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Charles Chauvel (politician)

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Charles Chauvel
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Labour Party List
In office
1 August 2006 – 11 March 2013
Preceded byJim Sutton[a]
Succeeded byCarol Beaumont[a]
Personal details
Born (1969-04-16) 16 April 1969 (age 55)
Gisborne
NationalityNew Zealand
Political partyLabour Party
ProfessionMember of Parliament, Lawyer
Charles Chauvel MP (centre)

Charles Pierre Chauvel (born 16 April 1969) is a New Zealand lawyer and former politician who was a Labour list Member of Parliament (2006–2013) until his resignation to take up a position with the UN Development Programme.[1] He was the first New Zealand MP of Tahitian ancestry.

Early years

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Born and raised in Gisborne, he was awarded dux of Gisborne Boys' High School. While studying at the University of Auckland, Chauvel captained the University's winning University Challenge team in 1987.[2] He was involved in student politics having been appointed as National Affairs Officer for the Auckland University Students' Association in 1987. Chauvel graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (with Honours) from Victoria University of Wellington in 1989, and a Master of Jurisprudence (with Distinction) in 1994 from the University of Auckland.[3]

In addition, the International Training Centre of the ILO in Turin (Italy) awarded Chauvel the Diploma in International Labour Standards in 2001,[4] and he also holds a Certificate in Health Economics (with Merit) from Victoria University of Wellington (awarded 1993) along with a Certificate in Public International Law from the Hague Academy of International Law (1997).

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He was admitted as Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand in 1990, and to the New South Wales (Australia) Bar in 2003.

He wrote the re-issued Public Safety Title and served as consulting editor for a re-issue of the Gaming Law Title in the Laws of New Zealand Legal Encyclopedia. Chauvel has also co-authored two books, the New Zealand Employment Law Guide (LexisNexis, 2002) and Employment Mediation (Thomson Brookers, 2005).[5] Prior to entering Parliament, Chavuel was on the board of Minter Ellison Rudd Watts (2003–2005) and became a partner in the Minter Ellison Legal Group in 2000. The 2005/06 edition of the Asia Pacific Legal 500 listed him as a "Leading Individual" in employment law.[6]

Other involvements

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Chauvel was a board member of the New Zealand Aids Foundation from 1990 to 1994, serving as chair in 1996. He was appointed in 1995 to the Board of the New Zealand Public Health Commission; as Deputy Chair of the New Zealand Lotteries Commission, and as Deputy Chair of Meridian Energy in 2005, having served as a director of that company from 2002.

Political career

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New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate List Party
2006–2008 48th List 44 Labour
2008–2011 49th List 27 Labour
2011–2013 50th List 11 Labour
With former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark

A member of the Labour Party since 1985, Chauvel has held a number of Labour Party positions including Chair of the Princes Street Branch, President of Young Labour (then known as Labour Socialist Youth), membership of the Party's controlling body (the New Zealand Council) and Policy council and co-Chair of Rainbow Labour.

Chauvel stood as Labour's electoral candidate for Maramarua, in 1990 losing to the National Party's Bill Birch. He next stood in 2005 as Labour's candidate for Ohariu-Belmont, then losing to United Future leader Peter Dunne.[7] However, he was able to become a list MP on 1 August 2006 when Jim Sutton retired.[8][9] He sought the Labour candidacy in Wellington Central ahead of the 2008 election but withdrew.[10] Chauvel lost twice more to Dunne in the reconfigured Ōhariu electorate in 2008 and 2011, but was elected on both occasions as a list MP.

In his first term of Parliament—the last of the Fifth Labour Government—Chauvel was a member of the Commerce Committee and the Government Administration committee from August 2006 to February 2007, and thereafter chair of the Finance and Expenditure committee and a member of the Justice committee until October 2008.[11] He was also parliamentary private secretary to the Attorney-General in 2008, although his appointment to the role was delayed from the Government's late-2007 reshuffle because Chauvel announced he would be accepting the position before it had been officially confirmed.[12][13]

In Labour's opposition years, he held party spokesperson roles for energy, climate change and the environment from 2008 until 2011,[14][15] and for justice and the arts from 2011 until 2013.[16] He was shadow attorney-general and chair of the privileges committee from 2011 to 2013.[11] He supported David Cunliffe over David Shearer in the Labour Party leadership election of 2011.[17]

On 19 February 2013, Chauvel announced his resignation from parliament, effective 11 March, to take a job working at the United Nations Development Programme.[18][19] He gave his valedictory statement on 27 February 2013.[20] He was succeeded in parliament by the next candidate on the Labour party list, Carol Beaumont.[21]

