Emily Henderson (politician)

Emily Henderson
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Whangārei
In office
17 October 2020 – 14 October 2023
Preceded byShane Reti
Succeeded byShane Reti
Majority431
Personal details
Born1972 (age 51–52)
Political partyLabour
SpouseThomas Biss
Children4
Alma materAuckland (MJur)
Cambridge (PhD)
ProfessionLawyer
WebsiteLabour Party profile

Lorenza Emily Preston Henderson[1] is a New Zealand lawyer and former politician. She was a member of parliament in the House of Representatives for the Labour Party.

Biography

Henderson was born in 1972[2] and has lived in Whangārei since the age of seven. She attended Kaurihohore Primary, Whangarei Intermediate and Tikipunga High School.[3][4] She completed a Master of Jurisprudence at the University of Auckland in 1997[5] and a PhD titled Cross-examination: a critical examination at the University of Cambridge in 2001.[6][7]

Before becoming a Member of Parliament in 2020, she worked as a consultant at the law firm Henderson Reeves, which was co-founded by her father. Her legal area of specialty is the Family Court and she was a crown prosecutor.[4][8] In 2012, she was awarded a fellowship from the New Zealand Law Foundation in 2012 to research the reform of cross examination.[9] The resulting paper, "Expert witnesses under examination in the New Zealand criminal and family courts", was published in March 2013.[10]

Political career

New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate List Party
2020–2023 53rd Whangārei 64 Labour

Henderson was approached to stand in the Whangārei electorate for the Labour Party in 2017, but declined, because her children were too young.[4] She was selected as Labour's candidate for the 2020 election.[3] The preliminary results released after the election night count placed her 164 votes behind the incumbent MP, National's Shane Reti.[11] The closeness of the initial figures meant that Henderson attended induction events for new MPs.[12] When the final results were released after the counting of special votes, Henderson had overtaken Reti to win the seat by 431 votes, and hence became a Member of Parliament.[13]

Henderson was appointed as a member of the Justice Committee and the Social Services and Community Committee in December 2020. She was deputy chair of the Social Services and Community committee from July 2022 to February 2023 and deputy chair of the Justice Committee from February to September 2023.[14] Henderson chaired a sub-committee of the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation and voted in favour of the bill.[15]

On 17 March, Henderson announced that she would retire from Parliament at the 2023 New Zealand general election in order to return to her legal career, focusing on court reform and sexual violence. She said she had not expected to be elected (the Whangārei electorate had been won by National for the previous 45 years) and did not consider the role of a Member of Parliament to be well-aligned with her preference for and skillset in legal research and teaching.[16] Upon ending her term in Parliament, Henderson claimed credit for establishing Sexual Violence Courts, lobbying for government funding to rebuild Whangarei Hospital and state housing projects in Whangarei.[16][17]

References

  1. ^ "2020 General Election Results of the Official Count". 6 November 2020. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
  2. ^ Gunson, Vaughan (21 April 2021). "Vaughan Gunson: Empty hall but new Whangārei MP Emily Henderson full of promise". The Northern Advocate.
  3. ^ a b "Local Girl Stands Up To Be Counted: Dr Emily Henderson Is Labour Candidate For Whangarei". Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  4. ^ a b c Pearse, Adam (28 May 2020). "Local lawyer Emily Henderson new Labour Party candidate for Whangārei". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  5. ^ "Graduation search results". University of Auckland. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
  6. ^ "Cross-examination: a critical examination". University of Cambridge. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
  7. ^ "Research fellow will study cross-examination" (Press release). New Zealand Law Society. 7 December 2012. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
  8. ^ "'Potentially dangerous': MP warns of possible violence on campaign trail". NZ Herald. 7 October 2024. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  9. ^ "NZ's Premier Law Prize announced". The Law Foundation. November 2012. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
  10. ^ "Expert witnesses under examination in the New Zealand criminal and family courts [2013]". New Zealand Law Foundation Research Reports. March 2013. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
  11. ^ Martin, Hannah (18 October 2020). "Election 2020: National retains Whangārei and Northland seats – but only just". Stuff. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  12. ^ Cooke, Henry (19 October 2020). "Election 2020: Largest Labour caucus ever arrives for first day of MP-school". Stuff. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  13. ^ "Whangārei – Official Result". Electoral Commission. 6 November 2020. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
  14. ^ "Henderson, Emily – New Zealand Parliament". www.parliament.nz. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
  15. ^ "Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill — Second Reading – New Zealand Parliament". www.parliament.nz. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
  16. ^ a b Henderson, Emily (22 March 2023). "Why I'm standing down at the next election". Northern Advocate. NZME. Archived from the original on 22 March 2023. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
  17. ^ Ling, Jenny (17 March 2023). "Whangārei MP Emily Henderson announces retirement from politics at upcoming election". Northern Advocate. NZME. Archived from the original on 18 March 2023.
New Zealand Parliament
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Whangārei
2020–2023 		Succeeded by