Chris Bishop

Christopher Bishop (born 4 September 1983) is a New Zealand National Party politician who was first elected to the New Zealand House of Representatives in 2014 as a list MP.

In 2000 he was a member of the New Zealand Youth Parliament, selected to represent List MP Muriel Newman.

He graduated Victoria University of Wellington with first-class honours in Law and a Bachelor of Arts in History and Politics.

He claims to have won 10 intervarsity debating tournaments, including at the Cambridge Union and Sydney Union, and a range of awards for legal argument and oratory.

He met his partner, Jenna Raeburn, through the Victoria University Debating Society.

Bishop worked as a summer clerk at Russell McVeagh and Crown Law while at university.

While at university he had a part-time position at the Ministry of Education to draft letters for the then Minister of Education, Trevor Mallard.

After the 2008 general election, he worked as a ministerial advisor for Gerry Brownlee for 2 years 7 months.

Then he worked as a Corporate Affairs Manager for the tobacco company Philip Morris, claiming to be a member of the NZ Management Team despite only being less than 3 years out of University.

Then worked as a staffer to Steven Joyce.

Bishop is a former tobacco lobbyist for Phillip Morris.

Bishop's work for Philip Morris attracted headlines and comments when he stood for parliament for the National Party, given he worked against the party's plans to increase tobacco excise and introduce plain packaging.

On the day of his selection as a candidate he announced that he supported both policies.

He contested the Hutt South electorate at the 2014 election, where he placed second behind incumbent Labour MP Trevor Mallard but entered Parliament as a list MP for the 2014–2017 term.

Redistribution of electorate boundaries prior to the election saw Hutt South lose the Labour-leaning suburb of Naenae for the National-leaning western hill suburbs, helping Bishop cut Mallard's majority from 4,825 to 709.

Bishop served on the Finance and Expenditure, Justice and Electoral, and Regulations Review select committees.

Bishop was also part of a cross-party group initiated by Jan Logie to look at and advocate for LGBTI rights.

A member's bill in Bishop's name, the Compensation for Live Organ Donors’ Act 2016, passed the house unanimously.

The bill aims to remove a financial deterrent to the donation of organs by live donors.

Bishop won the Hutt South electorate in 2017 but lost the seat in 2020.

He returned to Parliament as a National list MP and served as National spokesperson for Housing and Infrastructure and was the Shadow Leader of the House.

He is the Chairperson of National's 2023 Election Campaign.

He is the current MP for Hutt South.

He is a former lobbyist for tobacco company Phillip Morris.

Bishop grew up in Lower Hutt and attended Eastern Hutt School, Hutt Intermediate School and Hutt International Boys' School in Upper Hutt.

His father is political journalist, and founder of the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union, John Bishop, and his mother, Rosemary Dixon, is an environmental lawyer.

Bishop won the Hutt South electorate at the 2017 New Zealand general election.

Long-serving Member of Parliament for Hutt South Trevor Mallard did not contest the election, instead choosing to only appear on the Labour list to become Speaker of the House.

Ginny Andersen stood as the Labour candidate.

Bishop defeated her by a margin of 1,530 votes.

In doing so, Bishop became the first-ever National MP for the seat.

This result was credited to a 4-year campaign in the area that donned him the title "Mr Everywhere Man".

The formation of the Sixth Labour Government saw Bishop serve in Opposition.

Following Bill English's resignation in February 2018, Bishop publicly endorsed Amy Adams for Leader of the National Party.

Adams represented the more liberal wing of the National Party.

Adams lost the leadership vote to Simon Bridges.

In February 2018 it was disclosed that Bishop was using the social media platform Snapchat to communicate with his constituents including teenage girls.

Parents of the affected stated that his intentions appeared misguided and not malicious.

Bishop has since stated that he was running the Snapchat account to help young people become interested in politics and has changed his account so to only allow for communication with his close friends.

Bridges promoted Bishop into his shadow cabinet in June 2019, allocating him the portfolios of Transport and Regional Development.