Christopher Aidan Penk (born 1980) is a New Zealand politician and

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

for the National Party.

Personal life

Penk was born in West Auckland. He attended

Kelston Boys' High School Kelston Boys' High School ("KBHS") (Te kura tuarua o nga tamatane o kerehana) is an all-boys state secondary school in Kelston, a suburb in the Waitakere region of Auckland, New Zealand. It was created in 1963 when the roll of Kelston High Scho ...

and graduated from the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn ...

with a Bachelor of Arts in 1999. He joined the

Royal New Zealand Navy The Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN; mi, Te Taua Moana o Aotearoa, , Sea Warriors of New Zealand) is the maritime arm of the New Zealand Defence Force. The fleet currently consists of nine ships. The Navy had its origins in the Naval Defence Act ...

, serving as an officer on HMNZS ''Te Kaha''. He was an aide-de-camp for Governor-General Silvia Cartwright, before joining the

Australian Defence Force The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is the military organisation responsible for the defence of the Commonwealth of Australia and its national interests. It consists of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Fo ...

for four years. After his military career, Penk became a property lawyer. His father, Stephen, is an Associate Dean at the University of Auckland's Law School and his brother Alex is also a lawyer.

Political career

In August 2014, Penk was selected to contest the Kelston electorate in the

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

after the resignation of Claudette Hauiti. He placed second behind Carmel Sepuloni. Penk was ranked 68th on the National Party's party list and was not elected to parliament.

Member of Parliament

Penk won selection as National's Helensville candidate for the 2017 election, replacing former prime minister

John Key Sir John Phillip Key (born 9 August 1961) is a New Zealand retired politician who served as the 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand from 2008 to 2016 and as Leader of the New Zealand National Party from 2006 to 2016. After resigning from bo ...

. He won Helensville, defeating Labour's candidate Kurt Taogaga by margin of 14,608 votes. During the 2020 New Zealand general election, Penk contested the Kaipara ki Mahurangi electorate, defeating Labour's candidate Marja Lubeck by a margin of 4,435 votes. In June 2021, in response to Winston Peters describing National Party members as "sex maniacs", Penk made a tweet saying Peters "is the real sex maniac because he can fuck ..a whole country at once". Judith Collins said her office asked Penk to take down the tweet. Collins said "It's just simply inappropriate, we don't use that sort of language." On 7 December 2021, the National caucus elected him as its Senior Whip, thus making him the Chief Opposition Whip in the House of Representatives. Penk was one of only eight MPs to vote against the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Act 2022. He voted against it at its first reading in July 2021 (which then-party-leader Judith Collins instructed her MPs to do), for it at its second reading, and against it at its third and final reading in February 2022. Chris Penk During Shovel-Ready Protest

References

External links

* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Penk, Chris 1980 births Living people New Zealand National Party MPs Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives People educated at Kelston Boys' High School University of Auckland alumni 21st-century New Zealand lawyers Royal New Zealand Navy personnel Royal Australian Navy personnel New Zealand MPs for Auckland electorates Unsuccessful candidates in the 2014 New Zealand general election Candidates in the 2017 New Zealand general election Candidates in the 2020 New Zealand general election