Chlöe Swarbrick

MP, Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand

Chlöe grew up in an Auckland family who raised her on a diet of robust and challenging discussion, and in a community that showed her that inequality and injustice were a daily reality for too many New Zealanders.

She has been a law student, journalist, business owner and a community project leader. When interviewing politicians of all stripes on daily issues she found that too often they had become out of sync with the orbit of everyday people’s lives. She couldn’t see herself, her friends, or her whānau in politics.

So, in 2016 Chlöe did what any reasonable, disillusioned 22 year old would do. She ran to be the Mayor of Auckland.

In this campaign, Chlöe cut her political teeth debating previous leader of the Labour Party, and the city’s new Mayor, Phil Goff. Almost 30,000 Aucklanders gave her their vote after Chlöe and her team campaigned for just 4 months on a shoestring budget. They voted for her because she was talking to them, about their city and what mattered to them.

Her next step was clear. Chlöe stood as a candidate for the party whose values matched hers and was elected as a Green Party MP into Parliament in 2017 after a particularly gruelling campaign.

She is the youngest MP in Aotearoa for over 40 years. She entered parliament to show people that politicians can look a little different, sound a little different, do things a little different, and to drive home the message that politicians work for people.

Chlöe is the Green Party spokesperson on issues that she can really get her teeth into: Education (including Tertiary), Internal Affairs, Sensible Drug Law Reform, Local Government, Arts Culture & Heritage, Small Business, Broadcasting and Youth.

She is focused on opening up parliament and politics to all New Zealanders, so they can see that our institutions are just made up of people making decisions. Chlöe wants to shine light on the privilege and discrimination that has kept too many people away from politics until now.