Chris Hipkins
Christopher John Hipkins (born 5 September 1978) is a New Zealand Labour Party politician and a member of the Sixth Labour Government's Cabinet as Minister of Education, Minister for COVID-19 Response, Minister for the Public Service and Leader of the House. He has served as the Member of Parliament for Remutaka (formerly named Rimutaka) since the 2008 election. Early life. Hipkins was born in the Hutt Valley in 1978. His mother is Rosemary Hipkins, chief researcher for NZ Council for Educational Research. He attended Waterloo Primary School and Hutt Intermediate. He was head boy at Hutt Valley  Memorial College (later known as Petone College) in 1996. He joined the Labour Party in the same year. Hipkins went on to complete a bachelor of arts degree majoring in politics and criminology at Victoria University of Wellington, where he was student president in 2000 and 2001. In September 1997, as a first-year student, Hipkins was one of dozens arrested while protesting the Tertiary Review Green Bill at Parliament. The matter went through the courts, and 10 years later an apology and award of over $200,000 was shared between the 41 protesters. The judge ruled that despite claims  by police that the protestors were violent, the protest was peaceful and there were no grounds for arrest. Before politics. After graduating, Hipkins held a number of jobs, including working as a policy advisor for the Industry Training Federation, and as a training manager for Todd Energy in Taranaki. Hipkins also worked in Parliament as an advisor to Trevor Mallard and Helen Clark. Member of Parliament. Fifth National Government, 2008–2017. Hipkins was selected to stand in the Labour-held seat of Rimutaka (renamed Remutaka in 2020) in the 2008 general election, following the retirement of sitting MP Paul Swain. Hipkins  won the seat with a majority of 753. Following the election, he was appointed the Labour spokesperson for Internal Affairs. In May 2010, his Electricity (Renewable Preference) Amendment Bill was drawn from the member's ballot. It was defeated at its first reading in June. The 2011 general election saw Hipkins increase his winning margin in Rimutaka to 3,286. He became the Labour Party's Chief Whip. He also held the State Services and Associate Education spokesperson roles. In the 2014 general election he increased his majority again to 6,664. In late 2015, Hipkins received veiled threats, including a death  threat, for voicing his concerns about a billboard advertising guns. In April 2016, his Education (Charter Schools Abolition) Amendment Bill was drawn from the members' ballot. It was defeated at its first reading in November. Sixth Labour Government, 2017–present. First term, 2017–2020. Hipkins was elected as a Cabinet minister by the Labour Party caucus following the formation of a Labour – New Zealand First coalition government supported by the Greens. It was later announced that he would serve as Minister for Education. As Education Minister, Hipkins has supported the abolition of National Standards and charter schools in New Zealand, which  were supported by the previous National Government. He has also signaled a review of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) high school certificate system. However, Hipkins has clarified that the Ministry of Education would continue to fund the University of Otago's National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement and the Progress and Consistency Tool (PaCT). The Government's announcement that it would close charter schools drew criticism from the opposition National and ACT parties. In early 2018, Hipkins introduced legislation preventing the creation of new charter schools, while enabling existing charter schools to be converted into special character schools . By September 2018, all twelve charter schools had successfully transitioned to become state-integrated and special character schools. In December 2018, Hipkins rejected a recommendation by Victoria University of Wellington's Council to rename the university "University of Wellington", citing the strong opposition to the name change from staff, students, and alumni. In justifying his decision, Hipkins stated "that he was not convinced the university had sufficiently engaged with stakeholders, who should have their views considered." In February 2019, Hipkins proposed merging the country's sixteen polytechnics into a New Zealand Institute of Skills & Technology to counter deficits and declining  domestic enrollments. This proposed Institute of Skills and Technology will also take over the country's vocational and apprenticeship programmes. While the Tertiary Education Union, Employers and Manufacturers Union, and the Canterbury Employers' Chamber of Commerce have expressed support for the Government's proposal, this has been criticised by the opposition National Party, Southern Institute of Technology CEO Penny Simmonds, and Mayor of Invercargill Tim Shadbolt. In response to the Christchurch mosque shootings, Hipkins extended the polytechnic submission timeframe to 5 April 2019. In early May 2019, Hipkins announced that the Government would be investing NZ$95 million to train 2,400  new teacher trainees through increased scholarships and placements, new employment-based teacher education programmes, and iwi-based scholarships over the next four years to address the teaching shortage. These measures were criticised as inadequate by the Post Primary Teachers' Association and National Party education spokesperson Nikki Kaye. On 1 August 2019, Hipkins reaffirmed the Government's plan merge all polytechnics into a single entity in April 2020. In addition, he announced that the Government would replace all 11 industrial training organisations (ITOs) with between four and seven workforce development councils that would be set up by 2022 to influence vocational  education and training. While polytechnics have been cautiously optimistic about the changes despite concerns about losing their autonomy, ITOs and National's tertiary education spokesperson Shane Reti have opposed these changes, claiming they would damage the vocational training system and cause job losses. Following the resignation of David Clark as Minister of Health on 2 July 2020, Prime Minister Ardern appointed Hipkins as interim Health Minister until the 2020 New Zealand general election scheduled for October 2020. Second term, 2020–present. Hipkins was re-elected to the seat of Remutaka during the 2020 New Zealand general election. He defeated National  candidate Mark Crofskey by a final margin of 20,497 votes. In early November 2020, Hipkins retained his portfolio as Minister of Education. He was also designated as Minister for COVID-19 Response and Minister for the Public Service. On 31 January 2022, Hipkins in his capacity as COVID-19 Response Minister issued a statement that the Government had offered stranded New Zealand journalist Charlotte Bellis a place under the emergency allocation criteria to travel to New Zealand within a period of 14 days. However, he also claimed that Bellis had indicated that she did not intend to travel until late February and  that MIQ had advised her to consider moving her travel plans forward. He also confirmed that New Zealand consular assistance had earlier twice offered to help her return from Afghanistan in December 2021. Bellis was an Al Jazeera journalist who had left Qatar after becoming pregnant due to the Gulf State's law criminalising unmarried pregnancies. Bellis had travelled to Afghanistan where she and her partner had visas allowing them to live there. Due to New Zealand's strict pandemic border policies, Bellis had struggle to secure a place in Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) system. Hipkins was criticised by  Bellis' lawyer Tudor Clee for allegedly breaching her client's privacy by sharing personal details about her circumstances and indicated that she was considering "legal options." In response, Bellis stated that she did not give Hipkins consent to share her information and disputed the facts in his statement. National and ACT Members of Parliament Bishop and Seymour also criticised Hipkins's actions, stating that they were "unbecoming" of a Minister of the Crown.