealand, usually known as United Future, was a centrist political party in New Zealand. The party was in government between 2005 and 2017, first alongside Labour (2005–2008) and then supporting National (2008–2017). U ...

party from August 2017 until the party's dissolution in November 2017. He became party leader following the resignation of

Peter Dunne Peter Francis Dunne (born 17 March 1954) is a retired New Zealand politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ōhāriu. He held the seat and its predecessors from 1984 to 2017—representing the Labour Party in Parliament from 1984 ...

. Light had previously served as the president of the party. He was the first openly gay leader of a political party in New Zealand. Light later entered local politics, and in 2022 became the Chair of the

Howick Local Board Howick Local Board is one of the 21 local boards of the Auckland Council, and is overseen by the council's Howick Ward councillors. The board's administrative area includes the suburbs Pakuranga, Howick, Flat Bush, and East Tāmaki, and co ...

Personal life

Light was born and raised in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

. He attended Rosmini College in

Takapuna Takapuna is a suburb located on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand. The suburb is situated at the beginning of a south-east-facing peninsula forming the northern side of the Waitematā Harbour. While very small in terms of population, it ...

. He currently lives in Botany Downs, Auckland, with his partner, Josh Harding. He works as an improvement analyst at AsureQuality, and previously worked as a line manager at

KiwiRail KiwiRail Holdings Limited is a New Zealand state-owned enterprise responsible for rail operations in New Zealand, and operates inter-island ferries. Trading as KiwiRail and headquartered in Wellington, New Zealand, KiwiRail is the largest rail ...

Political career

Light stated that he was motivated to become involved in politics at the 2002 general election after seeing Peter Dunne's memorable television debate with the "

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes (though not always). Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine polychaete wor ...

". He first stood for parliament at the 2008 general election in the North Shore electorate and ranked 13 on United Future's

party list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can ...

. At the 2011 general election Light was again United Future's candidate for North Shore and was ranked 12 on the party list. In the 2014 general election Light was United Future's candidate for the Northcote electorate and ranked third on the party list. In the 2017 general election, Light was United Future's candidate for the

Botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

electorate, and first place on the party list. Upon becoming party leader, Light stated he would prefer United Future to gravitate closer towards

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

than

National National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

as he claimed to possess a 'social conscience' and indicated his key area of policy concern was drug reform. After appearing in a televised debate on

TVNZ 1 TVNZ 1 ( mi, Te Reo Tātaki Tahi) is the first national television channel owned and operated by the state-owned broadcaster Television New Zealand (TVNZ). It is the oldest television broadcaster in New Zealand, starting out from 1960 as indep ...

, Light went viral on social media, being compared to Hollywood film star Ryan Gosling, with "Damian Light" trending on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, and United Future's website crashing from an increased surge in internet traffic. Light ran for the

Auckland Council Auckland Council ( mi, Te Kaunihera o Tāmaki Makaurau) is the local government council for the Auckland Region in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority that has the responsibilities, duties and powers of a regional council and so is ...

as an independent in the 2018

Howick ward Howick Ward is an Auckland Council ward which elects two councillors and covers the Howick Local Board. Sharon Stewart and Maurice Williamson are the current councillors. Demographics Howick ward covers and had an estimated population of as of ...

by-election, placing fourth behind the winner, businessman

Paul Young Paul Antony Young (born 17 January 1956) is an English musician, singer and songwriter. Formerly the frontman of the short-lived bands Kat Kool & the Kool Cats, Streetband and Q-Tips, he became a teen idol with his solo success in the 1980s. ...

. He contested the ward again in the 2019 Auckland local elections and placed third behind the two winners, Young and Sharon Stewart, making him the highest ranked candidate in the ward to not be elected. In 2022 Light stood for the council again unsuccessfully but was elected to the

for the Botany subdivision. Light became the Chair of the Board for the 2022-2025 term.

References

External links

Profile
at United Future website
Damian Light
on Twitter {{DEFAULTSORT:Light, Damian Living people 21st-century New Zealand politicians Leaders of political parties in New Zealand Gay politicians New Zealand LGBT politicians United Future politicians Unsuccessful candidates in the 2008 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2011 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2014 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2017 New Zealand general election People from Auckland 1980s births 21st-century LGBT people Local politicians in New Zealand