Camilla Belich

Camilla Belich
MP
Belich in 2023
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Labour party list
Incumbent
Assumed office
6 December 2023
Preceded byAndrew Little
In office
17 October 2020 – 14 October 2023
Personal details
Born1982 or 1983 (age 40–41)[1]
Political partyLabour
SpouseAndrew Kirton
RelationsJim Belich (grandfather)
James Belich (uncle)
ChildrenThree
ProfessionLawyer

Camilla Vera Feslier Belich[2] is a New Zealand lawyer, trade unionist and politician. She has been a Member of Parliament, representing the New Zealand Labour Party, since 2020.

Early life and family

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Belich was raised in Wellington, where her grandfather Sir Jim Belich was mayor from 1986 to 1992. Her parents were trade unionists.[3][4] As a teenager, Belich attended Wellington East Girls' College and was a member of the Wellington City Youth Council.[5] While in the seventh form, she was selected to represent Rongotai MP Annette King as a member of the third New Zealand Youth Parliament in 2000.[5][6] She would go on to be one of six former youth MPs to be members of Parliament in 2021.[7]

Belich studied te reo Māori and law at Victoria University of Wellington. She became involved in student politics and was co-president of the New Zealand University Students Association with Andrew Kirton, her future husband, in 2005.[8][9][10] Kirton and Belich have three children, the third of whom was born after Belich was elected to Parliament.[9]

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Belich has worked as an employment lawyer, beginning her career at Oakley Moran, a Wellington law firm, before moving to London in 2009 where she worked for a law firm and later for Unison, the largest trade union in the United Kingdom between 2012 and 2016.[11] There, she won acclaim for her role in winning a high-profile case in the Court of Justice of the European Union about safe working hours.[10]

Returning to New Zealand, she joined the Wellington employment law firm Bartlett Law as a senior associate in 2017.[12] She specialised in employment discrimination cases. She also worked for unions in New Zealand as a barrister and solicitor, firstly on equal pay issues at the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions until 2019, and subsequently for the Public Service Association in Auckland.[11]

Member of Parliament

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New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate List Party
2020–2023 53rd List 30 Labour
2023–present 54th List 26 Labour

Belich was considered as a possible Labour candidate in Rongotai for the 2017 general election.[13] She was selected as a Labour candidate in the 2020 general election. She ran for the electorate of Epsom, finishing second, but became an MP based on her ranking of 30th on the Labour party list.[14][15][16] In her first term, she was the deputy chair of the education and workforce select committee until 2023 when she became the chair of the committee as well as a junior government whip.[4]

In 2023, Belich inherited Duncan Webb's private members bill, the Companies (Directors Duties) Amendment Bill, which amended the Companies Act 1993 to remove doubt that company directors may consider matters other than maximising profit, such as environmental, social, and corporate governance and Treaty of Waitangi considerations, when discharging their duties.[17] The bill was described as "controversial" because it failed to receive select committee support, was perceived to increase the risk of litigation for companies and directors, and because it imposed no new obligations.[18][19] Nonetheless, it passed its third reading on 1 August 2023 with Belich saying in the debate that the bill started from a misunderstanding that business must be profitable at all costs and that the bill, in its final draft, provided clarity to avoid future misunderstandings about company law.[20]

Ahead of the 2023 general election, Belich sought to succeed retiring former prime minister Jacinda Ardern in the safe Labour electorate of Mount Albert. Despite having Ardern's personal support,[4][21] Belich missed out with fellow list MP Helen White winning the selection.[22] She was later re-selected as Labour's candidate in Epsom.[23]

Belich was briefly unseated after the election. She placed third in Epsom, and her list placement of 26 meant she was the first list candidate not to be elected after the official results were announced. However, senior Labour MP Andrew Little opted not to take up his list seat and formally resigned from the House on 5 December. This resulted in Belich's election as a list MP to replace Little the following day.[24][25][26]

She assumed the junior whip, workplace relations and safety, and emergency management portfolios in the Shadow Cabinet of Chris Hipkins.[27]

References

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  1. ^ "Compare the candidates for Epsom — NZ Election 2020". Your complete guide to NZ Election 2020 — Policy.
  2. ^ "Event – New Zealand Parliament". www.parliament.nz.
  3. ^ Belich, Camilla (3 December 2020). "Maiden statement". New Zealand Parliament. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  4. ^ a b c Young, Audrey (9 March 2023). "Inside the Labour battle over Jacinda Ardern's Mt Albert seat". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  5. ^ a b Ryan, Jenny (5 August 2000). "Stand-in MP expects `kinda cool' session". The Dominion. p. 2.
  6. ^ Harré, Laila (6 July 2000). "Youth Parliament to debate decriminalisation". beehive.govt.nz. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  7. ^ "From Youth MPs to actual MPs". RNZ. 5 October 2021. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  8. ^ "About Us". New Zealand Union of Students' Associations. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  9. ^ a b "Beehive Diaries: A lockdown baby for new MP, Ashley Bloomfield's dance moves". The New Zealand Herald. 5 March 2021. New Labour MP Camilla Belich has had a baby boy
  10. ^ a b Amelia, Wade (24 May 2020). "Labour Party's latest candidate to contest key Epsom seat". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  11. ^ a b "The 40 diverse new MPs entering Parliament". Newstalk ZB. 18 October 2020. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  12. ^ "Camilla Belich joins Bartlett Law". New Zealand Law Society. 7 March 2017. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  13. ^ Moir, Jo (10 May 2022). "Eagle's Rongotai exit paves way for ex-councillor". Newsroom. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  14. ^ Coughlan, Thomas (15 June 2020). "Ayesha Verrall leads fresh-faced Labour party list for 2020". Stuff. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  15. ^ "Epsom – Official Result". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  16. ^ "2020 General Election and Referendums – Official Result Successful Candidates". Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 7 November 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  17. ^ "Companies (Directors Duties) Amendment Bill — Second Reading - New Zealand Parliament". www.parliament.nz. 30 January 2024. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  18. ^ "Simpson Grierson - Controversial change to directors' duties passes". www.simpsongrierson.com. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  19. ^ "The Companies (Directors' Duties) Amendment Bill has received Royal assent and has become law". www.al.nz. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  20. ^ "Companies (Directors' Duties) Amendment Bill — Third Reading - New Zealand Parliament". www.parliament.nz. 30 January 2024. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  21. ^ "Labour chooses candidate to replace Grant Robertson". Otago Daily Times Online News. 19 March 2023. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  22. ^ Johnson, Erin (11 March 2023). "Labour selects Helen White to replace Jacinda Ardern in Mt Albert seat". Stuff. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  23. ^ "Promising Labour MP chosen as candidate in Auckland's Epsom electorate". NZ Herald. 22 May 2023.
  24. ^ "Epsom – Official Result". Electoral Commission. 3 November 2023. Archived from the original on 5 December 2023. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  25. ^ "Andrew Little To Retire From Politics". Scoop. 17 October 2023. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
  26. ^ "Declaration by Electoral Commission that Camilla Vera Feslier Belich is elected a Member of Parliament". New Zealand Gazette. 6 December 2023. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
  27. ^ "Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins reveals new shadow Cabinet". Radio New Zealand. 30 November 2023. Archived from the original on 11 December 2023. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
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