Jo Luxton

Jo-Anne Marie Luxton (born 1973) is a New Zealand politician. She has been a Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives for the Labour Party since the 2017 general election.

Before her political career, Luxton was an early childhood educator. From 8 May to 27 November 2023, she was Minister of Customs and Associate Minister of Education, with responsibility for early childhood education, in the Sixth Labour Government.

Early life, career and family

Luxton was born to parents Jim, a builder, and Margaret Thompson in Rotorua. She has two younger sisters. The family moved around the North Island during Luxton's childhood and she was raised mainly in Gisborne, where she attended Campion College and Lytton High School.

In her twenties, Luxton moved to Ashburton with her then-husband, a farm worker, and worked on a dairy farm with him. When their marriage broke up, she began working for Playcentre and had a twenty-year career in early childhood education before her election to Parliament in 2017. She owned and operated the Hinds Early Learning Centre, which was an accredited living wage employer.

Luxton is the great-niece of former Labour Prime Minister Norman Kirk. She is of Māori descent, through her mother's biological father, which she did not learn until about 2004. She has a blended family of five children with her second husband, a builder, and is also the guardian of her younger sister who has Down syndrome.

In October 2022 she admitted causing a three-car crash in Timaru.

Political career

Luxton became involved with the Labour Party in 2013 and became the chairperson of her local party branch. In 2016, she was selected as the Labour candidate for electorate in the . She was ranked 29 on Labour's party list.

Luxton did not win the electorate, which had been held by the National Party since 2005, but entered parliament as a list MP. She was the second speaker in the address in reply debate on 8 November 2017. Her maiden speech highlighted her views that education "needs to be free and accessible to everyone ecauseit could mean the difference between living a decent life and contributing to society in a positive way, and ending up in our overcrowded prisons." She also acknowledged former Labour MP Maryan Street as a political mentor.

In her first term, Luxton sat on the education and workforce committee and was deputy chairperson of each of the committees for primary production (until August 2018), economic development, science and innovation (from August 2018 until July 2019) and regulations review (from July 2019 until September 2020). She was briefly responsible for a member's bill, previously in the name of Sue Moroney, which proposed to reinstate a general legal right for workers to have meal and rest breaks; this ultimately was adopted as government legislation.

At the 2020 New Zealand general election Luxton again ran in Rangitata for the Labour party. In what was regarded as a surprise victory, she defeated National's Megan Hands by a final margin of 4,408 votes. Rangitata had been traditionally regarded as a safe National seat. In her second term, Luxton continued to sit on the education and workforce committee and chaired the primary production committee. Each of those roles ended in February 2023 after her promotion into the executive.

In a cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Chris Hipkins on 31 January 2023, Luxton was appointed a parliamentary under-secretary to the Ministers of Agriculture and Education. In another cabinet reshuffle by Hipkins on 8 May 2023, caused by Meka Whaitiri resigning from the Labour Party, Luxton was appointed Minister of Customs and Associate Minister for Agriculture and Education. As customs minister, she oversaw the third reading of legislation that enabled arrival cards to be completed digitally from July 2023. In her associate minister roles, she had responsibility for animal welfare, residential and trades training for the food and fibre sector, early childhood education (ECE), Pacific education, and the Education Review Office. She announced salary increases for early childhood educators in August 2023, although it was reported that the government knew in September 2023 that it had a $253 million shortfall in ECE funding, which was not publicly known until after that month's election.

During the 2023 general election, Luxton was unseated by new National candidate James Meager by a margin of 10,846 votes. She was however re-elected on the Labour party list. After her electorate loss, Luxton closed her local offices in Timaru and Ashburton and eventually relocated to Gisborne. Labour did not remain in government and, in late November, Luxton was appointed opposition spokesperson for agriculture, biosecurity and rural communities in the Shadow Cabinet of Chris Hipkins. On 5 December 2023, Luxton was granted retention of the title ''The Honourable'', in recognition of her term as a member of the Executive Council. She currently sits on the primary production committee.

Views and politics

Cannabis

In mid-September 2020, Luxton announced that she would not be voting in support of the Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill referendum, citing her own personal experiences of being in relationship with a person who abused cannabis.

Euthanasia

Luxton has stated that she would be voting in favour of the End of Life Choice Act 2019 during the 2020 euthanasia referendum, citing her belief that people should be able to die with dignity and the experiences of her terminally ill mother.

Abortion

Luxton voted in favour of the Abortion Legislation Bill in 2019 and 2020.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Luxton, Jo
1973 births
Living people
New Zealand Labour Party MPs
Government ministers of New Zealand
Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives
21st-century New Zealand women politicians
Women government ministers of New Zealand
Women members of the New Zealand House of Representatives
Candidates in the 2017 New Zealand general election
Candidates in the 2020 New Zealand general election
Candidates in the 2023 New Zealand general election
New Zealand MPs for South Island electorates
New Zealand list MPs