Nanaia Cybele Mahuta (born 21 August 1970) is a New Zealand former politician who served as the minister of foreign affairs from 2020 to 2023. A member of the New Zealand Labour Party, Mahuta served as the member of Parliament (MP) for 27 years, at first for the party list and then for three different Māori electorates, latterly for Hauraki-Waikato. Mahuta served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 6 November 2020 to 11 November 2023. She received international recognition as the first woman (and first Māori woman) to hold the Foreign Affairs portfolio. In October 2022, Mahuta became the Mother of the House, having served continuously in the House of Representatives since the 1996 general election. She lost her seat in parliament in the 2023 general election to Te Pāti Māori candidate Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, who was subsequently Baby of the House.

Mahuta was born into the kāhui ariki in Auckland, the daughter of Sir Robert Mahuta, who was the adopted son of Māori king Korokī. Affiliated to Ngāti Mahuta, her father was the elder brother of the Māori queen Te Atairangikaahu, and she is a first cousin of former Māori monarch Kiingi Tūheitia. Elected to Parliament at the age of 26, Mahuta has had a long and influential career in the Labour Party. She was also Minister of Local Government, Minister of Youth Development and Minister of Customs in the Fifth Labour Government and Minister of Local Government and Minister for Māori Development in the Sixth Labour Government.

Mahuta took a generally progressive platform as Minister of Foreign Affairs. She called on the Israeli government to stop evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem. Mahuta introduced the Russia Sanctions Act 2022, which after unanimous approval imposed various sanctions targeting Russian elites and assets deemed to be complicit in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As part of New Zealand's membership of the Five Eyes alliance, she condemned the disqualification of pro-democracy Hong Kong legislators as a breach of Hong Kong's autonomy and rights under the Sino-British Joint Declaration. She was the first female MP to wear a moko kauae (a traditional Māori facial tattoo), which was widely praised as a powerful symbol of Indigenous women. In 2018, she was listed as one of the BBC's 100 Women. Domestically, she was a proponent of the Three Waters reform programme and co-governance.

Early life and family

Mahuta was born in Auckland in 1970 to Eliza Raiha Edmonds, and (later Sir) Robert Mahuta. Some of her early life was spent in Oxford, where her father was undertaking PhD study.

She was educated at Kura Kaupapa Rakaumanga school in Huntly and later at Waikato Diocesan School for Girls as a boarder. She studied law at the University of Waikato, but failed three of her seven papers and had to drop out. She then studied social anthropology and Māori business development at the University of Auckland, graduating with an MA (Hons). The title of her 1995 master's thesis was Te poukai o Waahi : an historical background to the Waahi poukai. She also worked at the university as a researcher/archivist.

She has strong links to the Māori King movement. Her father was the adopted son of King Korokī and the elder brother of Māori Queen Te Atairangikaahu. She is related to the current Māori queen, Nga wai hono i te po. Mahuta's sister, Tipa Mahuta, is a long-serving Waikato regional councillor and the co-chair of the Māori Health Authority.

Mahuta is married to William Gannin Ormsby, her first cousin. The couple have had three children together (the first died shortly after birth), plus four children from Ormsby's previous relationship.

In 2016, she acquired a Māori facial tattoo () and became the first female MP to wear one in the New Zealand parliament. Other Māori women in parliament—Metiria Turei of the Green Party and Marama Fox of the Māori Party—spoke of their support.

Political career

Mahuta joined the Labour Party at the request of retiring Western Maori MP Koro Wētere and after hearing Helen Clark speak in Auckland. She was also encouraged to participate in politics by members of the Māori Women's Welfare League.

She contested Te Tai Hauāuru (the replacement seat for Western Maori) in the 1996 elections but lost to New Zealand First's Tuku Morgan. However, with a list ranking of 8, Mahuta was elected as one of the first New Zealand list MPs. Mahuta was aged 26 years and 52 days when she was elected (twelve days younger than Deborah Morris) and was the youngest member of the New Zealand House of Representatives until the election of Darren Hughes in 2002.

After completing her first term as a list MP, Mahuta contested Te Tai Hauauru in the 1999 election, and won. She transferred to and won the new Tainui electorate for the 2002 election and held it in 2005. That seat was renamed Hauraki-Waikato ahead of the 2008 general election. She retained that seat until 2023. In October 2022, Mahuta became the Mother of the House, being the longest continuously serving female MP (alongside Father of the House Gerry Brownlee).

Mahuta has been placed in high positions on the Labour list in each election she has contested where she has had a list position. However, she opted not to seek a list position in 2005 following the foreshore and seabed controversy and again in 2017 as part of Labour's Māori electorate strategy.

On 8 December 2022, Mahuta confirmed that she would be contesting the 2023 general election in order "to ensure that the changes that we've [the Labour Government] been putting through can continue to progress".

