NZ's new deputy PM, Carmel Sepuloni, of Tongan descent [1]
Tuesday, January 24, 2023 - 06:58. Updated on Tuesday, January 24, 2023 - 19:12.
Carmel Jean Sepuloni (46), an MP of Tongan descent, is New Zealand's new deputy prime minister designate.
She stands alongside the new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins who will be officially sworn in on Wednesday.
Sepuloni, the Member of Parliament for Kelston [2] in West Auckland – she becomes the first deputy prime minister of Pasifika descent.
Hipkins and Sepuloni will take the NZ Labour party into this year's general election, which will be held on 14 October 2023.
Hipkins will be New Zealand's 41st prime minister after Jacinda Ardern announced on Thursday that she would be stepping down. The NZ Labour party announced the succession on 22 January.
Sepuloni will be the 20th Deputy Prime Minister and second most senior member of the Cabinet of New Zealand. The officeholder usually deputises for the prime minister at official functions. She succeeds Grant Robertson.
On her Facebook page, Sepuloni said she looked forward to supporting Chris Hipkins.
She acknowledged her “working class” background and the significance of this role for the Pacific community.
Sepuloni first entered Parliament after the 2008 General Election, and became New Zealand’s first member of parliament of Tongan descent.
In the 2020 Labour Government, Carmel was sworn in as the Minister for Social Development and Employment, Minister for ACC, Minister for Disability Issues, and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage.
Sepuloni was born and was raised in Waitara, Taranaki but has lived in Auckland since 1996. Her father Kamisi was a Samoan-Tongan migrant freezing worker and unionist and her mother Beverley was of Polish and English descent from a Taranaki farming family.
She graduated from the Auckland College of Education with a Diploma in Teaching (Primary), before going on to the University of Auckland and earning a Bachelor of Education. She also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Education.
Sepuloni is a Tongan name. Carmel told e-tangata in 2017: “It’s the transliteration of the word Zebulon, which is one of the 12 tribes of Israel. It was my grandfather’s first name. He was Tongan — and he went to Samoa as a child with his brother and mother. His father was left behind in Tonga, and his mother, Losae, remarried in Samoa, to a Samoan man, and went on to have children there. And that’s where the Samoan-Tongan connection started. ..Mum, Beverley, is of Polish and English descent.
“Whenever I go anywhere, I always say that I’m Tongan-Samoan-Pālagi — whichever order.”
Carmel Sepuloni has two sons Bailey and Isaiah.
She married Fijian-born New Zealand writer and musician Daren Kamali in November 2018.
See also:
Carmel Sepuloni: Māori and Pacific are the mainstream in this country [3]