Lotu Fuli is a New Zealand politician who is an

Auckland Council Auckland Council () is the local government council for the Auckland Region in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority that also has the responsibilities, duties and powers of a regional council and so is a unitary authority, according to t ...

lor. In 2022, Fuli was elected as one of the two councillors for the

Manukau ward Manukau Ward is an Auckland Council ward that elects two councillors and covers the Māngere-Ōtāhuhu Local Board, Māngere-Ōtāhuhu and Ōtara-Papatoetoe Local Board, Ōtara-Papatoetoe Local Boards. The two councillors are currently Alf Filipain ...

Early life

Lotu was born in Samoa and came to New Zealand with her family in the 1970s, originally living in

Mount Eden Mount Eden is a suburb in Auckland, 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 Z ...

. They moved to Ōtara in 1976 and she has lived there since. She graduated from the

University of Auckland The University of Auckland (; Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. Initially loc ...

with a

Master of Letters A Master of Letters degree (MLitt or LittM; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. Ireland Trinity College Dublin and Maynooth University offer MLitt degrees. Trinity has offered them the longest, owing largely to its tradition as Ireland's ...

(M.Litt.) in 2007, with a thesis titled ''Definiteness vs. specificity: an investigation into the terms used to describe articles in Gagana Samoa''. After spending time teaching secondary schools in Auckland, Japan, and South Korea, she returned to university to achieve a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

with Honours.

Political career

Fuli was elected to the Ōtara-Papatoetoe Local Board in 2013 Auckland local board elections. She was chairperson from 2016 to 2022. On 15 June 2020, the

New Zealand Labour Party The New Zealand Labour Party, also known simply as Labour (), is a Centre-left politics, centre-left political party in New Zealand. The party's platform programme describes its founding principle as democratic socialism, while observers descri ...

published its list for the , with Fuli placed 63rd. She was bumped up to 61st following the withdrawal of Raymond Huo and Iain Lees-Galloway. Her list placement was not high enough to elect Fuli. In the 2022 local body elections, Fuli was elected as a councillor for the

, a role formerly held by Efeso Collins, who ran for mayor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuli, Lotu 1970s births 21st-century New Zealand women politicians Auckland Councillors Living people New Zealand Labour Party politicians Samoan emigrants to New Zealand University of Auckland alumni Unsuccessful candidates in the 2020 New Zealand general election Year of birth missing (living people)