Metiria Turei

Metiria Leanne Agnes Stanton Turei (born 1970) is a New Zealand academic and former politician.

She failed her high school examinations and in 1987 she worked her first job as a kitchen-hand at the Hard Rock Café in Palmerston North working the late shift.

Between 1989 and 1991, Turei was the Tumuaki ("Head") of Te Iwi Maori Rawakore o Aotearoa and involved with Te Roopu Rawakore o Aotearoa.

Turei was a founding member of the Random Trollops performance art troupe.

She studied law at the University of Auckland and later worked as a commercial lawyer at Simpson Grierson.

She was a candidate for the McGillicuddy Serious Party in the 1993 election, for the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party in the 1996 election and for McGillicuddy Serious again in the 1999 election.

In 2001 she stood as the Green Party candidate for Mayor of Auckland, finishing a distant fifth with 2.05% of the vote.

She was a Member of Parliament from 2002 to 2017 and the female co-leader of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand from 2009 to 2017.

In the 2002 general election, the Green Party received 7.00% of the vote, which allowed them 9 seats in Parliament.

Turei, standing in, was ranked 8th on the Green Party's party list, and so entered Parliament as a list MP.

When she was elected, Turei left her job as a corporate lawyer for Simpson Grierson to become a Member of Parliament.

She retained her place in Parliament ranked 6th on the Greens' list in the 2005 election when she stood in.

In 2008 she was ranked 4th on the Green Party's list and stood in the Dunedin North electorate.

She lost the election in Dunedin North to Labour's Pete Hodgson, finishing third with 11.09% of the vote.

However she was returned to parliament due to her high ranking on the Green Party list.

In 2009, Turei's Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Bill was drawn from the member's ballot.

The bill received a conscience vote at its first reading, but was defeated 84–34.

Later that year, her Liquor Advertising (Television and Radio) Bill was also drawn, but it too was defeated.

On 30 May 2009 Turei was elected as the fourth co-leader (and second female co-leader) of the Green Party.

In line with Green Party policy, there must be both a male and a female co-leader.

She was elected ahead of veteran MP Sue Bradford, who had had three private member's bills passed by then.

In July 2009 Turei's Marine Animals Protection Law Reform Bill, intended to strengthen protection for dolphins and other marine mammals, was drawn from the member's ballot.

The bill was defeated at its first reading later that month.

In September 2009 Turei led the Green campaign opposing the government's plans to allow mining in New Zealand's national parks.

Her Crown Minerals (Protection of Public Conservation Land Listed in the Fourth Schedule) Amendment Bill, which aimed to strengthen the protection for national parks, was drawn from the member's ballot in April 2010.

In October 2012 her Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009 (Application to Casinos) Amendment bill was drawn from the ballot.

Before its first reading however, National, ACT and United Future said they would not be voting for it.

Turei, along with the rest of the Green Party, voted in support of Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Act 2013, allowing same-sex couples to legally marry in New Zealand.

Turei resigned from the co-leader position on 9 August 2017 amid a political controversy arising from her admission to lying to the Ministry of Social Development to receive higher payments when she was on the Domestic Purposes Benefit and later, to being enrolled to vote in an electorate where she was not eligible when she was 23.

She was the Green Party spokesperson on Inequality, Justice, and Building and Housing.

She resigned as co-leader of the Green Party and a list candidate immediately prior to the 2017 general election and retired from politics.

Metiria Turei grew up in a working-class Māori family in Palmerston North in the North Island.

She is of Ngāti Kahungunu and Āti Hau nui a Pāpārangi descent.

During the 2017 election campaign, Turei publicly stated during an interview on TVNZ's Q+A Show that the New Zealand First leader Winston Peters "was on a roll partly because of a very racist approach to immigration."

Her comments triggered fierce criticism from Peters and NZ First Deputy Leader Tracey Martin, who rejected Turei's claims and warned that there would be consequences for the Greens in any post-election talks with NZ First.

Turei refused to apologise and reiterated that the Greens were still committed to negotiating a coalition deal with NZ First following the election.

On 16 July 2017, during the launch of the Green Party's 2017 election campaign, Turei admitted to benefit fraud over a period of three years in the early 1990s, stating that she had not disclosed to Work and Income New Zealand that she was accepting rent from flatmates.

Turei justified her action on the grounds that she and her young daughter depended on the Domestic Purposes Benefit to survive.

During the campaign, Turei advocated raising the domestic purposes benefit for solo parents and low-income families.

Turei's disclosure attracted polarising responses from other politicians, the New Zealand media, and blogosphere, and criticism from Social Development Minister Anne Tolley, Labour Party leader Andrew Little, and media commentators Barry Soper and Patrick Gower.