Paul Jonathan Goldsmith (born 1971) is a New Zealand historian and politician. The biographer of several leading right-wing political and business figures, he was first elected a list member of the New Zealand House of Representatives for the National Party at the .
Goldsmith is Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, Minister of Justice, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, Minister for Media and Communications, Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Digitising Government, and Minister for Pacific Peoples in the Sixth National Government. On 12 August 2026, Goldsmith received the Minister of Defence, Minister for Veterans, Minister for Space portfolios after they were dismissed from Chris Penk following an unsuccessful leadership challenge on Prime Minister Christopher Luxon that triggered a confidence vote. He was previously an Auckland City Councillor between 2007 and 2010, and a Cabinet minister in the Fifth National Government.
Early life and family Goldsmith was born in 1971 in the Auckland suburb of Mount Eden to parents Lawrence, a mathematics teacher, and Margaret, a palliative care nurse. He has an older brother and sister.
The Goldsmith family descends from Charles George Goldsmith, a migrant from Liverpool who settled in the East Cape area early in New Zealand's colonial history. Charles Goldsmith had four wives—two Māori (Ngāti Porou), and two Pākehā—fathering 16 children. However, Goldsmith has clarified that he is not himself of Māori descent.
Goldsmith attended Auckland Grammar School and received an MA in history from the University of Auckland in 1996. His thesis was on the life of missionary William Colenso. Dame Judith Binney was his master's supervisor.
Paul Goldsmith is married to Melissa. They have four children. He is a pianist and a second-dan black belt in taekwondo.
Career before politics He began working as a historian for the Waitangi Tribunal in March 1995, contributing to the Tribunal's work on historic claims in Taranaki and Wairarapa. After a year, he moved to working for John Banks, then the National Party minister of local government, as a press secretary and speech writer. Goldsmith also began a biography of Banks during this period. Banks was not reappointed a minister after the 1996 election; Goldsmith moved to working for the environment minister Simon Upton and, after the 1999 election, the new Labour minister of foreign affairs Phil Goff.
In 2000, Goldsmith became a public relations adviser and worked for Tranz Rail and the University of Auckland.
Historian and biographer
Goldsmith has written the biographies of John Banks, Don Brash, William Gallagher, Alan Gibbs and Te Hemara Tauhia as well as a history of taxes, Puketutu Island and a history of the Fletcher Building construction company. The biographies were criticised in 2021 by labour historian Ross Webb as "hagiographies" of those involved in New Zealand's economic reforms in the 1980s and 1990s.
His Don Brash biography, Brash: A Biography, was a source of controversy. When it was released in 2005 he maintained it was not commissioned by the National Party, but investigative journalist Nicky Hager revealed it was indeed commissioned by the National Party and was in fact the party's first big-budget item in the campaign.
Early political career Goldsmith contested the Maungakiekie electorate in the 2005 general election for the National Party. At this time, National was led by Don Brash, whose biography by Goldsmith was published the same year. Goldsmith was defeated by the incumbent, Labour's Mark Gosche, and due to his low list placing (59 on the National Party list), did not enter Parliament.
Goldsmith successfully stood for the Auckland City Council Hobson Ward at the 2007 local body elections as a member of Citizens & Ratepayers. He was appointed deputy finance chairman by Mayor John Banks and chaired the community services committee. During his term, Goldsmith was criticised by the Auckland City Mission and the Green Party for instructing council officers to investigate removing homeless people from the city centre and refusing to rule out arresting homeless people to do so.
He sought but missed out on the Citizens & Ratepayers candidacy in the Ōrākei ward of the new Auckland Council at the 2010 Auckland elections, and was instead selected to contest Albert-Eden-Roskill. He finished third, behind Christine Fletcher and Cathy Casey, in the two-member ward.
Fifth National Government, 2011–2017
Goldsmith stood in the Epsom electorate at the 2011 general election, but lost the electorate vote to John Banks, who earlier in 2011 had joined ACT New Zealand. Goldsmith had been expected to lose; National leader John Key encouraged National voters to elect the ACT candidate in Epsom to keep the smaller party in Parliament. Goldsmith was ranked 39th on the National Party list and was elected as a list MP sitting in the 50th Parliament. During his first term in parliament, Goldsmith was deputy chairperson and, from 2013, chairperson of the finance and expenditure select committee. He was also a member of the local government and environment committee.
During the , Goldsmith contested the Epsom electorate and came second to new ACT candidate David Seymour. Ranked 30th, Goldsmith was re-elected as a list MP. He was appointed a minister outside Cabinet from November 2014 until December 2016, responsible for commerce and consumer affairs. He was also associate minister for ACC. At the same time, he served on the Education and Science and Social Services select committees. Goldsmith was promoted into Cabinet for the government's final year, as Minister for Science and Innovation, Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment, and Minister for Regulatory Reform.
