Ruth Dyson

The Honourable Ruth Dyson MP
Ruth Dyson in 2011
28th President of the Labour Party
In office 1988–1993
Leader	David Lange Geoffrey Palmer Mike Moore
Preceded by	Rex Jones
Succeeded by	Maryan Street
Minister for Senior Citizens
In office 28 January 2003 – 19 November 2008
Prime Minister	Helen Clark
Preceded by	Lianne Dalziel
Succeeded by	John Carter
Minister for ACC
In office 15 August 2002 – 5 November 2007
Prime Minister	Helen Clark
Preceded by	Lianne Dalziel
Succeeded by	Maryan Street
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Lyttelton
In office 1993 – 1996
Preceded by	Gail McIntosh
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Labour party list
In office 1996 – 1999
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Banks Peninsula
In office 1999 – 2008
Preceded by	David Carter
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Majority	1,923 (4.78%)
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Port Hills
Incumbent
Assumed office 2008
Preceded by	New constituency
Majority	3,452 (9.58%)
Personal details
Born	(1957-08-11) 11 August 1957 Wellington
Nationality	New Zealand
Political party	Labour Party
Occupation	Party official

Ruth Suzanne Dyson (born 11 August 1957) is a New Zealand politician. She is a member of the Labour Party and has been a Member of Parliament since 1993. Since the 2008 election, she has represented the Port Hills electorate.

Early years

Dyson was born in Lower Hutt. Her father served in the New Zealand Army, and so Dyson's family frequently moved around the country. Dyson joined the Labour Party in Westport in 1979, and worked as a campaign organiser for Labour MP Kerry Burke in the 1981 and 1984 election. In 1985, she moved to Wellington, where she worked with Labour MP Fran Wilde on the Homosexual Law Reform Bill. She worked for Wilde's re-election campaign in the 1987 election, and later held a number of senior offices in the Labour Party, including that of president.^[1]

Member of Parliament

Dyson first entered Parliament in the 1993 election, winning the Lyttelton electorate against National's David Carter.^[2] In the 1996 election, the Lyttelton electorate was abolished, and Dyson stood in Banks Peninsula, losing to Carter, who had in the meantime become an MP through winning the 1994 Selwyn by-election. She became a list MP owing to her position on the Labour Party's list. In the 1999 election, however, she defeated Carter to win Banks Peninsula. She has remained the MP for the area since that time; however before the 2008 election the boundaries were changed and it was renamed Port Hills.

When the Labour Party won power in the 1999 general election, Dyson was appointed to a number of minor ministerial roles, including Disability Issues and Associate Health and Associate Social Development. However, she resigned them on 31 October 2000 after being caught drunk driving.^[3] She regained most of her ministerial responsibilities on 4 June 2001.^[4]

In a reshuffle on 31 October 2007, Dyson took on the portfolio of Social Development, which she held until the Clark government lost power at the 2008 general election. Despite the swing against Labour at that election, Dyson won her new electorate of Port Hills with an increased margin than that of Banks Peninsula.^[5][6]

In December 2009 Dyson's Resource Management (Requiring Authorities) Amendment Bill, which would amend the Resource Management Act 1991 to reintroduce a public interest test for projects seeking requiring authority, was drawn from the member's ballot.^[7] The bill was defeated at its first reading.^[7]

Dyson was re-elected as the MP for Port Hills at the 2011 general election. She is currently the Labour spokesperson for Conservation, Senior Citizens, and Internal Affairs and chairs the Parliamentary Select Committee on Government Administration .^[1] When Lianne Dalziel confirmed that she would contest the 2013 Christchurch mayoralty, her Christchurch Earthquake Recovery portfolio was split and assigned to Dyson and Clayton Cosgrove in July 2013.^[8]

Dyson contested the 2014 election against Nuk Korako of the National Party and chose not to be placed on Labour's party list.^[9] Based on preliminary counts, Dyson has a majority of 1,865 votes over Korako.^[9]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ruth Dyson.

• Parliamentary page
• Labour Party Bio
• Port Hills Electorate website