Carmel Sepuloni

Carmel Jean Sepuloni (born 1977) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 20th deputy prime minister of New Zealand. A member of the Labour Party, she was first elected to Parliament in 2008 for a three-year term as a list Member of Parliament (MP) and was re-elected as MP for Kelston in 2014. In 2023, she was elected as the deputy leader of the Labour Party, succeeding Kelvin Davis.

Sepuloni is New Zealand's first MP of Tongan descent. She was a senior minister in the Sixth Labour Government under Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, holding office as Minister for Social Development throughout the government's term and additionally serving as Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, Minister for ACC, Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety, Minister for Disability Issues and Minister for Pacific Peoples. She became deputy prime minister in January 2023 when the Labour leadership switched to Chris Hipkins.

Early years
Sepuloni was born and raised in Waitara, Taranaki, and attended New Plymouth Girls' High School. Her father was a Samoan-Tongan migrant freezing worker, who migrated to New Zealand without being able to speak English, and "staunch unionist" and her mother was a Pākehā from a conservative farming family.

She moved to Auckland in 1996 to attend the Auckland College of Education and University of Auckland where she attained a Diploma of Teaching (Primary) and a Bachelor of Education, respectively. She also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Education. Sepuloni worked as a teacher in Samoa and in alternative education programmes in Auckland. Later, she worked as an equity manager and a research project manager in Pacific health at the University of Auckland.

She has two sons. She married writer and musician Daren Kamali in November 2018.

First term, 2008–2011
Sepuloni came to Parliament in the 2008 general election having successfully stood as a list-only candidate for the New Zealand Labour Party. She had been involved in the party for only a year and a half before being elected. Sepuloni's position at 35th on the party list, and the promotion of other new candidates, was cited by The New Zealand Herald as an effort by the Labour Party to "inject new faces" and increase the party's ethnic diversity.

After the election, Sepuloni became Labour's spokesperson for civil defence and associate spokesperson for tertiary education and social development. In her maiden speech, Sepuloni said, "I've learned through my own experiences and the experiences of others around me, that our young in particular can quickly begin to self-stigmatise when the media and society stigmatise them. When the media only portrays a picture of a ghettoised, poverty-stricken group of trouble makers, then our youth can resign themselves to the fact that this is what they are. They may even take pride in this prescribed image, because it provides them with a level of attention and status which although negative, is attention and status nonetheless."

In June 2010, Sepuloni's Employment Relations (Probationary Period Repeal) Amendment Bill was drawn from the member's ballot. A bill to repeal the changes to probationary employment contained in the Employment Relations Amendment Act 2008, it was defeated at its first reading 64 votes to 57.

2011 election loss
On 19 March 2010, Sepuloni was selected as the Labour candidate for the Waitakere electorate in the 2011 general election, facing incumbent National MP and Cabinet minister Paula Bennett. In April 2011, she was ranked number 24 on the party's list for the election. On the election night preliminary count, she placed second in Waitakere, 349 votes behind Bennett, and with her list ranking was set not to be returned to Parliament. When the official results were released on 10 December 2011, Sepuloni had received sufficient special votes to win Waitakere and defeat Bennett by eleven votes. Bennett requested a judicial recount and on 17 December regained her seat with a nine-vote majority, removing Sepuloni from Parliament. This was not before the Labour Party leadership election on 13 December, in which she participated as a member-elect of the Labour caucus and supported David Cunliffe.

Not long after leaving Parliament Sepuloni travelled to Egypt to participate as a short-term observer on the NDI International Election Mission. Prior to being reelected, Sepuloni was employed as the chief executive of Vaka Tautua, an Auckland-based Pacific disability, mental health, and social services provider.

Second term, 2014–2017
During the 2014 general election, Sepuloni stood as Labour's candidate in the Kelston electorate in Auckland, winning by a majority of 15,091 votes. She served as Labour's social development spokesperson under new Labour leader Andrew Little, although she was temporarily stood down from that role in 2015 after her mother was charged with benefit fraud; her mother was subsequently sentenced to four and a half months of home detention for illegally receiving benefits totalling $34,000.

Government minister, 2017–2023
During the 2017 general election, Sepuloni stood again in her Kelston seat, returning to Parliament with a majority of 16,789 votes. Following Labour's formation of a coalition government with New Zealand First and the Greens, Sepuloni was elected as a Cabinet minister by the Labour Party caucus. She was subsequently appointed as minister of social development and disability issues as well as associate minister for Pacific Peoples, and arts, culture & heritage.

On 28 April 2018, Sepuloni issued a statement criticising Work and Income for turning away a homeless woman who was trying to apply for a benefit after being discharged from hospital. As social development minister, Sepuloni likened her Government's approach to welfare reform to "trying to turn a jumbo jet in mid-air."

On 22 July 2020, Sepuloni was appointed as minister for ACC following the resignation of Iain Lees-Galloway, who admitted to having an "inappropriate relationship" with a former staffer. During the 2020 general election held on 17 October, Sepuloni was re-elected in Kelston by a final margin of 15,660 votes, retaining the seat for Labour. In early November, she retained her previous ministerial portfolios for social development, disability issues, and ACC, while also becoming the minister for employment and arts, culture and heritage. She vacated the disability issues portfolio in June 2022.

On 22 January 2023, incoming prime minister Chris Hipkins confirmed Sepuloni as his deputy prime minister. She is the first Pasifika deputy prime minister and third woman to hold the role. On her promotion to deputy prime minister, Sepuloni dropped the ACC portfolio and became the associate foreign affairs minister responsible for the Pacific region. She additionally became Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety and Minister for Auckland on 21 June 2023, following the resignation of Michael Wood from cabinet.

Fifth term, 2023–present
Sepuloni retained her Kelston electorate at the 2023 New Zealand general election by a margin of 4,396 votes despite Labour losing the election to the National Party.

On 7 November 2023, Sepuloni was elected as deputy leader of the Labour Party during a leadership vote. In early November 2023, along with the National Party's foreign affairs spokesperson Gerry Brownlee, she represented New Zealand at the 2023 Pacific Islands Forum. She also attended a leaders' retreat in Aitutaki.

In late November 2023, she became Deputy Leader of the Opposition and spokesperson for social development, Pacific Peoples, Auckland issues, and child poverty reduction in the Shadow Cabinet of Chris Hipkins.

On 5 December 2023, Sepuloni was granted retention of the title The Honourable, in recognition of her term as a member of the Executive Council.