Gareth Hughes
Biography
MP, Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand
New Zealand’s longest serving Green MP, Gareth has spent his entire adult life working for good green change. Since graduating from Victoria University with a degree in Religious Studies, History and Politics, he has been at the centre of campaigns around many of the most pressing issues for New Zealand and the planet.
Gareth coordinated the 2009 Greenpeace 'Sign On' campaign, mobilising over 200,000 New Zealanders to take a stand for climate change action. He worked for Greenpeace for nearly a decade on a number of successful campaigns and if his green credentials were not already solid enough, he has also done a stint on the Rainbow Warrior.
His pace has not slowed since entering Parliament in 2010, the youngest MP at the time. Gareth's main focuses are cleaner, cheaper, and smarter energy, protecting the environment, and embracing technology and innovation. Among his successes are improved regulation and scrutiny in the oil and gas sector; a total ban on shark finning; pushing for international legal action to stop whaling, and giving drafting New Zealand’s first crowdsourced bill – on Internet rights and freedoms.
Gareth is a dad to two kids and loves to scuba dive.