Gareth Thomas Llewelyn Hughes (born 31 October 1981) is a New Zealand activist and a former politician of the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

. He was a member of the

New Zealand Parliament The New Zealand Parliament ( mi, Pāremata Aotearoa) is the unicameral legislature of New Zealand, consisting of the King of New Zealand ( King-in-Parliament) and the New Zealand House of Representatives. The King is usually represented by h ...

for eleven years, from 2010 to 2020. He first took a seat part way through the 49th Parliament as the next person on the Green

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 ...

following the retirement of

Jeanette Fitzsimons Jeanette Mary Fitzsimons (née Gaston; 17 January 1945 – 5 March 2020) was a New Zealand politician and environmentalist. She was the co-leader of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand from 1995 to 2009, and was a Member of Parliament from ...

in February 2010. He did not stand for re-election in the

2020 general election The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2020. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems maintains a comprehensive list of upcoming elections on its E-Guide Platform. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calend ...

Early life

Hughes grew up in Gisborne. After attending

Gisborne Boys' High School Gisborne Boys' High School is a boys' secondary school situated in Gisborne, New Zealand. It was founded as a co-educational school in 1909 as Gisborne High School. In 1956, the school became Gisborne Boys' High School when it was split into two ...

, he studied religious studies, history and politics at

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well know ...

. He became a

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism m ...

while a student. He worked for

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

in Australia and New Zealand from 2000 to 2005, and then worked for the Green Party on climate change issues. He is married with two children. In May 2004, Hughes was arrested after dressing as

Ronald McDonald Ronald McDonald is a clown character used as the primary mascot of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain. He inhabits the fictional world of McDonaldland, with his friends Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird and ...

and chaining himself to the gates of

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

New Zealand distribution centre in Wiri, Auckland, protesting against the use of genetically modified chicken feed. In 2009 Hughes co-ordinated Greenpeace New Zealand's 'Sign On' campaign, which called for stronger action on

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

Member of Parliament

Hughes contested the

2008 election This electoral calendar 2008 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2008 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, even though they are not elections. By-elections are no ...

for the Green Party. Placed at 11 on the

and campaigning mostly for the

party vote Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP or MMPR) is a mixed electoral system in which votes cast are considered in local elections and also to determine overall party vote tallies, which are used to allocate additional members to produce ...

, Hughes finished fourth in the Ōhariu electorate. The party did not poll sufficiently high for Hughes to be elected immediately, but he was declared elected after the retirement of

list MP A list MP is a member of parliament (MP) elected from a party list rather than from by a geographical constituency. The place in Parliament is due to the number of votes that the party won, not to votes received by the MP personally. This occurs ...

and former co-leader

. Hughes was sworn in as an MP on 16 February 2010. He was the youngest MP in Parliament at the time of his election. In his maiden speech on 24 February 2010, Hughes declared his support for a

New Zealand republic New Zealand Republic Inc. is an organisation formed in 1994 whose object is to support the creation of a New Zealand republic. The campaign chair is Lewis Holden, an Auckland political activist and businessman. The organisation is not aligned w ...

. In his first term, Hughes was the Green Party's spokesperson on housing, ICT, libraries and archives, tertiary education, GE, food, oceans, transport, and youth. In the 2011 general election he stood in the Ōhariu electorate again and was ranked seventh on the Green party list, and was re-elected as a list MP. In the 2014 general election he stood only on the party list, ranked fifth, and was elected for a third time. During this term of Parliament, the male co-leader of the Party,

Russel Norman Russel William Norman (born 2 June 1967) is a New Zealand politician and environmentalist. He was a Member of Parliament and co-leader of the Green Party. Norman resigned as an MP in October 2015 to work as Executive Director of Greenpeace Aote ...

, resigned and Hughes stood for the vacant co-leadership role as the self-described "underdog." The contest was won by first-term MP James Shaw. Hughes, along with the rest of the Green Party, voted in support of

Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Act 2013 The Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Act 2013 is an Act of Parliament in New Zealand, which since 19 August 2013, allows same-sex couples to legally marry. The Act was proposed as a member's bill by MP Louisa Wall in May 2012, and wa ...

, allowing same-sex couples to legally marry in New Zealand. In November 2016, it was announced that Hughes would be running for the East Coast electorate against National Party MP

Anne Tolley Anne Merrilyn Tolley (née Hicks, born 1 March 1953) is a New Zealand politician and former member of the New Zealand House of Representatives representing the National Party. She was New Zealand's first female Minister of Education from 200 ...

. This electorate is the one he was raised in. He was returned to Parliament as the Greens' fifth-ranked and longest serving list MP. When the Greens agreed to support a Labour–New Zealand First coalition Government, Hughes was not appointed to a ministerial position and instead continued as the party musterer (

whip A whip is a tool or weapon designed to strike humans or other animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain. They can also be used without inflicting pain, for audiovisual cues, such as in equestrianism. They are generally e ...

). In 2019, he announced his intention to retire at the next general election. Ahead of his retirement, and for family reasons, he relocated himself to be the Green Party's member of Parliament based in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

After Parliament

Hughes was elected Chair of the Board of Directors of

SAFE A safe (also called a strongbox or coffer) is a secure lockable box used for securing valuable objects against theft or fire. A safe is usually a hollow cuboid or cylinder, with one face being removable or hinged to form a door. The body and ...

in 2021. He is the New Zealand lead for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance and no longer a member of the Green Party. Hughes wrote ''A Gentle Radical'', a biography of Fitzsimons published in 2022.

Notes

References

External links

Green Party biographyProfile at New Zealand Parliament websiteGareth Hughes
at Facebook {{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Gareth Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand MPs Victoria University of Wellington alumni 1981 births Living people People from Gisborne, New Zealand People educated at Gisborne Boys' High School New Zealand list MPs Unsuccessful candidates in the 2008 New Zealand general election Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives 21st-century New Zealand politicians Candidates in the 2017 New Zealand general election