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Shanan Halbert

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Shanan Halbert
MP
Halbert in 2023
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Labour Party list
Incumbent
Assumed office
7 February 2024
Preceded byKelvin Davis[n 1]
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Northcote
In office
17 October 2020 – 14 October 2023
Preceded byDan Bidois
Succeeded byDan Bidois
Personal details
Born (1982-04-24) 24 April 1982 (age 42)
Napier, New Zealand
Political partyLabour

Shanan Kiritea Halbert (born 24 April 1982)[1] is a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party. From 2020 to 2023, he was the Member of Parliament for Northcote.[2] He was re-elected in 2024 after the resignation of Kelvin Davis.[3]

Early life and career

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Halbert has affiliation to Rongowhakaata and Ngāti Whitikaupeka through his father,[4] while his mother is pākehā. He grew up in Napier, and moved to Auckland after graduating from high school. He has a BA in education and Māori from the University of Auckland and a certificate in Contemporary Performing Arts from AUT. He started, but did not complete, an MBA.[5] Halbert has worked at Glenfield College, where he set up the Health Sciences Academy, and at Catholic college Hato Petera.[6] He was the Head of Relationships at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.[7]

Political career

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New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate Party
2020–2023 53rd Northcote 51 Labour
2024–present 54th List 28 Labour

Early political career

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Halbert stood as a list-only candidate for Labour in the 2014 general election. His party list ranking of 48 was too low to win a seat.[8] In the 2017 general election, he sought the Labour Party selection for the Auckland Central seat, losing to Helen White. He instead contested the Northcote electorate; he neither won the electorate nor won a list seat on his party list ranking of 51. In 2018, after the resignation of National MP Jonathan Coleman, Halbert again contested the Northcote by-election as Labour's candidate, having been chosen for the candidacy over Paul McGreal and Auckland Councillor Richard Hills.[7][9] He was defeated by National's Dan Bidois.

First term, 2020–2023

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In the 2020 general election, Halbert was again ranked 51st on the Labour party list and contested the Northcote electorate. This time, Halbert won the seat from incumbent National MP Dan Bidois by 2534 votes.[10][6]

Halbert has for years campaigned on improving public transport, as congestion in the Northcote electorate—located at the northern landing of the Auckland Harbour Bridge—is a defining issue for many voters.[11] For the 2020 campaign, he also campaigned in support of local businesses and advocated for improved access to mental health services.[6] His father died of lung cancer on election day.[12]

Halbert faced criticism in both the 2020 and 2023 election campaigns for misleading advertising. In 2020, he published a flyer in which Labour claimed, “We’ve built over 600 houses for our growing Northcote family.” A complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority noted that only 74 homes had been built. Labour apologised for the flyer and pulled it from stalls. In 2023, another flyer from Halbert celebrates “1700 new warm, dry homes as part of the Northcote Development”, but these homes were not scheduled for completion until 2026. This flyer also faced a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority, but the Authority dismissed it. An article by Tova O'Brien criticised the flyer for being unclear which points were prior actions by Labour and which were promises if re-elected. Halbert also stated on Facebook that the National Party plans to decrease sick leave to five days per year, which is not its policy.[13][14]

In 21 September 2023, Halbert was the subject of bullying allegations by several former staff, who claimed he was manipulative, scheming, narcissistic, and intimidated them. Labour whips were first alerted to the allegations by a bullying and harassment coach in August 2022 but no action was taken since staff wished to remain anonymous. In response to the bullying allegations, Halbert said that he had a good relationship with parliamentary and other staff, while acknowledging he had encountered employment issues but had done his best to resolve them professionally. Halbert urged disaffected staff members to engage with Parliament's complaint process.[15] During an election debate in Northcote, Halbert denied the bullying allegations and claimed he had not received any complaints when confronted by Newshub journalists.[16]

Second term, 2024–present

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During the 2023 New Zealand general election, Halbert was unseated by National candidate Bidois, who won by a margin of 9,270 votes.[17]

In early February 2024, the simultaneous resignations of both Labour MPs Kelvin Davis and Rino Tirikatene allowed Halbert and Tracey McLellan to reenter Parliament on the Labour Party list.[18] During a shadow cabinet reshuffle triggered by the resignation of Grant Robertson, Halbert assumed the Auckland Issues and newly-created Rainbow Issues portfolios.[18][19]

