Main jobs I”ve done:

• Mother of five children; have spent time on the unemployment benefit & the DPB.
• Organiser & activist unemployed workers movement, Auckland Peoples Centres – 1983 -1999
• National coordinator Te Roopu Rawakore o Aotearoa – 1987 – 1990.
• Unitec – part time tutor for 5 years 1995 – 1999 – governance & management in the community sector, community development.
• Green MP 1999 – 2009 – spokesperson on welfare, employment, ACC, mental health, housing, children, community economic development.

Education: BA, Politics & History; MA, Chinese; Diploma of Journalism; Currently PhD candidate in public policy at AUT.

Political experience: Activist since I was 15, involved in many struggles, arrested many times. These days I identify as a feminist & an ecosocialist, supporting the kaupapa of Te Tiriti o Waitangi & the Mana Movement. I was an MP for 10 years so have quite a lot of parliamentary experience as well as a long term background in building and sustaining grassroots community organisations. Main current community involvements: Auckland Action Against Poverty & Kotare Research & Education for Social Change in Aotearoa Trust.

I hope Hone will return to Parliament after the election with a staunch group of new Mana MPs alongside him. Supported by a growing Mana movement, our MPs will do everything they can to stand up for  Maori, and for all low paid workers, beneficiaries & their families. Mana Maori, Mana for all.

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