When Paul Eagle resigned his seat on the Wellington City Council after his election to Parliament a by-election was held in his ward.[4] Fitzsimons replaced him as the Labour Party candidate, who received Eagle's endorsement, and won the by-election.[3] Re-elected in 2019, she was a contender for the role of deputy mayor, but the role ultimately went to Sarah Free.[5] During her second term on the council she was seen as the de-facto leader of the centre-left group of councillors during the contentious triennium led by the then-mayor Andy Foster.[2] She was also the Labour Party's women's vice president.[6] She declined to run again at the 2022 election, by which time she was speculated as intending to run for parliament and would not rule it out. After leaving the city council she took up the role of assistant secretary of the Public Service Association (PSA).[2]
2023 campaign for Parliament
After Eagle's unsuccessful campaign for the Wellington mayoralty, he announced on 13 December 2022 that he would not be contesting the 2023 general election.[7][8] In March 2023, Fitzsimons was selected unopposed as Labour's candidate for Rongotai to replace Eagle.[2] At the election, Fitzsimons came second in Rongotai, 2,717 votes or 6.39 percentage points behind Julie Anne Genter of the Green Party.[9]
Union campaign work
Following her defeat in Rongotai, Fitzsimons returned to work with the PSA. In January 2024, she criticised the National-led coalition government's planned public sector cuts as "very short-sighted" and claimed many agencies were already running "on the smell of an oily rag" due to austerity measures imposed by the previous Labour administration.[10]
Personal life
Fitzsimons has four children,[11] one of whom is transgender.[12] She lives in Island Bay.[3]