Opposition, 2017–2023 During the , Goldsmith was re-elected as a list MP after coming second place in the Epsom electorate. At the beginning of the parliamentary term, as an opposition MP, he was the party spokesperson for arts, culture and heritage. Following the March 2018 National Party portfolio reshuffle, Goldsmith became spokesperson for revenue and economic and regional development. Later in the year, he lost the revenue portfolio, but became transport spokesperson.
In 2019, Goldsmith assumed the spokesperson role for finance and infrastructure and the third-ranked member of the National caucus. Stuff.co.nz writer Thomas Coughlan described him as "possibly the most libertarian or right-wing person to hold the shadow finance portfolio." Political columnist Danyl McLauchlan said Goldsmith was "possibly the only remaining member of his party who could be described as 'neoliberal'." Goldsmith was additionally spokesperson for state-owned enterprises between February and May 2020 and for the Earthquake Commission between May and November 2020. Between March and May 2020, Goldsmith was a member of the Epidemic Response Committee, a select committee that considered the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Goldsmith's budget for the National Party's 2020 election campaign was found to have several errors, some of which Goldsmith accepted. Re-elected for a fourth term as a list MP, Goldsmith lost the finance role after the election and became spokesperson for education and a member of the education and workforce committee until 2021. When Christopher Luxon became National leader in 2021, Goldsmith became justice spokesperson.
Sixth National Government, 2023–present Goldsmith won a fifth term as a National list MP in October 2023. Though he failed to unseat ACT leader David Seymour, he was re-elected on the National Party list.
On 27 November 2023, Goldsmith was announced as the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, Minister of Justice, Minister for State Owned Enterprises and Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations in the Sixth National Government.
On 24 April 2024, Luxon appointed Goldsmith as Minister for Media and Communications during a cabinet reshuffle. Goldsmith replaced Melissa Lee, who had faced criticism for her response to Warner Bros. Discovery New Zealand's closure of Newshub.
During a cabinet reshuffle that occurred in early April 2026, Goldsmith acquired the Public Service, Digitising Government, and Pacific Peoples portfolios. Following Chris Penk's unsuccessful leadership challenge against Luxon on 12 August, Goldsmith assumed the defence, veterans, space, Government Communications Security Bureau and New Zealand Security Intelligence Service portfolios.
Sentencing, law and order Goldsmith has repeatedly criticised what he describes as “undue leniency” in sentencing, including the use of short or non-custodial sentences for serious offences. He argues that short prison sentences undermine public confidence in the justice system and fail to deter crime, especially violent and repeat offences. He has introduced caps for sentence discounts, prevented repeat discounts for youth and remorse, and encouraged cumulative sentencing for crimes committed on bail, in custody, or on parole. He has stated that victims’ interests must be prioritised over leniency for offenders.
On 26 June 2024, Goldsmith confirmed that the Government would encourage judges to hand down "cumulative" sentences for offences committed on parole, bail or in custody. Earlier, the National-led Government had announced it would require "cumulative" sentences for such offenses but backtracked due to concerns about increasing the prison population.
On 15 July 2024, Goldsmith in his capacity as Justice Minister signed an extradition order against fugitive Internet millionaire Kim Dotcom. Dotcom had spent the past 12 years fighting against extradition to the United States where he is facing several charges of copyright infringement, money laundering and racketeering related to his Megaupload website.
On 29 June 2025, Goldsmith proposed legislation introducing higher penalties for those assaulting correctional officers and first responders. On 30 June, Goldsmith confirmed that the Government would introduce legislation creating specific offences for coward punching as part of the National Party's coalition agreement with New Zealand First.
On 1 July 2025, Goldsmith and Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced several proposed tougher penalties that they claim will combat shoplifting. These included introducing infringement fees for shoplifting offences above NZ$500 and NZ$100, increasing prison terms to one year for stolen goods worth NZ$2,000 and seven years for goods worth NZ $2,000 or more, and creating a new aggravated shoplifting offence. These changes were part of National's coalition agreement with NZ First. On 3 July, Goldsmith and McKee announced that the Government would increase the maximum trespass period from two to three years, and raise the maximum fines for trespassing.
On 13 August 2025, Goldsmith announced that the Government would amend the Crimes Act 1961 to strengthen the country's human trafficking and people smuggling laws. On 15 August, Goldsmith announced the Government would introduce legislation banning protests outside people's private homes. Labour leader Hipkins indicated his party was discussing whether to support the proposed law.
Retail crime advisory group On 11 July 2024, Goldsmith and Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced the formation of a new retail crime advisory group (formally, the Ministerial Advisory Group for Victims of Retail Crime) to engage with victims, workers, business owners, retail experts and advocacy groups to combat retail crime. The advisory group was allocated NZ$1.8 million a year and expected to last two years.