14 Facts About Phil Twyford

Philip Stoner Twyford was born on 4 May 1963 and is a politician from New Zealand and a member of the Labour Party.

Phil Twyford has been a Member of Parliament since 2008.

Phil Twyford graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Auckland in 1999.

Phil Twyford placed second both times but in 2008 he was elected as a list MP.

Phil Twyford held a range of urban development and foreign affairs portfolios under successive Labour leaders including development assistance, disarmament and arms control, transport or associate transport, housing and building and construction.

In 2009, Phil Twyford promoted the Local Government Amendment Bill to address concerns that the council amalgamation was partially to allow the sell-off of public assets.

Phil Twyford was elected as a Cabinet Minister by the Labour Party caucus following Labour's formation of a coalition government with New Zealand First and the Greens, and appointed as the Minister of Housing and Urban Development and the Minister of Transport.

In November 2017, Phil Twyford defended his government's proposed Overseas Investment Amendment Act to ban foreign buyers from buying residential property in order to ease the country's housing shortage.

On 24 May 2018, Phil Twyford was dismissed from responsibility for civil aviation after making an unauthorized phone call on a domestic flight as the plane was taking off, a violation of national civil aviation laws.

Phil Twyford offered to resign as Transport Minister but his resignation was turned down by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

On 23 January 2019, Phil Twyford admitted that the Government would not meet its first target of building 1,000 KiwiBuild homes by 1 July 2019, stating that only 300 homes would be built by then.

On 27 June 2019, in Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's first major reshuffle of the coalition government, Phil Twyford was replaced as Housing Minister by Megan Woods and succeeded David Parker as Minister of Economic Development.

Phil Twyford retained his seat in Te Atatu by a final margin of 10,508 votes, defeating Ngaro.

On 10 February 2023, Phil Twyford was granted retention of the title "The Honourable" for life, in recognition of his term as a member of the Executive Council.