Andrew James Little (born 7 May 1965) is a New Zealand politician serving as mayor of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand, since 17 October 2025. A lawyer and former trade union official, Little was Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2014 to 2017 and a senior minister in the Labour governments led by Jacinda Ardern and Chris Hipkins from 2017 to 2023.
Little was first elected as a Labour Party list MP in 2011, after serving as President of the Labour Party between 2009 and 2011. His political career followed a career in unionism, which included 11 years as the national secretary of the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union, New Zealand's largest private-sector union.
Little's term as Labour leader was characterised by low opinion polling results and punctuated by his resignation from the role less than two months before he was due to lead the party in the 2017 general election. Little's decision was described as "selfless" and instrumental in Labour's success under new leader Jacinda Ardern. In the following six years he served as a senior minister and was regarded as a "safe pair of hands" across 12 ministerial portfolios, including Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, Minister of Justice, Minister of Health and Minister of Defence.
Following the Labour Government's defeat in the 2023 election, Little declined to return to Parliament as a list MP and returned to legal practice. He resumed his political career in 2025, winning the 2025 Wellington mayoral election.
Early life Born in New Plymouth on 7 May 1965, Little was educated at New Plymouth Boys' High School. His father was a devout National Party supporter and Little recalls delivering National pamphlets under his father's direction when he was younger. When he was 17, Little got his first job as a labourer digging the main cable trench for a new methanol plant in Waitara Valley as part of the "Think Big" programme. During his time there he noticed that the contractor he was working for was deliberately using a less than adequate amount of concrete than the work required. He finished work there at the beginning of 1984 and left upon being accepted to enter university. He had also worked as a timber yard worker and in security.
In the 1980s Little studied law, philosophy and public policy at Victoria University of Wellington, where he became active in the campaign against New Zealand's student loan scheme. He was president of the Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association for the 1987 academic year and served as New Zealand Union of Students' Associations (NZUSA) president in 1988 and 1989.
Career with trade unions After graduating Little took a job as a lawyer with the Engineers' Union (a forerunner of the EPMU), with his work including Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) and employment law issues. In 1997 he was appointed the union's general counsel. Two years later, he was appointed assistant national secretary, and was elected national secretary when Rex Jones stood down from the position in 2000.
In 2007 Little was ranked at number 40 on the New Zealand Listener Power List.
Little became an important extra-parliamentary figure within the Labour Party and was one of the main advisors from the trade unions. Little was a representative on Labour's national council as Affiliates vice-president, responsible for liaising between the Labour Party and affiliated trade unions. On 2 March 2009 it was announced that Little was elected unopposed as President of the New Zealand Labour Party. He held that post until 2 April 2011.
In Opposition, 2011–2017
First term (2011–2014) Little stood for Parliament in the 2011 general election. Despite a loss in the New Plymouth electorate to the National Party incumbent Jonathan Young, he was elected as a list MP owing to his ranking of 15 on the Labour Party list. This was the highest rank given to a Labour candidate who was not an incumbent MP. Political commentators quickly identified him as a potential future Labour Party leader and prime minister.
In his first term, he held the ACC shadow portfolio and gained profile during the National-led government's restructuring of the organisation. Together with Trevor Mallard, he launched attacks against ACC Minister Judith Collins, who eventually responded with issuing a defamation claim in May 2012. The affair resulted in the resignations of the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) chairman John Judge, and the ACC chief executive Ralph Stewart. In December 2012, Collins settled her defamation case against Little and Mallard following a hearing at the Auckland High Court. In early 2013, Little was reassigned to the justice, tourism and labour portfolios.
In December 2013, Little drafted a member's bill that, if passed, would create a new criminal offence of corporate manslaughter. The Crimes (Corporate Manslaughter) Amendment Bill was drafted in the wake of the 2010 Pike River Mine disaster and the CTV Building collapse during the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. The bill was modelled on the United Kingdom's Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007. At the time, Little stated the bill was needed because "the track record of prosecutions under the Health and Safety Act is that they tend to focus on lower level failures because getting the evidence and securing the conviction are easier, but personal responsibility for fatalities goes unchecked." A 2012 3News poll found that seventy-four percent of respondents would like to see a charge of corporate manslaughter introduced. The Bill was eventually transferred to the name of David Cunliffe but was not drawn before Cunliffe's retirement from Parliament in early 2017.
