32 Facts About Deborah Russell

Deborah Faye Russell was born on 14 January 1966 and is a New Zealand academic and politician.

Deborah Russell is a Member of Parliament for the Labour Party and served as Minister of Statistics and Minister Responsible for the Earthquake Commission from February to November 2023.

Deborah Russell was raised Catholic and attended Sacred Heart Girls' College in New Plymouth.

Deborah Russell is married to academic Malcolm Wright; the couple share three daughters.

Deborah Russell graduated with a BCom in Accounting and Finance from University of Otago in 1987.

Deborah Russell worked in the private sector as an accountant, and in the public sector as a policy analyst.

Deborah Russell has lectured at universities in both Australia and New Zealand in taxation, ethics, business ethics, political theory and philosophy.

Deborah Russell was a senior lecturer specialising in taxation at Massey University, a position she held for six years until her 2017 resignation to contest the New Lynn electorate.

Deborah Russell wrote Tax and Fairness with Terry Baucher, which was published by Bridget Williams Books in May 2017 and interrogates whether New Zealand can be seen as an egalitarian country.

Deborah Russell stood in the central North Island electorate of Rangitikei at the 2014 election, but was defeated by the incumbent, National's Ian McKelvie.

The New Zealand Herald reported that Deborah Russell impressed the party leadership with her performance as a commentator and received support in her bid to be the Labour candidate for the safer Auckland seat of New Lynn in the 2017 election, despite not having a pre-existing connection to the electorate.

In February 2017, after a competitive selection process, Deborah Russell was chosen as Labour's 2017 candidate for New Lynn.

Deborah Russell replaced former Labour Party leader David Cunliffe, who had, in the previous year, signalled his intention to retire from politics at the next election.

Deborah Russell promised to change her residence to the electorate if she was selected, and she now lives there.

Deborah Russell was ranked 30 on Labour's party list, up three places from 2014.

Deborah Russell won New Lynn with a margin of 2,825 votes over National's Paulo Garcia, and entered Parliament.

Deborah Russell chaired the former from November 2017 until July 2019, and the latter from July 2019 until the 2020 election.

In 2018, Deborah Russell promoted a member's bill intended to improve transparency around large companies' payment practices.

Ultimately Deborah Russell chose to withdraw the bill because the government introduced similar legislation that addressed the same problem.

Deborah Russell wrote a weekly campaign diary chronicling her re-election efforts which was published by Newsroom.

Deborah Russell chaired the special select committee that was established to scrutinise the Pae Ora Bill.

Deborah Russell was responsible for the delivery of the 2023 New Zealand Census.

In late November 2023, Deborah Russell was appointed as spokesperson for revenue, science, innovation and technology, and associate spokesperson for education in the Shadow Cabinet of Chris Hipkins.

On 5 December 2023, Deborah Russell was granted retention of the title The Honourable, in recognition of her term as a member of the Executive Council.

On 7 March 2025, Deborah Russell retained the revenue portfolio and gained the climate change and associate finance portfolios during a cabinet reshuffle.

Deborah Russell lost the science, innovation and technology, and associate education portfolios.

Deborah Russell has advocated for law changes to prevent multinational firms from "unfair[ly]" structuring their New Zealand operations in a way that enables them to minimise their tax bills.

On 22 April 2020, Deborah Russell drew media attention and public criticism when she made remarks during a video conference with the Epidemic Response Committee suggesting that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand highlighted a structural weakness in the small business sector.

That had been Labour Party policy in 2011, before Deborah Russell became a Labour candidate, and became party policy again in 2023, after Deborah Russell had become a minister in the Labour Government.

Deborah Russell commented that her view had changed because food prices were no longer as stable as they were in 2016 when the tweet was posted.

Deborah Russell supported the passage of the Abortion Legislation Bill through all stages in 2019 and 2020.

Deborah Russell voted in support of the End of Life Choice Bill at its first reading in 2017, but voted against the Bill in its final stages in 2019.