Ginny Andersen

Virginia Ruby Andersen (born 1975) is a New Zealand politician.

Andersen was born in 1975.

Her parents were both teachers at low-decile schools around the country and her childhood was spent all over New Zealand including Great Barrier Island, Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa before settling in Christchurch where she attended Phillipstown School and later Avonside Girls' High School.

Her high school principal was Marian Hobbs, who later became a cabinet minister under Helen Clark.

Bill Andersen, a noted activist and trade union leader, was her great-uncle.

While living in the Christchurch suburb of Linwood, Anderson became aware of the negative social impacts of gangs and drugs which were present in the area.

She "grew up with kids whose parents were on methadone" and "had friends who took their life at a really young age because the parents were ... addict[s]”.

After leaving school, she studied political science and Māori at the University of Canterbury, becoming fluent in te reo Māori, before spending three years traveling overseas.

On her return to New Zealand, she continued her studies completing a master's degree in political science in 2004.

Her thesis addressed indigenous self-determination based on the Crown's Treaty settlement with Ngai Tahu.

Following that, she worked at the Office of Treaty Settlements, and in 2004, became private secretary for Margaret Wilson on treaty negotiations.

After that, she became a political adviser for David Cunliffe and then Trevor Mallard.

Andersen wanted a family, which she felt was incompatible with the long work hours in Parliament, so in 2006, took a job with the New Zealand Police.

She was employed as a policy unit manager focussing on gang problems, and organised crime.

She became a strategic adviser on Māori, Pacific and ethnic services with a focus on reducing Māori reoffending.

When John Key became prime minister, she was seconded to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to work on the Methamphetamine Action Plan.

She also worked on the government's Vehicle Confiscation and Seizure Bill which enabled vehicles owned by boy racers to be crushed.

In a 2023 interview, Andersen stated that working under Key's National Party government as a public servant was her inspiration to run for election as a Labour candidate.

At the Andersen was a campaign volunteer for her former Beehive colleague Chris Hipkins, who was the Labour candidate in the electorate.

Hipkins was successful and Andersen was his campaign manager for the 2011 election.

She was selected as a Labour candidate for the, running in the electorate and placed 37 on the Labour Party list.

She was not elected, but her loss to the long-standing incumbent, Peter Dunne of United Future, was by only 710 votes, the third lowest margin in the country.

She was ranked at 37 on the Labour Party list.

After the election, Andersen served as the Labour Party's vice president from 2015 to 2017, when she stood down to focus on her parliamentary candidacy for the 2017 general election.

In October 2016, Andersen was selected as Labour's candidate for the electorate of for the over Hutt City Councillor Campbell Barry and list candidate Sarah Packer.

She replaced long-serving member of parliament Trevor Mallard as the Labour Party candidate who had, in July of that year, said he would serve as a list-only candidate for the election with the intention of becoming Speaker of the House.

While Andersen lost the Hutt South election to National Party candidate Chris Bishop, she entered parliament via the party list, ranked at 28 for Labour.

In her first term, Andersen was a member of the justice committee and the deputy chair of the governance and administration committee.

Andersen was responsible for the Holidays (Bereavement Leave for Miscarriage) Amendment Bill, a private member's bill that proposed allowing people who have suffered a miscarriage with three days paid bereavement leave.

She has been a Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives for the Labour Party since the 2017 New Zealand general election.

Andersen held the offices of Minister of Police and Minister of Justice in the final months of the Sixth Labour Government.

The bill was selected for debate in 2018 and passed unanimously in 2021.

The bill made New Zealand one of the first countries in the world to provide specific paid leave for miscarriage bereavements.

In September 2020, controversy arose over the unusual arrangements for Andersen's office space rented by the Labour Party in Hutt South.

Rent for MPs' offices are paid by Parliamentary Services.

However, a sublease arrangement, which had been in place for decades under Andersen's predecessor Trevor Mallard, meant that Parliamentary Services (using public money) were paying the Labour Party $6,000 per annum to cover the rent, but the Labour Party was only paying the landlord, the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU), $1,500 a year.

The $4,500 overpayment went to the Labour Party which used it for campaigning and other expenses.

Once the arrangement became public, Andersen cancelled it.

At the 2020 New Zealand general election, Andersen was again Labour's candidate for Hutt South, and defeated National's Chris Bishop by 3,777 votes.

In her second term, Andersen was appointed the chair of the justice committee.