Second term and leadership (2014–2017)
At the 2014 election he again stood and lost in the New Plymouth electorate. Young was returned with a much increased margin, but this was partially explained by boundary changes. Little was elected as list MP because of his ranking of 11 on the Labour Party list.
Following Labour's defeat at the general election in September 2014, David Cunliffe resigned as leader of the Labour Party. Little announced his bid for the 2014 Labour Party leadership election on 9 October 2014 and was nominated by Poto Williams and Iain Lees-Galloway. He won the leadership election on 18 November 2014, defeating Grant Robertson, David Parker, and Nanaia Mahuta. In reporting on the election, some media focused on his trade union background. The election used an electoral college system where unions affiliated to the Labour Party had 20 percent of the vote; while Robertson had led Little in the caucus and party membership sections, the unions' support contributed to Little's narrow victory.
As Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition, Little sought to challenge the Government with a strong alternative narrative. In a 2015 conference speech he introduced a new "Kiwi dream" theme (the New Zealand dream). In 2015 Labour introduced a new slogan, "Backing the Kiwi Dream". Little largely focused on issues and concerns such as rising house prices in urban areas, a 'brain drain', unemployment and job security and the growing wage gap between baby boomers and millennials. The "Kiwi dream" narrative was particularly designed to engage young voters.
Little appointed long-serving Labour MP Annette King as Labour's 'interim' deputy leader shortly after his election as leader. This appointment was made permanent in October 2015 after Jacinda Ardern (who had previously sought to be Robertson's deputy leader) was reportedly offered the role but turned it down. Robertson was appointed finance spokesperson and ranked third in the caucus in a bid to unify different groups within the party. For much of Little's leadership, key portfolios in the Little shadow Cabinet were held by King (health), Phil Twyford (housing), Chris Hipkins (education), Ardern (justice and children) and Carmel Sepuloni (social development). Little reshuffled his shadow cabinet in November 2015 (demoting David Cunliffe), December 2016 (after the retirements of Phil Goff and David Shearer) and March 2017 (in which Ardern was promoted to deputy leader).
Little was criticised by some for perceived poor performance in television interviews, his low profile and poor name recognition with the general public. A Dominion Post assessment said "he has little charisma and a lack of new ideas" and criticised Labour's "bare platform." He was praised by political commentators early in his leadership for uniting the party caucus and averting the infighting that characterised David Cunliffe's tenure as leader, though at the expense of dropping many of the party's former policy proposals.
In October 2016 Labour floated the idea of a levy on employers who imported offshore skilled labour rather than upskilling their domestic workers. Little responded to criticisms that it amounted to a "tax on immigrants", saying "If we want to make sure we've got the skills for the future ... for those employers who don't take on apprentices, don't invest in training, you can contribute a levy and that'll help to defray the cost of those who are doing the training." Little also criticised the number of travel visas granted to semi-skilled workers, citing statistics. Kirk Hope, chief executive of Business New Zealand, criticised the proposal policy and warned that it would affect smaller businesses who are unable to recruit enough local workers.
Little was sued for defamation by Lani and Earl Hagaman after he made statements linking a contract awarded to their company with donations they had made to the National Party. In April 2017, a jury cleared him of some of the charges and was unable to reach a verdict on others.
On 1 August 2017, Little resigned as Leader of the Labour Party due to ongoing low performance in political opinion polls. He was succeeded by his deputy, Jacinda Ardern, who led the party to a surprise victory in the general election that September. Little was later lauded by party supporters for "selflessly" putting aside his personal ambition to allow Ardern to lead the party into a new government with New Zealand First and the Green Party. Little served as Labour's justice spokesperson over the election period.
In Government, 2017–2023 Little was a senior minister in the Sixth Labour Government led by Jacinda Ardern and Chris Hipkins between 2017 and 2023. He held twelve portfolios during the government's term. + PortfolioStartEndMinister for Courts26 October 20176 November 2020Minister of Justice26 October 20176 November 2020Minister for Pike River Re-entry26 October 20171 February 2023Minister responsible for the Government Communications Security Bureau26 October 201727 November 2023Minister responsible for the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service26 October 201727 November 2023Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations26 October 201727 November 2023Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety22 July 20206 November 2020Minister of Health6 November 20201 February 2023Lead Coordination Minister for the Government's Response to the Royal Commission's Report into the Terrorist Attack on the Christchurch Mosques10 December 202027 November 2023Minister of Defence1 February 202327 November 2023Minister for the Public Service1 February 202327 November 2023Minister of Immigration21 June 202327 November 2023
Third term (2017–2020)