25 Facts About Willow-Jean Prime

Willow-Jean Prime was first elected a Member of the New Zealand House of Representatives at the 2017 general election as a list representative of the New Zealand Labour Party.

Willow-Jean Prime was elected as the Member of Parliament for Northland at the 2020 general election and was re-elected as a list MP in 2023.

Willow-Jean Prime is of Te Kapotai, Ngati Hine and Ngapuhi descent and grew up in Northland.

Willow-Jean Prime played basketball at school and was offered a scholarship to play in the United States.

Willow-Jean Prime is a graduate of Waikato University holding a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Laws, post-graduate Diploma of Maori and Pacific Development with distinction, and Master of Laws focusing on recent developments in Treaty settlements, Maori governance and indigenous development.

Willow-Jean Prime worked as a solicitor in Wellington before returning to Northland.

Willow-Jean Prime lives near Pakaraka with her husband Dion, who is a teacher, and has two children.

Willow-Jean Prime was pregnant during both her 2015 and 2017 election campaigns.

Willow-Jean Prime began her political career when she was elected to the Far North District Council for Bay of Islands-Whangaroa in 2013; she was the youngest person on the council at age 30.

Willow-Jean Prime was re-elected for a second term in 2016 and resigned from the council after she was elected to Parliament in 2017.

Willow-Jean Prime was placed 34th on Labour's party list for the election, which due to a poor result by Labour was not enough for her to enter Parliament.

Willow-Jean Prime ran again for the Northland electorate in its by-election of 2015.

Willow-Jean Prime ran again in Northland at the 2017 general election.

Willow-Jean Prime said she would resign her seat in the Far North District Council should she be elected to Parliament.

Willow-Jean Prime again did not win the Northland electorate, but entered parliament via the party list.

Willow-Jean Prime delivered her maiden statement on 9 November 2017 in which she shared her concerns about child poverty and youth suicide in Northland.

Willow-Jean Prime sat on the Finance and Expenditure Committee from 2017 to 2019 and the Governance and Administration Committee from 2019 to 2020.

Willow-Jean Prime was one of several Members of Parliament who had babies shortly before or during this term and spoke on the third reading of the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Amendment Bill in November 2017 while holding her second child.

Willow-Jean Prime ran again in the 2020 general election, still contesting Northland but this time moved down to 36th on the Labour party list.

Willow-Jean Prime sat on the Justice Committee from 2020 to 2023 and was briefly a member of the Maori Affairs Committee in 2022.

Willow-Jean Prime succeeded Meka Whaitiri as Associate Minister of Statistics in May 2023 after Whaitiri's removal from the Government.

Willow-Jean Prime was placed 9th on the Labour Party list for the 2023 general election.

At the election, Willow-Jean Prime was unseated in Northland by National Party candidate Grant McCallum who won a 6,000 vote majority; however, Willow-Jean Prime was re-elected on the Labour Party list.

On 5 December 2023, Willow-Jean Prime was granted retention of the title The Honourable, in recognition of her term as a member of the Executive Council.

On 7 March 2025, Willow-Jean Prime gained the education portfolio but lost the youth and association education portfolios during a cabinet reshuffle.