Louisa Wall, New Zealand's first Maori lesbian MP, was welcomed into Parliament yesterday with a waiata by her whanau in the public gallery after her maiden speech.
The Labour list MP said she hoped her experience representing the country in rugby and netball will help prepare her for any political battles ahead.
Wall, 36, mentioned how much New Zealand's founding document the Treaty of Waitangi meant to her and her party, and also reaffirmed Labour's commitment to human rights. "That regardless of race, sex, marital status, gender identity, sexual orientation, age or religious faith, we New Zealanders will be free to express ourselves and have the support of society in doing so," she told Parliament.
Wall said politics was about being "in a position of power to make informed and principled decisions of benefit to society, and which protect the rights of society's most vulnerable members".