Meet Louisa
I am passionate about human rights and equality. We all have rights and responsibilities as citizens and I have a commitment to developing initiatives that benefit our society and protect the rights of our most vulnerable. All citizens have the right to live with dignity and rights. I believe we all have a right to have our voice heard on issues and that includes all legislation progressing through parliament. Therefore, we must actively engage with all members of the community and be accessible so they can engage in ways that suit them.
Read moreThose in positions of responsibility, therefore privilege, should use that platform to help others locally, nationally and globally. I am a strong advocate for girls and women’s rights. My work in this area includes supporting initiatives such as the campaign with Countdown, partnering with the Salvation Army, to supply menstrual products to girls and women to ensure they could go to school, to learn and to participate in activities in their community with dignity. As co-chair of Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians, we led work to address issues of sexism, harassment and bullying in the workplace. We supported legislation to end practices of child brides and female genital mutilation, and advocated for a gender analysis of the budget, pay equity, pay transparency and debated quotas as a mechanism for women's participation on private boards.
I am a passionate member and advocate for our LGBTIQ+ Rainbow community. One of my proudest moments was helping achieve marriage equality in New Zealand with the Marriage Amendment Act in 2013. I will continue to work hard with and for our community to ensure LGBTQI rights are upheld in New Zealand and globally. As a member of the Global Equality Caucus for LGBTIQ+ Rights our collective goal is global homosexual law reform. This universal recognition that we are equal human beings, equal citizens and we have the right to live a life of dignity and respect. Governments should be held to account for discriminating against their LGBTIQ+ citizens. To progress our collective human rights we must be vocal in our opposition to this form of oppression and subjugation for being who we are.
As a former New Zealand netball and rugby representative, I am passionate about sport and recreation and I continue to co-captain the NZ Parliament Parli-Ferns Netball Team. Annually we play our Australian counterparts for the Diggeress Cup. I have worked with NZ Rugby on issues of sexism, racism and homophobia, and with others successfully campaigned for women to be represented on the NZ Rugby Board. I am a foundation board member of Women in Sport Aotearoa, which aims to provide advocacy, leadership and research to ensure women and girls are valued, visible and influential in sport.
I am a member of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee, a member of the Parliamentary Friends of West Papua and NZ Co-Chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.