1. Kiri Allan was a member of Parliament in the New Zealand House of Representatives from 2017 to 2023, representing the Labour Party in the East Coast electorate.
58 Facts About Kiri Allan
1. 2.
Kiri Allan held the positions of Minister for Emergency Management and Minister of Conservation from November 2020 to June 2022 and was Minister of Justice from June 2022 until July 2023.
3.
In June 2023, concerns about how Kiri Allan treated her staff were raised.
4.
Kiri Allan took time off from her parliamentary duties after a relationship breakup and, on 24 July 2023, resigned from her ministerial roles after she was arrested for careless driving the previous night.
5.
In May 2024, Kiri Allan pleaded guilty and was convicted of two charges of careless driving and failing to accompany a police officer.
6.
Kiri Allan was born in Te Karaka, of Ngati Ranginui and Ngati Tuwharetoa descent.
7.
Kiri Allan is the ninth of ten children and was named after her grandmother.
8.
Kiri Allan was raised in a Pentecostal Christian community, which she said contributed to her perspective on helping others.
9.
Kiri Allan's family were cleaners and agricultural workers who experienced layoffs due to the "Rogernomics" reforms in the 1980s.
10.
Some family members had experiences with the criminal justice system and Kiri Allan later said that criminal justice reform was a motivator for her to enter both law and politics.
11.
Kiri Allan left high school at 16 and started work at a KFC franchise in West Auckland.
12.
Kiri Allan decided on law because of advice from former University of Otago law professor Mark Henaghan, whom Allan befriended while working in a bar, and joined Labour after her politics lecturer Margaret Clark told her that joining a political party would teach her how politics worked.
13.
Kiri Allan stood for Labour in the East Coast electorate in the 2017 election and was placed 21 on Labour's party list.
14.
Kiri Allan came second to Anne Tolley in the election, but entered Parliament via the party list.
15.
Kiri Allan was elected a junior whip of the Labour Party.
16.
Kiri Allan joined the Epidemic Response Committee during the COVID-19 pandemic.
17.
Kiri Allan got on well with Swarbrick and they both felt the average Kiwi on the street was detached from politics.
18.
Kiri Allan generally maintained a progressive voting record, voting in support of the third readings of the End of Life Choice Bill and Abortion Legislation Bill.
19.
Kiri Allan had previously voted against the End of Life Choice Bill in the second reading, due to concerns that it did not sufficiently protect vulnerable people, and supported efforts by Jenny Marcroft to ensure the bill would be voted on in a binding referendum.
20.
Ahead of the 2020 New Zealand general election, Kiri Allan was ranked at 25 on Labour's party list and was selected to contest the East Coast electorate again.
21.
Amid a landslide nationwide victory for the Labour party, Kiri Allan defeated new National Party East Coast candidate Tania Tapsell by 6,331 votes to win her second term in Parliament and her first as an electorate representative.
22.
On 2 November 2020, prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced Kiri Allan would enter Cabinet during her second term in parliament, becoming Minister for Conservation and Minister for Emergency Management.
23.
Kiri Allan gained prominence in early 2021 when she fronted emergency management press conferences about tsunami threats following repeated severe earthquakes in the Kermadec Islands that led to the largest evacuation in New Zealand history.
24.
Kiri Allan took three months leave to seek treatment and was eventually declared cancer-free.
25.
Kiri Allan announced a review of the Wildlife Act 1953 in December 2021.
26.
One week later, as Minister for Emergency Management, Kiri Allan announced work to modernise emergency management legislation.
27.
Kiri Allan joined the government's economic ministerial group as an Associate Minister of Finance.
28.
Kiri Allan was a lead minister in the response to Cyclone Gabrielle in the Gisborne and Bay of Plenty regions.
29.
Kiri Allan led the government's work on electoral reform, sponsoring legislation on electoral finance reform, broader voter eligibility for New Zealanders living overseas, and reform of the Maori Electoral Option.
30.
In judicial system reform, Kiri Allan completed the government's long-promised repeal of three-strikes sentencing law, which had been linked to the over-incarceration of Maori, and increased access to legal aid.
31.
Kiri Allan led proposals related to the sale and supply of alcohol, hate speech, counter-terrorism, name suppression, surrogacy, and lobbying.
32.
Kiri Allan later said these policies were not aligned with her personal values and contributed to a mental health breakdown soon after.
33.
In exit interviews the next year, Kiri Allan revealed that she had intended to end her life that night.
34.
On 11 September 2023, Kiri Allan was granted the use of the honorific prefix The Honourable for life, in recognition of her term as a member of the Executive Council.
35.
Kiri Allan made a controversial speech at Radio New Zealand's Wellington office on 31 March 2023 as part of the farewell event for departing employee Mani Dunlop, who was her fiancee at the time.
36.
However, at the farewell event, Kiri Allan chose to comment on RNZ's alleged inability to retain Maori employees and suggested the senior leadership team needed to look into it.
37.
Kiri Allan later acknowledged that her comments might have been interpreted as giving RNZ instruction on how to manage its staff or organisation, which Ministers are not allowed to do.
38.
Kiri Allan later apologised and stated that was not her intent.
39.
When Kiri Allan became justice minister two years later, she gained ministerial responsibility for Foon in his role as Commissioner.
40.
Kiri Allan responded to the allegations saying that no one had laid a formal complaint about her behaviour.
41.
On 23 July 2023, Kiri Allan was arrested for careless use of a motor vehicle and refusing to accompany a police officer, after crashing her ministerial car into a parked car.
42.
Kiri Allan was issued an infringement notice for having excess breath alcohol.
43.
Kiri Allan acknowledged she was still struggling with mental health issues, and resigned her ministerial portfolios the following morning.
44.
Kiri Allan's portfolios were subsequently allocated to other ministers, with Ginny Andersen assuming her justice portfolio.
45.
On 25 July, Kiri Allan announced that she would not contest the 2023 New Zealand general election but would remain MP for East Coast until October 2023.
46.
Kiri Allan apologised to Hipkins, her cabinet colleagues, and constituents.
47.
On 30 November 2023, Kiri Allan confirmed that she would be pleading not guilty to a charges of careless driving and failing to accompany a police officer on the grounds that she did not have access to a lawyer.
48.
Kiri Allan was initially expected to face a judge-alone trial on the charge of failing to accompany a police officer.
49.
Kiri Allan was fined NZ$300 for careless driving and ordered to pay NZ$5,296 for damage done to the vehicle.
50.
Kiri Allan did not attend sentencing proceedings but was represented by her lawyer Christopher Stevenson, who agreed with the summary of facts that Kiri Allan had refused to accompany a police officer multiple times despite being advised that a lawyer would be made available at a "practical time".
51.
Kiri Allan married Natalie Coates in 2016 after same-sex marriage was legalised in New Zealand.
52.
Kiri Allan had a previous relationship with another Labour Party MP, Meka Whaitiri.
53.
In 2022, Kiri Allan became engaged to RNZ National presenter Mani Dunlop, but they broke up in 2023.
54.
In June 2023, Kiri Allan took leave from Parliament following the breakup.
55.
On 23 July 2023, Kiri Allan was involved in a car crash in Wellington, and was charged with careless driving and refusing to accompany a police officer.
56.
Kiri Allan received an infringement offence for excess breath alcohol.
57.
Prime minister Chris Hipkins, noted that Kiri Allan's behaviour was related to the break-down of her relationship with Dunlop.
58.
The consultancy was registered two weeks after she resigned as justice minister, and while she was still an MP; Kiri Allan was criticised for contributing to the perception of a "revolving door" between politics and lobbying that she was responsible for regulating while justice minister.