55 Facts About Louisa Wall

Louisa Hareruia Wall was born on 17 February 1972 and is a New Zealand former double international sportswoman, former politician, and human rights advocate.

Louisa Wall represented New Zealand in both netball as a Silver Fern from 1989 to 1992 and in rugby union as a member of the Black Ferns from 1995 to 2001, including as a member of the 1991 World Netball Championships runner-up team and 1998 Women's Rugby World Cup winning team.

Louisa Wall was a Labour list Member of Parliament and MP for Manurewa in 2008 and again from 2011 to 2022.

Louisa Wall was well known for her successful attempt leading the legalisation of same-sex marriage in New Zealand in 2013.

Louisa Wall resigned from Parliament to serve as New Zealand's ambassador for Pacific gender equality, a role she held until early 2024.

Louisa Wall was born in Taupo to Leslie and Josephine Wall.

Louisa Wall has Ngati Tuwharetoa, Ngati Hineuru and Waikato ancestry and was named after her father's cousin Louis, who died on the day she was born.

Louisa Wall has two younger brothers and one younger sister.

Louisa Wall earned qualifications ins port and recreation from the Waikato Institute of Technology and the University of Waikato.

Louisa Wall had a career in health research, working for the Health Research Council, the Children's Commission, the Ministry of Women's Affairs, and the Counties Manukau district health board.

Louisa Wall is openly lesbian and is a strong advocate for human rights.

Louisa Wall married her civil union partner, lawyer Prue Kapura, in December 2015, after Wall successfully led an effort to legalise same-sex marriage in New Zealand.

From childhood, Louisa Wall was involved in many sport, including rugby union, football, karate, basketball, and netball.

Louisa Wall played club rugby as a five-year-old but was banned at the end of the season after organiser Owen Delaney realised she was a girl.

Louisa Wall was named in the New Zealand national netball team, the Silver Ferns, in 1989 when she was aged 17.

Louisa Wall had aspired to be a member of the team since she was 13 or 14.

Louisa Wall primarily played in the wing defence position and remained a member of the team through 1992, being capped 28 times.

Louisa Wall tried to rejoin the Silver Ferns in 1999, ahead of the 1999 World Netball Championships, but was not selected.

Louisa Wall made the New Zealand women's national rugby union team, the Black Ferns, in 1995, as a wing.

In 1997, Louisa Wall won the title of New Zealand Women's Rugby Player of the Year.

Louisa Wall retired in 2002, aged 30, after suffering several knee injuries.

On 30 November 2019, Louisa Wall was inducted into the Maori Sports Hall of Fame.

Louisa Wall was unsuccessful in being elected in a third general election in 2008.

Louisa Wall had already been selected in December 2010 to contest Manurewa for Labour due to the retirement of George Hawkins.

Louisa Wall was the first Maori candidate to win a general electorate for the Labour Party.

Louisa Wall held the electorate for Labour by similar margins in the 2014 and 2017 general elections.

In opposition from 2011 until 2017, Louisa Wall was Labour's spokesperson for sports and recreation, youth affairs, the community and voluntary sector, and courts and sat on the Maori affairs, health, and social services committees.

Louisa Wall was regarded by Stuff chief political reporter Henry Cooke as having achieved more than any other Labour MP between 2008 and 2017.

Louisa Wall was not appointed to a ministerial position in Jacinda Ardern's Sixth Labour Government and instead chaired the health committee from 2017 to 2020 and sat on the foreign affairs, defence and trade committee from 2017 to 2022.

Louisa Wall was an outspoken, independent critic of China, whom she accused of harvesting organs from the minority Uyghur and Falun Gong populations.

Louisa Wall was nominated by the Manurewa Local Electorate Committee for reselection as the Labour candidate for Manurewa at the 2020 general election.

Louisa Wall sought legal advice which she shared with the NZ Council and suggested internal resolution.

Louisa Wall served in that capacity until 1 May 2022.

In May 2012, Louisa Wall submitted a member's bill to legalise same-sex marriage in New Zealand to the ballot.

In later years, Louisa Wall revealed the initial draft of the bill had been prepared by her then-civil union partner and later wife.

Louisa Wall rebuffed the Labour leadership's attempt to manage the legislation and worked with a cross-party group of MPs to lead efforts to pass the legislation.

At the third reading, Louisa Wall gave a speech likening the passing of the Bill to Treaty of Waitangi settlement acts previously passed by the New Zealand Parliament.

Louisa Wall stated the passing of the Bill was like winning a "World Cup final".

In 2013, Louisa Wall lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission over two cartoons by Al Nisbet published by the Fairfax New Zealand relating to the extension of the Government's "Breakfast in Schools" programme.

In November 2017, Louisa Wall appealed the decision at the High Court.

The Court found Louisa Wall had raised important issues of public interest and no costs award was made.

Louisa Wall submitted legislation enabling assisted suicide in 2016, inspired by the terminal illness of Lecretia Seales.

Louisa Wall voted in support of the bill at each stage, but did not support the bill's passage being subject to a referendum.

In late June 2021, Louisa Wall expressed support for transgender athlete Laurel Hubbard, stating that she has every right to be at the 2020 Summer Olympics and hope that she would do New Zealand well.

Louisa Wall rejected suggestions that Hubbard transitioned to give her an advantage, emphasising that Hubbard had given up weightlifting for many years after she realised her identity did not match her biology.

In June 2020, Louisa Wall joined the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China alongside National MP Simon O'Connor.

In early July 2021, Louisa Wall alleged that China was harvesting organs from Falun Gong and Uyghur political prisoners.

Louisa Wall alleged that China was detaining 1 million Uyghur in "education camps" as slave labour for picking cotton.

Louisa Wall called on the New Zealand Government to pass legislation to stop the purchase of goods produced through forced labour and to stop New Zealanders getting organ transplants sourced from China or from any country that cannot verify the integrity of its organ donor programme.

Louisa Wall based her statements on Sir Geoffrey Nice's China Tribunal.

On 29 March 2022, Louisa Wall announced that she would resign from Parliament, citing "events during the 2020 election".

Louisa Wall took many media interviews between the announcement of her resignation and her valedictory speech, which was delivered on 14 April 2022.

Louisa Wall described her de-selection as Labour's Manurewa candidate as unconstitutional and claimed prime minister Jacinda Ardern did not want her in Cabinet or the Labour caucus because of her past support for David Cunliffe over Ardern's ally Grant Robertson.

Louisa Wall's resignation came into effect on 1 May 2022 and her seat in Parliament was filled by the next person on Labour's list, Lemauga Lydia Sosene.

Radio New Zealand reported in April 2023 that Louisa Wall was "understood to be thinking about running for Te Pati Maori in Manurewa in this year's general election," although this did not ultimately eventuate.