Charles Chauvel (politician)
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| Parl. | Electorate | List Pos. | Party |
| 48th | List | 44 | Labour |
Charles Chauvel (born Gisborne, 16 April 1969) is a Labour Member of Parliament - one of 5 lawyers in the 50 member Labour Party caucus. He has also served as a director on a number of boards. Chauvel is a member of four parliamentary select committees. He is the Attorney-General's representative on the Rules Committee, a statutory body comprising senior judges and officials charged with making the rules of procedure for the superior courts in New Zealand. Of Scots, French and Tahitian ancestry, he lives with his partner, David, in the capital city, Wellington.
[edit] Life prior to politics
Chauvel was admitted to the New Zealand legal profession in 1990, and to the New South Wales (Australia) profession in 2003. He has been described since 2000 as 'leading' or 'recommended' in the labour law and public law listings of a number of international legal directories. He practised law as a partner in the Wellington, New Zealand, office, and in the Sydney, Australia, office, during his 8 years with the Minter Ellison Legal Group, at that stage one of the world's 25 largest law firms. He became a member of the New Zealand Parliament on 1 August 2006.
Prior to his election to Parliament, he appeared in a number of significant cases throughout New Zealand Court system, including in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London (prior to the abolition in 2002 of appeals from New Zealand to that body) and in the Supreme Court of New Zealand. Previously, he was Crown Counsel in the New Zealand Crown Law Office in Wellington, and law clerk to the Chief Justice. He also served on the Board of the New Zealand Public Health Commission (1995); as Chair of the New Zealand Aids Foundation (1996, having been a member of its board 1990-1994); as Deputy Chair of the New Zealand Lotteries Commission, the entity that governs the New Zealand State Lottery (2000-2004); as Deputy Chair of Meridian Energy Limited, New Zealand's largest energy generation company (2005, having been a director of that company from 2002); and on the board of Minter Ellison Rudd Watts (2003-2005).
Chauvel has held a number of positions within the New Zealand Labour Party, including Chair of the Princes Street Branch, President of Young Labour (as it is now known), membership of the Party's controlling body (the New Zealand Council), and co-Chair of Rainbow Labour.
He was Dux of Gisborne Boys' High School in 1985. While studying at the University of Auckland from which he graduated Master of Jurisprudence (with Distinction) in 1994, Chauvel was in 1987 Captain of the University's winning University Challenge team. He graduated Bachelor of Laws (with Honours) from the Victoria University of Wellington, in 1989, and was awarded the Diploma in International Legal Standards by the International Training Centre of the ILO in Turin, Italy, in 2001. He also holds the Diploma in Health Economics (with Merit) from Victoria University of Wellington (awarded 1993).
Chauvel wrote the Public Safety Title in the Laws of New Zealand Compilation, and is consulting editor for the re-issue of the Gaming Law Title. He has been a member of the editorial board of Mazengarb's Employment Law, Butterworth's Employment Law Bulletin and other employment-related publications. He has co-authored two books, "New Zealand Employment Law Guide" (LexisNexis, 2002) and "Employment Mediation" (Thompson Brookers, 2005). He has written and spoken extensively throughout Australia and New Zealand on employment law, public law and human rights-related topics, generally espousing a liberal, centre-left perspective.
[edit] Member of Parliament
A member of the New Zealand Labour Party since 1985, Chauvel stood as Labour's electoral candidate for Maramarua in 1990, finishing second to National's Bill Birch, and again in 2005 as Labour's candidate for [Ohariu-Belmont]], finishing second to United Future Leader Peter Dunne. Chauvel was ranked 44th on the Labour Party list. On election night returns, he failed by one seat to enter New Zealand's Parliament. Under the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electoral system operated in New Zealand, when a list Member of Parliament retired during the term of Parliament, Chauvel was next in line to become an MP. When Cabinet Minister Jim Sutton did so on 10 July, effective 1 August 2006, Chauvel became an MP.
