Clare Curran

In the 49th New Zealand Parliament, she was a member of the Commerce Committee and was the Labour spokesperson for Communications and Information Technology.

While in Opposition, Curran spoke out against the closure of public broadcaster TVNZ 7, the Government's controversial move to include software in the Patents Bill, KiwiRail job losses, TV coverage of the Paralympics, and the lack of a telecommunications watchdog in New Zealand.

Curran also advocated for the return of rail engineering to the former Hillside Engineering site in South Dunedin and highlighted South Dunedin's vulnerability to extreme weather events and rising sea levels.

Curran 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.

On 26 October, Curran assumed the portfolios of Minister of Broadcasting, Communications, and Digital Media and Minister for Government Digital Services.

In addition, Curran was also allocated the associate portfolios for the Accident Compensation Corporation and the State Services Commission.

Clare Elizabeth Curran (born 1960) is a New Zealand former politician who served as a member of the New Zealand Parliament for Dunedin South from 2008 to 2020.

She was the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications, and Digital Media and Associate Minister for the Accident Compensation Corporation in the Sixth Labour Government of New Zealand.

Curran worked in communications for Australian unions over a number of years before returning to New Zealand in 2002 with her young family.

She continued to work in public relations in Dunedin.

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Curran joined the New Zealand Labour Party in 2006.

She quickly rose to prominence within the Otago-Southland hierarchy, becoming a member of the Council of the New Zealand Labour Party.

In 2006 Curran presented a paper to the Otago-Southland region of the Labour Party on "capturing the language" on climate change policy.

In May 2006 Curran was appointed to a contractual role within the Ministry for the Environment following a recommendation from Environment Minister David Parker's office to provide communications advice on the Government's climate change strategy.

This appointment was the subject of an investigation by the State Services Commission into the appropriateness of Curran's engagement.

The report found that the Ministry had failed to adequately identify Curran's conflict of interest with respect to her relationship with Minister Parker.

The report found that a staff member in Parker's office had described Curran as Parker's "right-hand woman" and in an email to Environment Ministry Chief Executive Hugh Logan, and recommended that Curran meet with Logan to discuss communications.

Logan resigned as Chief Executive of the Ministry hours before the State Services Commission's report into the Curran affair was released.

She is currently a member of many unions and political groups.

She is a member of the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union and the Service & Food Workers Union.

She is also a member of Greenpeace.

She was also on the Council of the New Zealand Labour Party as Otago-Southland regional representative.

After leaving Parliament, Curran was appointed as a member of the University of Otago Council and a director of the Crown company Network 4 Learning.

In 2007, Curran launched a bid to unseat sitting MP David Benson-Pope as the Labour Party candidate for Dunedin South.

Curran won the selection contest ahead of Benson-Pope and the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union's Don Pryde.

Curran won the 2008 election against National's Conway Powell.

However, in 2011, National Party candidate, Jo Hayes, reduced Curran's majority from 6449 in 2008 to 4175 in 2011, and National gained a majority of the party vote in Dunedin South by 1837 votes.

In the, Curran was successful against National's Hamish Walker.

At the 2017 NetHui, Curran publicly proposed as part of her 100-day plan the formation of a chief technology officer (CTO) role for New Zealand Government.

In late March 2018, Curran became the subject of media attention after it emerged that she had secretly met with Radio New Zealand broadcaster and senior manager Carol Hirschfeld on 5 December 2017 outside of parliamentary business.

Curran initially claimed the meeting was coincidental but later admitted it had been pre-arranged.

These revelations led to Hirschfeld's resignation from her position as senior manager at Radio NZ.

As of February 2018, no CTO had been selected despite over 60 candidates expressing interest in the role.

Curran commented that "after careful consideration she had decided not to make an appointment at this stage and the search for a suitable candidate would be widened."

Curran retired from politics at the 2020 general election.

Curran grew up and was educated in Dunedin; she attended Moreau College where she achieved School Certificate.

She has a BA double major in Anthropology and History from the University of Otago, and BA Honours in Anthropology from Victoria University of Wellington.

During an interview with the University of Otago's student magazine Critic Te Arohi in early March 2020, Curran acknowledged that she had been charged with possession for marijuana during her youth, for which she paid a NZ$50 fine.

She was previously chair of Life Matters Suicide Prevention Trust (2020–2022) and is currently co-general manager.