Over the past 20 years, I have worked hard as a party activist, a union official, a volunteer in the community sector, a local university graduate, a lawyer with distinguished career, a business owner in Wellington and overseas, a political candidate and now a Labour Member of Parliament.

My experiences have shaped my beliefs, which sit in the mainstream of modern, secular, liberal, social democratic thought. My vision for New Zealand is one of prosperity, justice and vibrant diversity.

I chair the Privileges Committee and the Regulations Review Committee of the New Zealand Parliament. I am the Labour Party’s spokesperson on justice and the environment.

I was born in Gisborne on 16 April 1969. I graduated bachelor of laws with honours from Victoria University of Wellington in 1989, and master of jurisprudence with distinction from the University of Auckland in 1994. I clerked for Chief Justice Eichelbaum, was legal officer for what is now the Service Workers’ Union, and worked for four years as crown counsel in the Crown Law Office, prior to partnership in the Minter Ellison Legal Group in Wellington and Sydney. I was admitted to the bar in New South Wales and New Zealand, and have appeared in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and the Supreme Court of New Zealand.

I was a member of the Public Health Commission in 1994, chair of the New Zealand AIDS Foundation in 1995, deputy presiding member of the New Zealand Lotteries Commission between 2000 and 2004, and a director of Meridian Energy between 2002 and 2005. I wrote the Public Safety title in the Laws of New Zealand restatement, was consulting editor for the Gambling and Betting title, co-authored Brooker’s Employment Mediation in New Zealand, and was one of the Editors of Butterworth’s Employment Law in New Zealand, Mazengarb’s Employment Law and the Employment Law Bulletin.

I am a board member of the Pacific Friends of the Global Fund Against AIDS, TB and Malaria, and was recently appointed to the Global Commission on HIV and the Law.

I became a Labour List MP on 1 August 2006.

You can learn more about me on my website, www.charleschauvel.com, as well as finding out what I have been doing recently.Contact details:

Website: www.charleschauvel.com

Parliamentary office
Address: Freepost PO Box 18 888, Parliament Buildings, Wellington 6160
Phone: 04 817 6771
Email: charles.chauvel@parliament.govt.nz

Electorate office
Address: Level 1, 103 Johnsonville Road, Johnsonville
Phone: 04 477 0930 Fax: 04 477 0941
Email: labour.johnsonville@parliament.govt.nz