Clare Curran

Clare Curran MP
Labour Party Photo
Constituency	Dunedin South
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Dunedin South
Incumbent
Assumed office 2008
Preceded by	David Benson-Pope
Personal details
Born	1960
Political party	Labour
Profession	Public relations

Clare Elizabeth Curran^[1] is the current member of the Parliament of New Zealand for Dunedin South.

Early life and education

Curran grew up and was educated in Dunedin, she attended Moreau College where she achieved School Certificate. She has a BA double major in Anthropology and History from the University of Otago, and BA Honours in Anthropology from Victoria University of Wellington.

Political career

Curran worked in communications for Australian unions over a number of years before returning to New Zealand in 2002 with her young family. She continued to work in public relations in Dunedin.

Curran joined the New Zealand Labour Party in 2006. She quickly rose to prominence within the Otago-Southland hierarchy, becoming a member of the Council of the New Zealand Labour Party.^[2]

In 2006 Curran presented a paper to the Otago-Southland region of the Labour Party on "capturing the language" on climate change policy.^[3]

In May 2006 Curran was appointed to a contractual role within the ministry of the Environment following a recommendation from Environment Minister David Parker's office to provide communications advice on the Government's climate change strategy. This appointment was the subject of an investigation by the State Services Commission into the appropriateness of Curran's engagement.^[4] The report found that the Ministry had failed to adequately identify Curran's conflict of interest with respect to her relationship with Minister Parker.^[5] The report found that a staff member in Parker's office had described Curran as Parker's "right-hand woman" and in an email to Environment Ministry Chief Executive Hugh Logan, and recommended that Curran meet with Logan to discuss communications. Logan resigned as Chief Executive of the Ministry hours before the State Services Commission's report into the Curran affair was released.

In 2007, Curran launched a bid to unseat sitting MP David Benson-Pope as the Labour Party candidate for Dunedin South.^{[6] [7]} Curran won the selection contest ahead of Benson-Pope and the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union's Don Pryde.

She is currently a member of many unions and political groups. She is a member of the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union and the Service & Food Workers Union. She is also a member of Greenpeace. She is currently on the Council of NZ Labour Party.

Parliamentary career

In the 49th New Zealand Parliament, she is a member of the Commerce Committee, and she is the Labour spokesperson for Communications and Information Technology.

While in Opposition, Curran has spoken out against the closure of public broadcaster TVNZ7,^[8] the Government's controversial move to include software in the Patents Bill,^[9] Kiwirail job losses,^[10] TV coverage of the Paralympics,^[11] and the lack of a telecommunications watchdog in New Zealand.^[12]

References

External links

• Parliamentary biography