27 Facts About Paul Eagle

Tahere Paul Eagle was born on 10 January 1972 and is a New Zealand politician and former member of the New Zealand House of Representatives for the Rongotai electorate from 2017 to 2023.

Paul Eagle was a Wellington City Councillor from 2010 to 2017 and was the first person of Maori descent to be Deputy Mayor of Wellington, but was defeated in a landslide when he sought the mayoralty as an independent candidate in 2022.

Paul Eagle has kept contact with his birth mother who told him she couldn't keep him due to the lack of a domestic purposes benefit.

When Paul Eagle was five, his adoptive father ran for the Mt Eden Borough Council as a candidate for the Labour Party, a race in which he was ultimately unsuccessful.

Paul Eagle was educated first at Wellington High School and then at St Patrick's College in Wellington, where he showed an aptitude for art, leading him to study the subject at the Elam School of Fine Arts and the University of Auckland.

Paul Eagle graduated with a postgraduate diploma in fine arts from the University of Auckland in 1996.

Paul Eagle found employment in the desktop publishing design profession before working for Wellington City Council, Manukau City Council, Sport and Recreation New Zealand and the Ministry of Economic Development, mostly in event management roles.

Paul Eagle later worked for the New Zealand Police as a civilian in the Maori, Pacific and ethnic team.

Paul Eagle was first elected as a Labour Party candidate to the southern ward of Wellington City Council in 2010, replacing long-time Green Party councillor Celia Wade-Brown who was that year elected mayor.

Paul Eagle was re-elected in 2013 and in 2016 with increased majorities.

Paul Eagle resigned his seat on the council after his election to Parliament, necessitating a by-election in his ward.

Paul Eagle said that he had not yet decided whether or not to contest the Labour nomination for the electorate.

Labour leader Andrew Little, who lived in the electorate, was considered as a potential candidate but after Little announced he was not intending to stand in the seat, Paul Eagle confirmed he would seek the nomination.

On 3 February 2017 Paul Eagle was confirmed as the sole applicant for the Rongotai candidacy and nominated unopposed.

Paul Eagle was ranked 34 on Labour's party list for the election.

Paul Eagle was the first male Maori candidate for the Labour Party to be elected to a general electorate for nearly a hundred years.

Since Paul Eagle left the city council in 2017, mayor Justin Lester had suffered a shock defeat to Andy Foster in the 2019 election and Paul Eagle had been frequently speculated as a possibility to run against Foster.

Paul Eagle took leave from Parliament between July and October 2022 to campaign, unsuccessfully, to be Mayor of Wellington.

On 13 December 2022, Paul Eagle announced that he would not be contesting the 2023 New Zealand general election.

Paul Eagle ran as an independent candidate, but was endorsed by the Labour Party.

Paul Eagle promised that if successful, he would leave parliament, which would have triggered a by-election in the seat of Rongotai.

Three weeks before the election, several independent candidates alleged that Paul Eagle had encouraged them to run and provided them with campaign advice.

Paul Eagle denied "shoulder-tapping" alternative candidates but at one community meeting endorsed independent Diane Calvert over Labour candidate Rebecca Matthews.

Paul Eagle was ultimately unsuccessful in his campaign, placing third after new candidate Tory Whanau and incumbent Andy Foster.

On provisional results released on election day, Paul Eagle was recorded as coming fourth behind Ray Chung although special votes counted later reversed their positions.

The New Zealand Herald and Stuff reported that Paul Eagle would be the first former Member of Parliament to serve as a local government chief executive.

Paul Eagle lives in Wellington with his wife Miriam Paul Eagle, who is an environmental scientist, and their adopted son.