Neru Leavasa

Anae Neru Asi Tuiataga Leavasa is a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party. He served as the Member of Parliament for from  2020 to 2023.

Early life and family
Leavasa's parents immigrated from Samoa in the 1980s. His mother is from Le'auva'a and Solosolo and his father is from Vaiala and Vaimoso. He was born in Auckland and has four brothers and an older sister. His mother's uncle was Minister of Education in Samoa and his paternal grandfather was Minister of Agriculture in Samoa. Tuimalealiʻifano Vaʻaletoʻa Sualauvi II, the O le Ao o le Malo (head of state of Samoa), is also an uncle.

Leavasa received secondary education at Marcellin College and Auckland Grammar School. As a teenager, Leavasa survived metastatic bone cancer. He has only one lung and has a metal joint in one knee, and walks with a slight limp.

He earned his medical degree from the University of Auckland Medical School and was awarded fellowship of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners in 2014. Prior to entering Parliament, Leavasa worked for 12 years as a general practitioner and sports doctor in Māngere.

He is married and has one child.

Political career
Leavasa was elected to the Māngere-Ōtāhuhu Local Board in the 2019 elections.

At the Leavasa stood for parliament for the Labour Party and was ranked 52nd on the party list. He also ran for the Takanini electorate which he won by a margin of 7,724 votes, defeating National Party candidate Rima Nakhle. This was the first election after Takanini had been created and many, including University of Auckland political scientist Lara Greaves, had anticipated prior to the election that the seat would be won by National. During his time in Parliament, Leavasa was deputy chair of the health committee and also sat as a member of the Pae Ora legislation committee.

Leavasa and Nakhle contested Takanini a second time at the 2023 New Zealand general election; Leavasa lost by a margin of 8,775 votes. His position of 38 on the Labour Party list was not high enough to see him return as a list MP.

Views and positions
Leavasa depicts himself as a social conservative with a Christian faith background. He opposed the 2020 decriminalisation of abortion, saying: "I come from a faith background, and so I won't move on my moral convictions. In regards to the abortion legislation, I would have, from a faith background and a conservative view, have voted against it."

Leavasa wants the government to build more housing to accommodate Takanini's growing population and to also reduce the health risks from overcrowding.