Foreshore and seabed controversy In 2004, she joined Tariana Turia, another Labour MP, in voting against the first reading of her party's legislation on the controversial foreshore and seabed issue. She did not, however, join Turia when she quit Labour to found the Māori Party. In the bill's second reading, she again voted against her party, but in the third reading, she changed her position and supported it, saying that it was the politically pragmatic thing to do. In her third reading speech, Mahuta stated that she would withdraw from the Labour Party list at the next election to seek a renewed mandate from her electorate.

Select committee memberships and party portfolios

As a first-term opposition MP, Mahuta was appointed as a member of the regulations review committee and the electoral law committee. She was also the Labour party spokesperson for Māori education. From 1999 to 2005, the first two terms of the Fifth Labour Government, Mahuta was variously a member of the justice and electoral, Māori affairs, education and science, local government and environment committees, and was chair of the Māori affairs committee from August 2004 to August 2005.

Following the defeat of the Labour government in the 2008 election, and Labour's successive losses in 2011 and 2014, Mahuta held various appointments as Labour Party spokesperson for Māori affairs, education, energy and conservation. She was also deputy chairperson of the Māori Affairs select committee in the 51st Parliament.

Mahuta has had three member's bills selected for introduction. Her Resource Management (Enhancement of Iwi Management Plans) Amendment Bill, which proposed giving more weight to Māori in resource-management decisions, was drawn from the members' ballot in 2009. The bill was defeated at its first reading in August. Her Charter Schools (Application of Official Information and Ombudsmen Acts) Bill was drawn and defeated in 2016.

In July 2017, Mahuta's Sentencing (Domestic Violence) Amendment Bill was drawn. The Bill was previously in the name of Sue Moroney and would have allowed judges to consider history of domestic violence when making decisions about sentencing in court. It was withdrawn when the Labour Party formed a new government in October 2017 in favour of broader family violence reforms that were completed in 2018.

Labour leadership election, 2014 Labour lost the 2014 general election with its worst result since ; as a result, David Cunliffe resigned as leader, triggering a leadership election. Mahuta had been a supporter of Cunliffe and sought election as his deputy in his unsuccessful 2011 leadership bid. Mahuta was one of four MPs who sought election as Cunliffe's successor. She announced her candidacy half an hour before nominations closed on 14 October 2014 and was nominated by Louisa Wall and William Sio. Mahuta placed fourth in the election. She considered retiring from politics at the 2017 general election after Maori King Tūheitia Paki changed his allegiance to the Māori Party. However, Mahuta eventually decided to stay on. She was not placed on the Labour Party list at that election in line with Labour's decision for its incumbent Māori electorate MPs to contest the electorate vote only.

Minister in the Fifth Labour Government Mahuta was appointed a minister in the final term of the Fifth Labour Government. In her contribution to a collection of essays by Māori political leaders, she recalled requesting portfolios other than Māori affairs. She was appointed Minister of Customs, Minister of Youth Affairs, Associate Minister of Local Government and Associate Minister for the Environment in October 2005. She gained the full local government portfolio and also became Associate Minister of Tourism in November 2007.

Mahuta lost her portfolios when Labour was defeated in the 2008 general election.

Minister in the Sixth Labour Government

Mahuta served as a cabinet minister in the Sixth Labour Government. In the government's first term, from 2017 to 2020, she held the portfolios for Local Government and Maori Development and also served as associate minister for the trade and export growth, the environment and housing portfolios.

In the government's second term, beginning in 2020, she was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Local Government and Associate Minister for Māori Development. In a 2023 reshuffle she dropped the local government portfolio and additionally became Minister of Disarmament and Arms Control. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins stated that the change was intended to allow Mahuta to focus on her foreign affairs portfolio and to travel overseas. He also denied that it was motivated by the response to the controversial Three Waters reform programme and confirmed that the Government would continue with the programme.

Māori Development As Minister for Māori Development, in September 2019, Mahuta delivered a tearful and emotional speech as Parliament officially apologised for a police raid in 1916 on Māori leader Rua Kenana's Iharaira faith's compound in Maungapohatu in the North Island's Bay of Plenty Region.

Local Government

Tauranga City Council On 4 December 2020, Mahuta, in her role as Minister of Local Government, informed the Tauranga City Council of her intention to appoint commissioners following infighting within the city council that had led to the resignation of the Mayor of Tauranga Tenby Powell on 19 November. Local Government New Zealand supported the move to appoint commissioners in order to get the city's governance "back on track." On 18 December, Mahuta confirmed that the Government would be appointing commissioners to administer Tauranga since the City Council did not provide "sufficient evidence" about how it was addressing the city's governance issues. However, a review by law firm Russell McVeagh found Mahuta's decision may have been "unlawful" because she failed to adequately consider lesser alternatives, such as the appointment of a crown manager. Then local Tauranga MP, Simon Bridges called the appointment of commissioners "dramatic and draconian."

The commissioners' terms began in early 2021 and were scheduled to run until the 2022 New Zealand local elections in October 2022.