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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

NZ's next parliament will be most diverse ever

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NZ's next parliament will be most diverse ever
NZ's next parliament will be most diverse ever

[NFA] New Zealand's next parliament is set to be the most inclusive ever, with several people of color, members from the rainbow communities and a high number of women.

Emer McCarthy reports.

New Zealand's next parliament is set to be the most inclusive ever, in terms of people of color, members from the LGBT community, and a high number of women.

The Labour Party-headed by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was handed a landslide mandate in Saturday's (October 17) election.

Labour won 64 of the 120 parliamentary seats, and more than half of those are female candidates.

It also has 16 indigenous Maori MPs as well one of Sri Lankan origin and the first member of African origin, Ibrahim Omar.

"It's a huge privilege and being the first African MP and, I think, second Muslim in the history of New Zealand parliament." About 10% of the members in the 120-seat house will be openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, believed to be the most representative parliament from that community in the world.

The Greens won as many as 10 seats in parliament and a majority of them are women, indigenous leaders or LGBT.

Ardern's party has enough seats to rule outright but is in talks with the Green Party to build a wider consensus.

Ardern herself arrived onto the global scene in 2017 when she became the world's youngest female head of government at the age of 37.

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