Andrew Mark Judd (born 1965) is a New Zealand local government politician and activist who served as the mayor of New Plymouth from 2013 to 2016.

Early life

Judd was born in

Masterton Masterton () is a large town in the Wellington Region, Greater Wellington Region of New Zealand that operates as the seat of the Masterton District (a territorial authority or local-government district). It is the largest town in the Wairarapa ...

in 1965, the second of six children of Peter and Jennifer Judd. His father ran a menswear shop and his mother had come to New Zealand from

Guernsey Guernsey ( ; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; ) is the second-largest island in the Channel Islands, located west of the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy. It is the largest island in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, which includes five other inhabited isl ...

as a 16-year-old. Judd was educated at Makoura College.

Career

After leaving school Judd had a varied work history as a cloth-cutter in clothing factories, stock and station sales management cadet, home appliance retailer, and sales rep for

The Radio Network New Zealand Media and Entertainment (abbreviated NZME) is a New Zealand newspaper, radio and digital media business. It was launched in 2014 as the merger of APN New Zealand (a division of APN News & Media), the Radio Network (formerly part of ...

, then he became a dispensing optician in

New Plymouth New Plymouth () is the major city of the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after the English city of Plymouth, in Devon, from where the first English settlers to New Plymouth migrated. The New Pl ...

Politics

At the 2007 local-body elections, Judd was elected to the

New Plymouth District Council New Plymouth District Council () is the territorial authority for the New Plymouth District of New Zealand. The council consists of the mayor of New Plymouth, , and 14 ward councillors. Composition Councillors * Mayor, * Councillors at Lar ...

as the second-highest polling candidate. He was re-elected in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, polling in fourth place. Judd won the mayoralty of New Plymouth from one-term incumbent Harry Duynhoven with a 9,206 vote majority in

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

and served one term before announcing he would not stand again in 2016.

Māori wards

In 2014 Judd caused controversy when he and his council supported the establishment of a Māori ward in

in a move intended to increase Māori representation, lift iwi participation in council decision-making and fulfil

Treaty of Waitangi The Treaty of Waitangi (), sometimes referred to as ''Te Tiriti'', is a document of central importance to the history of New Zealand, Constitution of New Zealand, its constitution, and its national mythos. It has played a major role in the tr ...

obligations. Judd also called for all councils in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

to have up to 50% Māori representation. The proposals were widely criticised by politicians and the media, with

New Zealand First New Zealand First (), commonly abbreviated to NZ First or NZF, is a political party in New Zealand, founded and led by Winston Peters, who has served three times as Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand, deputy prime minister. The party has form ...

leader

Winston Peters Winston Raymond Peters (born 11 April 1945) is a New Zealand politician. He has led the political party New Zealand First since he founded it in 1993, and since November 2023 has served as the 25th Minister of Foreign Affairs (New Zealand), ...

calling arguments for the ward "childish nonsense" and right-wing media personality

Mike Hosking Michael Noel James Hosking IV is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster who has worked for Radio New Zealand and TVNZ and from 2008 has been the weekday breakfast host on Newstalk ZB with "The Mike Hosking Breakfast". He is a supporter ...

labelling Judd "completely out of touch with middle New Zealand". In the months following, a publicly initiated referendum on the creation of a Māori ward, which Judd lost in a landslide, the mayor spoke to media about "a man in a

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

uniform" coming to see him, getting removed as a patron of a club, being abused walking down the street in a Santa parade and being spat on whilst out with family at a local supermarket. Judd, a

New Zealand European New Zealanders of European descent are mostly of British and Irish ancestry, with significantly smaller percentages of other European ancestries such as Germans, Poles, French, Dutch, Croats and other South Slavs, Greeks, and Scandinavian ...

, labels himself a "recovering racist". However, Judd gained the admiration and recognition of political figures, including MP Marama Fox who called for his critics to apologise in a general debate speech before parliament. Support for Judd also flowed on social media, with a

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

group named "Andrew Judd Fan Club" reaching 10,500 members. Subsequently, in the region of Taranaki in 2020 the South Taranaki District Council, the New Plymouth District Council voted to establish a ward, in 2021, the Taranaki Regional Council and the Stratford District Council also voted in favour of a Māori ward. Judd spoke out against the National-led Government in 2024 changing a law from the previous Government which will force referendum on many councils in 2025. He said: "It’s taking us backwards"

Spokesperson

Judd spends time fighting racism in New Zealand through speaking appearances, opinion pieces and other means. In 2024 he was one of 17 Pākehā profiled in the book ''Leave your big boots at the door: Pākehā confronting racism against Māori'' by Lorraine McLeod.

I’m
Tangata Tiriti ''Tangata Tiriti'' (or ''tangata tiriti'') is a Māori-language phrase used in English, particularly in New Zealand. It generally means a non-Māori in New Zealand, or 'people of the Treaty', in reference to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Etymology ...
, I have a place to stand in Aotearoa thanks to the welcome offered by
Tangata Whenua In New Zealand, tangata whenua () is a Māori term that translates to "people of the land". It can refer to either a specific group of people with historical claims to a district, or more broadly the Māori people who's common ancestors are bur ...
in 1840, yet I’d lived my entire life as though I’d just arrived from England.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Judd, Andrew 1965 births Living people People from Masterton People educated at Makoura College Mayors of New Plymouth Te Pāti Māori politicians 21st-century New Zealand politicians