Kiritapu Lyndsay Allan (born 1984) is a New Zealand politician and

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) in the

New Zealand House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the sole chamber of the New Zealand Parliament. The House passes Law of New Zealand, laws, provides Ministers of the New Zealand Government, ministers to form Cabinet of New Zealand, Cabinet, and supervises the ...

. A member of the Labour Party, she entered the House as a

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 ...

in 2017, and won the

East Coast East Coast may refer to: Entertainment * East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop * East Coast (ASAP Ferg song), "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017 * East Coast (Saves the Day song), "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004 * East Coast FM, a ra ...

electorate in 2020.

Early life

Allan was born in

Te Karaka Te Karaka is a small settlement inland from Gisborne, in the northeast of New Zealand's North Island. It is located in the valley of the Waipaoa River close to its junction with its tributary, the Waihora River. Te Karaka is located on State Hi ...

, of

Ngāti Ranginui Ngāti Ranginui is a Māori iwi (tribe) in Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. Its rohe (tribal area) extends from Waihi in the north, to the Kaimai Range in the west, to south of Te Puke in the south, and to Tauranga in the east. The rohe does not exten ...

Ngāti Tūwharetoa Ngāti Tūwharetoa is an iwi descended from Ngātoro-i-rangi, the priest who navigated the Arawa canoe to New Zealand. The Tūwharetoa region extends from Te Awa o te Atua (Tarawera River) at Matatā across the central plateau of the North Isla ...

descent. She is the ninth of ten children. She grew up in

Paengaroa Paengaroa is a village in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand which lies 11 km from Te Puke, 35 km from Tauranga and 46.2 km from Rotorua. Paengaroa is located on State Highway 33 approximately 2 km from the junction with Stat ...

. She dropped out of high school at 16. She worked at a

KFC KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is an American fast food restaurant chain headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, that specializes in fried chicken. It is the world's second-largest restaurant chain (as measured by sales) after McDonald's, with 2 ...

franchise in West Auckland (she joined the

Service & Food Workers Union The Service & Food Workers Union Nga Ringa Tota (SFWU) was a trade union in New Zealand. It was affiliated with the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions and the New Zealand Labour Party. The SFWU was organised into five industry sectors: *Age Ca ...

at that time) and as a cherry picker. She studied law 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 ...

. During her university studies she worked in an internship with then-Prime Minister

Helen Clark Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...

Career before politics

She worked for a period at law firm ChenPalmer. Later she was a commercial lawyer and business consultant in

Whakatāne Whakatāne ( , ) is the seat of the Bay of Plenty region in the North Island of New Zealand, east of Tauranga and north-east of Rotorua, at the mouth of the Whakatāne River. Whakatāne District is the encompassing territorial authority, whi ...

before becoming a politician.

Political career

Allan stood for Labour in the electorate in the and was placed 21 on Labour's party list. Allan did not win the electorate (she came second to

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 ...

), but entered Parliament via the

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 ...

. In 2018, Allan launched the political podcast ''Authorised By'' with

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 ...

Chlöe Swarbrick Chlöe Charlotte Swarbrick (born 26 June 1994) is a New Zealand politician. Following a high-profile but unsuccessful run for the 2016 Auckland mayoral election, she became a parliamentary candidate for the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand ...

. During the

52nd New Zealand Parliament The 52nd New Zealand Parliament was a session of legislature in New Zealand, which opened on 7 November 2017 following the 2017 general election and dissolved on 6 September 2020. The New Zealand Parliament comprises the Sovereign (represented ...

she was Labour's junior whip, and therefore the junior

government whip A whip is an official of a political party whose task is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. This means ensuring that members of the party vote according to the party platform, rather than according to their own individual ideology o ...

. She was also a member of various Select Committees, including the Epidemic Response Committee during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. By the end of 2018, Allan was labelled a strong performer among

backbencher In Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no governmental office and is not a frontbench spokesperson in the Opposition, being instead simply a member of the " ...

s in Parliament. She is also the chair of Labour's rural caucus. Ahead of the

2020 New Zealand general election The 2020 New Zealand general election was held on Saturday 17 October 2020 to determine the composition of the 53rd parliament. Voters elected 120 members to the House of Representatives, 72 from single-member electorates and 48 from closed ...

, Allan was ranked at 25 on Labour's part list and was selected by the party to contest the East Coast electorate again. Anne Tolley, who had defeated Allan for the seat in 2017 had decided to contest the 2020 election as a List only candidate, and then had later decided to retire outright, leaving the seat open. The 2020 election was held on 17 October 2020, Allan was elected as MP for East Coast, which saw a landslide victory for the Labour party. She defeated

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, ce ...

's candidate

Tania Tapsell Tania Tapsell (born 22 September 1992) is a New Zealand politician. She has served on the Rotorua Lakes District Council since 2013 and was elected mayor of Rotorua at the 2022 local elections. She is the first woman of Māori descent to hold ...

by a final margin of 6,331 votes. On 2 November 2020, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced she would enter

Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

during her second term in parliament, becoming Minister for Conservation and Minister for Emergency Management. In addition, she also assumed the associate ministerial portfolios for Arts, Culture and Heritage and

Environment Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...

. On 6 April 2021, Allan announced she would be taking medical leave after being diagnosed with stage 3

cervical cancer Cervical cancer is a cancer arising from the cervix. It is due to the abnormal growth of cells that have the ability to invade or spread to other parts of the body. Early on, typically no symptoms are seen. Later symptoms may include abnormal ...

. In a June 2022 reshuffle, Allan was promoted from Conservation to instead be

Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...

Personal life

She married her wife, Natalie Coates, in 2016 after

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...

was legalised in New Zealand. Her family had a baby just before the 2017 election and Allan brought the baby to Parliament. Allan and Coates divorced in May 2022. Allan's current partner is

RNZ National RNZ National ( mi, Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa Ā-Motu), formerly Radio New Zealand National, and known until 2007 as the National Programme or National Radio, is a publicly funded non-commercial New Zealand English-language radio network operat ...

presenter Māni Dunlop, to whom she is engaged.

References

External links

*
Profile
NZ Labour Party
Profile
NZ Parliament , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Allan, Kiri 1984 births Living people New Zealand Labour Party MPs Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives New Zealand list MPs Lesbian politicians LGBT members of the Parliament of New Zealand Women members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Candidates in the 2017 New Zealand general election People from the Gisborne District Ngāti Ranginui people Ngāti Tūwharetoa people Māori MPs Candidates in the 2020 New Zealand general election Justice ministers of New Zealand Female justice ministers