In response to Destiny Church's protest against a Drag Queen Story Hour event in Gisborne in late March 2024, Halbert described the church's behaviour as "very disappointing." While Halbert supported the right to protest, he condemned what he regarded as "vicious discrimination against young people and their families." He also criticised the National-led coalition government's plan to remove sexuality guidelines from schools. Halbert's claim that the National-led government wanted to remove hate speech laws was disputed by Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith, who said that the Government had no plans to remove hate speech protections in law but opposed Labour's proposed hate speech legislation on the grounds that they would have undermined free speech.[20]

Personal life

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Halbert was one of 13 MPs in the 53rd New Zealand Parliament who identified as LGBTQI+.[21]

Notes

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  1. ^ Normally, list MPs do not have individual predecessors or successors, but Davis resigned during a sitting parliament and therefore was succeeded by Halbert.

References

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  1. ^ "Halbert, Shanan; Rurawhe, Adrian". New Zealand Parliament. 18 May 2022.
  2. ^ "Election 2020: The 40 diverse new MPs entering Parliament". Newstalk ZB. 18 October 2020. Archived from the original on 22 October 2020. Retrieved 16 November 2020 – via The New Zealand Herald.
  3. ^ "Declaration by Electoral Commission That Shanan Halbert is Elected a Member of Parliament". New Zealand Gazette. 7 February 2024. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
  4. ^ "Election 2020: PM Jacinda Ardern launches campaign to keep Māori seats". 2 August 2020.
  5. ^ "Simon Wilson's Northcote Notebook: Labour candidate 'lives and breathes' suburb". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
  6. ^ a b c "Election 2020: Labour's Shanan Halbert takes Northcote seat from National". Stuff. 17 October 2020. Archived from the original on 22 October 2020. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
  7. ^ a b "Shanan Halbert Labour's pick for Northcote byelection". The New Zealand Herald. 15 April 2018. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  8. ^ "Labour List for the 2014 Election Announced" (Press release). New Zealand Labour Party. Scoop. 23 June 2014. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  9. ^ "Labour announces potential Northcote byelection candidates". The New Zealand Herald. 10 April 2018. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
  10. ^ "Northcote – Official Result". Electoral Commission. 6 November 2020. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  11. ^ Harman, Richard (7 May 2018). "Over the bridge – and stuck in the traffic". Politik. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  12. ^ Hutt, Kendall (18 October 2020). "Election 2020: New Northcote MP Shanan Halbert loses dad on election day". Stuff. Archived from the original on 22 October 2020.
  13. ^ O'Brien, Tova (12 September 2023). "Advertising complaint laid against Labour MP over housing claims". Stuff. Retrieved 11 September 2023.
  14. ^ O'Brien, Tova (12 September 2023). "Advertising watchdog dismisses complaint against Labour Northcote MP". Stuff. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  15. ^ Coughlan, Thomas (21 September 2023). "MP Shanan Halbert rocked by bullying allegations". The New Zealand Herald. Archived from the original on 24 September 2023. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  16. ^ Burr, Lloyd (26 September 2023). "Shanan Halbert breaks silence, denies being a bully after allegations". Newshub. Archived from the original on 26 September 2023. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  17. ^ "Northcote – Official Result". Electoral Commission. 3 November 2023. Archived from the original on 23 November 2023. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  18. ^ a b "Labour reshuffle: Edmonds moves up as Finance spokesperson". Radio New Zealand. 20 February 2024. Archived from the original on 20 February 2024. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  19. ^ "Grant Robertson retires from politics, appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Otago". The New Zealand Herald. 20 February 2024. Archived from the original on 19 February 2024. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  20. ^ "Government needs to 'step up' and support rainbow community amid protest - Labour MP". Radio New Zealand. 27 March 2024. Archived from the original on 30 March 2024. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
  21. ^ "New Zealand's rainbow Parliament still has 'a long way' to go in terms of full representation". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
New Zealand Parliament
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Northcote
2020–2023 		Succeeded by
Dan Bidois
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