Kerrin Leoni is a New Zealand politician who is an

Auckland Council Auckland Council ( mi, Te Kaunihera o Tāmaki Makaurau) is the local government council for the Auckland Region in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority that has the responsibilities, duties and powers of a regional council and so is a ...

lor. In 2022, Leoni was elected as the

Whau ward Whau Ward is an Auckland Council ward which elects one councillor and covers the Whau Local Board. The current councillor is Kerrin Leoni. Demographics Whau ward covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of pe ...

councillor.

Early life

Leoni is of Māori (

Ngāti Pāoa Ngāti Pāoa is a Māori ''iwi'' (tribe) that has extensive links to the Hauraki and Waikato tribes of New Zealand. Its traditional lands stretch from the western side of the Hauraki Plains to Auckland. They also settled on Hauraki Gulf islands s ...

Ngāi Takoto Ngāi Takoto is a Māori iwi from Northland, New Zealand. The iwi is one of the six Muriwhenua iwi of the far north of the North Island. Ngāi Takoto trace their whakapapa (ancestry) back to Tuwhakatere, and trace their arrival in New Zealand to ...

, and

Ngāti Kurī Ngāti Kurī is a Māori iwi from Northland, New Zealand. The iwi is one of the five Muriwhenua iwi of the far north of the North Island. Ngāti Kurī trace their whakapapa (ancestry) back to Pōhurihanga, the captain of the waka (canoe) Kura ...

) and European (Italian and Irish) descent. Leoni has a master's degree, completed in 2007, from

Auckland University of Technology Auckland University of Technology (AUT) ( mi, Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau) is a university in New Zealand, formed on 1 January 2000 when a former technical college (originally established in 1895) was granted university status. AUT ...

. Her thesis was on young Māori children leaving foster care in New Zealand. Leoni spent 10 years of her life living in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, where she ran a contracting business and was a member of the cultural group

Ngāti Rānana Ngāti Rānana is a Māori cultural group based in London, the capital of the United Kingdom. It is open to the Māori community in the city, and hosts events attended by many non-Māori. The club aims to provide "an environment to teach, learn a ...

. She returned to New Zealand in the mid-2010s.

Political career

Leoni was elected to the

Waitematā Local Board The Waitematā Local Board is one of the 21 local boards of the Auckland Council, and is one of the three boards overseen by the council's Waitematā and Gulf Ward councillor. The Waitematā board, named after the Waitematā Harbour which f ...

in 2019 on the

City Vision City Vision is a centre-left coalition of two political parties, the New Zealand Labour Party and the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, and community independents who contest Auckland Council (and previously Auckland City and Auckland Re ...

ticket. She served as deputy chair for the first half of the term. On 23 February 2020, Leoni was selected as Labour's candidate for the electorate for the , officially launching her campaign in August. Despite a strong pro-Labour swing, Leoni lost to the incumbent National MP

Tim van de Molen Timothy John van de Molen (born 1985) is a New Zealand politician and Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives for the National Party. Personal life Born in 1985 to two primary school teachers and one of five children, van de Molen ...

. Her list placement of 66th was not high enough to enter parliament. In the 2022 local body elections, Leoni was elected as a councillor for the

, after narrowly winning the election from the incumbent councillor

Tracy Mulholland Tracy Mulholland is a New Zealand politician who is an Auckland Councillor. Political career In the early 1990s, Mulholland was the marketing manager for LynnMall. In the 2000s, she worked for the Manukau City Council, Waitakere City Counc ...

. Leoni is the first female Māori councillor to be elected to the Auckland Council.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leoni, Kerrin 21st-century New Zealand women politicians Alumni of King's College London Auckland Councillors Living people New Zealand Labour Party politicians New Zealand Māori women New Zealand people of Italian descent New Zealand people of Irish descent Ngāi Takoto people Ngāti Pāoa people Ngāti Kurī people Unsuccessful candidates in the 2020 New Zealand general election Year of birth missing (living people) Auckland University of Technology alumni