The Labour Party has selected former Wellington City Councillor Fleur Fitzsimons as its candidate for the Rongotai electorate in the 2023 general election.

Fleur has spent a decade working as a union lawyer and is currently an Assistant Secretary at the New Zealand Public Service Association.

She is a former student President at Victoria University and the New Zealand University Students Association Fleur is a mother of four and lives in Island Bay.

“South Wellington is my home and the community I love. I’m really pleased to have this opportunity to seek to represent Rongotai including those in the Chatham Islands and I will be working hard between now and election day to earn the trust and support of local people,” said Fleur Fitzsimons.

“It is critical that Members of Parliament work for the people they represent no matter their politics or point of view, this is what I did as a City Councillor and it is what I would continue to do if I am elected to Parliament,” said Fleur Fitzsimons.

“I have known the Prime Minister since our days at University together, I have seen up close his work ethic and his fundamental decency as a person. His focus on bread and butter issues like controlling the cost of living is exactly what we need right now.”

“While results are always a team effort, I know that I played a critical role in the following local issues:

· getting diggers at the Owhiro Bay beach to remove the unsafe sand ramp that put lives and property at risk,

· Preventing the demolition of the Newtown Workingmens’ Bowling Club

· trebling funding to sexual violence prevention agencies,

· the purchase of the Take Ten bus to support young people in town at the weekends,

· preventing the privatisation of the Central Library,

· fixing leaking water pipes in Island Bay,

· free swimming pool entry for under 5-year-olds,

“As a local representative, I have a track record of getting things done. That’s the approach I will bring to being a local MP,”

As a union official, Fitzsimons has worked on litigation for sleepover payments for care workers, equal pay for social workers and the right to strike. While on parental leave, she worked with other Mums to establish the community coalition of 26 for Babies to advocate for 26 weeks paid parental leave.

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