12 Facts About Teanau Tuiono

Teanau Tuiono was born on 25 December 1972 and is a New Zealand politician.

Teanau Tuiono initially enrolled for an engineering certificate but partway through changed to a BA in Maori Studies at the University of Auckland.

Teanau Tuiono followed his BA with a law degree, from the University of Auckland.

Teanau Tuiono attended the protests at the anti-Springbok tour protests in 1981.

Teanau Tuiono stood for the Green Party at the 2017 election and was 16th on the party list.

At the 2019 local-body elections, Teanau Tuiono stood for Mayor of Palmerston North as the Green Party candidate, running a campaign focusing on the local effects of climate change.

Teanau Tuiono finished a distant second to incumbent Grant Smith.

Teanau Tuiono came third place in Palmerston North, with 2,039 votes.

In late November 2023, Teanau Tuiono assumed the Green Party's Pacific Region, education, workplace relations and safety, space, national security and intelligence, and overseas development assistance spokesperson portfolios.

On 7 December 2023, Teanau Tuiono was appointed as the third assistant speaker, the first Green Party MP to become a member on the speaker team and the second MP, after Peter Hilt in 1996, from a party other than National or Labour to become an assistant speaker.

In December 2020, Teanau Tuiono joined fellow Green MP Golriz Ghahraman and Labour MP Ibrahim Omer in pledging to form a new parliamentary Palestine friendship group to "raise the voices of Palestinian peoples in the New Zealand Parliament" during an event organised by the Wellington Palestine advocacy group to mark the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Teanau Tuiono considers it appropriate for MPs to be able to pledge allegiance to Te Tiriti O Waitangi instead of to the King.