Repeal of the Provocation Defence

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Main article: Gay Panic Defence

Provocation, as a defence to murder, was publicised in New Zealand due to the high-profile trials of Clayton Weatherston in 2008 and Ferdinand Ambach in 2009, both of whom attempted to plead provocation in court (the latter successfully). The Law Commission, in its 2007 report on the issue, had argued for repeal of the defence. Chauvel drafted a member's Bill to repeal the provocation defence in 2009,[22] although a separate Government bill was later introduced and passed in November 2009 by 116 votes to five; the ACT Party voicing the only opposition.[23]

International roles

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In February 2009, he and the former leader of the New Zealand Labour Party, Helen Clark, were appointed as New Zealand's inaugural representatives on the Board of the Pacific Friends of the Global Fund, the regional partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's major initiative against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.[24]

In June 2010, Chauvel was appointed as a member of the United Nations Global Commission on HIV and the Law.[25][26]

After leaving Parliament, Chauvel worked for the United Nations Development Programme in New York[18][19] and then as the United Nations Asia and Pacific regional ombudsman.[27]

Notes

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  1. ^ a b Normally, list MPs do not have individual predecessors or successors, but Sutton resigned during a sitting parliament and therefore was succeeded by Chauvel, who later resigned himself and was succeeded by Beaumont.

References

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  1. ^ "Notice of Vacancy in Seat in House of Representatives" (12 March 2013) 28 The New Zealand Gazette 889.
  2. ^ "Close Up: Charles Chauvel; Product Placement". Television New Zealand. 1 August 2006. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
  3. ^ Chauvel, Charles (1994). Frustrated Fairness: Aspects of the Law relating to Compensation for Redundancy in New Zealand (Thesis). University of Auckland. OCLC 153933067.
  4. ^ 'The Achievers' Column', National Business Review, 17 August 2001, p. 38
  5. ^ Minter Ellison Rudd Watts News Archived 19 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine; [1]
  6. ^ "Legal500". Legal500. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
  7. ^ "Talented Kiwis dominate Labour list". Scoop NZ. 21 March 2005. Retrieved 20 December 2009.
  8. ^ "Hon Jim Sutton retires". Scoop NZ. 10 July 2006. Retrieved 20 December 2009.
  9. ^ "New List MP For Labour Party". Scoop NZ. 31 August 2006. Retrieved 20 December 2009.
  10. ^ "Chauvel stands aside in Wellington Central". Stuff. 31 January 2009. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
  11. ^ a b "Chauvel, Charles - New Zealand Parliament". www.parliament.nz. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
  12. ^ "Labour list MP jumps the gun - New Zealand News". NZ Herald. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
  13. ^ "Ambitious Chauvel angers PM in reshuffle". Stuff. 31 January 2009. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
  14. ^ "Five newcomers in Labour's shadow Cabinet". The New Zealand Herald. 20 November 2008. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
  15. ^ "Fresh look for Labour's shadow Cabinet". stuff.co.nz. 10 June 2010. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
  16. ^ "Labour Caucus – 2011". scoop.co.nz. 3 February 2011. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  17. ^ "MP quits ahead of reshuffle". Otago Daily Times Online News. 20 February 2013. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
  18. ^ a b "Labour MP Chauvel resigns for UN". NZ Herald. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
  19. ^ a b Trevett, Claire (19 February 2013). "Labour MP Charles Chauvel resigns". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  20. ^ Charles Chauvel, list MP (23 February 2013). "Valedictory Statements". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 687. New Zealand: House of Representatives. p. 8284.
  21. ^ "Carol Beaumont takes a new seat in Parlliament". Radio New Zealand. 13 March 2013. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  22. ^ "Labour MP seeks to remove provocation as defence". Otago Daily Times Online News. 10 July 2009. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
  23. ^ "Provocation defence repeal 'knee-jerk reaction'". The New Zealand Herald. 27 November 2009. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
  24. ^ "Chauvel to promote Global Fund in Pacific". GayNZ.com. 27 April 2009. Archived from the original on 30 April 2009. Retrieved 20 December 2009.
  25. ^ "Chauvel on global HIV commission". nzcity.co.nz. 25 June 2010. Retrieved 29 June 2010.
  26. ^ "Labour MP Chauvel appointed to new UN commission". 3news.co.nz. 25 June 2010. Archived from the original on 8 September 2012. Retrieved 29 June 2010.
  27. ^ Julie Jacobson, Julie (27 January 2024). "Life after politics: Finding a new buzz beyond the Beehive". The Post. Retrieved 27 January 2024.
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