Kelvin Davis

Davis failed to unseat the incumbent Hone Harawira of the Māori Party, but was elected to the 49th New Zealand Parliament by way of the party list.

The Fifth Labour Government was defeated in the election and, in his first term, Davis was assigned opposition portfolios as the Labour spokesperson for biosecurity and associate spokesperson for education, Māori affairs and tourism.

He was a member of the Māori affairs committee.

In the first year of the 51st Parliament, Davis was a member of the law and order committee.

Kelvin Glen Davis (born 2 March 1967) is a New Zealand politician.

Born in Kawakawa on 2 March 1967, and raised at Karetu in the Bay of Islands, Davis affiliates to the Ngāpuhi iwi and the Ngāti Manu hapū.

He is the third of four children to Glenys (née Clow) and Panapa Davis.

While Davis' paternal grandparents were native speakers of te reo Māori, his father spoke only English and Davis did not begin learning Māori until secondary school.

He attended Bay of Islands College in Kawakawa from 1980 to 1984 and went on to the Auckland College of Education (1985–1987), where he earned a diploma of teaching.

He met his wife, Moira, at teachers' college; they have three children.

Davis had a 20-year career in education.

He taught at Koru School in Māngere (1988–1990) and Bay of Islands Intermediate School in Kawakawa (1991–1993), before becoming principal of Karetu School near Kawakawa (1994–1998).

He then worked for the Education Advisory Service (1998–1999) and the education improvement and development project Te Putahitanga Matauranga (2000).

He was principal of Kaitaia Intermediate School from 2001 to 2007 and was crediting with "turning around" the previously struggling school.

A former teacher, Davis was first elected as a list MP in 2008.

In the 2008 general election Davis stood for the Labour Party in the Te Tai Tokerau seat after being recruited by Labour MP Shane Jones.

He was not re-elected in 2011, but returned to Parliament as a list MP in May 2014 and went on to win the electorate of Te Tai Tokerau that September.

He held the electorate for two further elections, but was defeated in the 2023 election.

After briefly returning to Parliament as a list MP, Davis announced he would retire from politics on Waitangi Day, 6 February 2024.

During the Sixth Labour Government, Davis served as the Minister of Corrections, Minister for Children, Minister for Māori–Crown Relations, Minister of Tourism, and Associate Minister of Education (Māori Education).

Harawira left the Māori Party in early 2011, formed the Mana Party and resigned from parliament to seek a fresh mandate in a by-election for Te Tai Tokerau.

Davis ran for Labour, but Harawira retook the seat.

Davis stood for the seat in the November 2011 general election, but placed second to Harawira for a third time and also failed to re-enter parliament from the party list.

Davis announced his retirement from politics and took up a job with the Ministry of Education in Kaitaia, working in Māori education.

Davis was re-selected as Labour's candidate in Te Tai Tokerau for the September 2014 general election.

Shane Jones then resigned from Parliament months prior to the election, and Davis assumed his place in the House of Representatives on 23 May 2014, as he was by then the highest-ranking non-MP on Labour's 2011 party list.

He became Labour's associate spokesperson for corrections.

Harawira's Mana Party formed a coalition with the Kim Dotcom-founded Internet Party for the 2014 election.

This resulted in Davis getting endorsements from Winston Peters of New Zealand First party and prime minister John Key of the National Party.

Even the candidate for the Māori Party, Te Hira Paenga, reminded voters of the importance of strategic voting.

Davis won the seat, unseating Harawira and ending the representation of the Mana Party in Parliament.

In 2015, he criticised private prison provider Serco's management of inmates, alleging 'corruption' at the Mount Eden remand facility.

Following an inquiry, Serco lost its contract to run the facility and Minister of Corrections Sam Lotu-Iiga was relieved of his post.

Davis also criticised the Australian government for its incarceration of New Zealand expatriates facing deportation and visited a detention centre on Christmas Island.

Davis also drew attention to the disproportionately high number of Māori in the New Zealand prison system, with Māori comprising 50.9% of the prison population despite making up just 15% of New Zealand's population.

A member's bill in Davis' name was drawn from the ballot and introduced to Parliament in November 2016.

The Housing Corporation (Affordable Housing Development) Amendment Bill proposed an early version of Labour's KiwiBuild policy which would require the Minister of Housing to arrange for 10,000 houses to be built each year.

He is a member of the House of Representatives, and was a senior minister in the Sixth Labour Government and the deputy leader of the New Zealand Labour Party from 2017 to 2023.

Thereafter he sat on the Māori affairs committee and was that committee's deputy chair in 2017.

Davis became Labour's corrections spokesperson.