The Honourable
Erica Stanford
MP
Stanford in 2023
49th Minister of Education
Assumed office
27 November 2023
Prime MinisterChristopher Luxon
Preceded byJan Tinetti
60th Minister of Immigration
Assumed office
27 November 2023
Prime MinisterChristopher Luxon
Preceded byAndrew Little
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for East Coast Bays
Assumed office
23 September 2017
Preceded byMurray McCully
Majority8,764
Personal details
Born
Erica Louise Poppelbaum

1978 (age 45–46)
Political partyNational
SpouseKane Stanford
Children2
Websiteericastanford.national.org.nz

Erica Louise Stanford (née Poppelbaum; born 1978)[1][2] is a New Zealand politician and Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives for the National Party.

Personal life

Stanford lives in Okura in the Auckland region and is the daughter of a Dutch immigrant father.[3] She holds a Bachelor of Arts in politics from the University of Auckland, and cites a lecturer, Dr Raymond Miller, as the reason for her passion for politics.[4] She is married, meeting her husband Kane while at Rangitoto College, and has two children.[5][4]

Stanford has worked in export sales as well as producing local television shows.[5] This included being the producer of a reality TV show called Noise Control, in which she and a camera operator followed a noise control team around Auckland. In filming one episode, a person pointed a gun at her and her cameraman; the episode was one of the most-watched in the series.[6] She also produced the show Last Chance Dog, and wrote scripts and did other work on Piha Rescue for more than six years.[4][6]

Political career

New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate List Party
2017–2020 52nd East Coast Bays 65 National
2020–2023 53rd East Coast Bays 39 National
2023–present 54th East Coast Bays 7 National

In 2013, Stanford started working in the office of Murray McCully, the MP for East Coast Bays. She took the place of her sister who previously worked for McCully.[7] She joined the National Party at the same time. When she started in the office, she worked there two days a week as one of three jobs while also having two children.[6][4] She later worked there full time,[4] and prior to running for parliament, she held the role of Senior MP Support.[8] Stanford describes McCully as her mentor,[6] calling him "a political master."[4]

In opposition, 2017–2023

McCully retired from Parliament in 2017, and the National Party selected Stanford as his replacement for East Coast Bays.[8] Stanford had not previously stood for parliament or other office. The East Coast Bays electorate has been a safe seat for National since 1987; since then McCully held either East Coast Bays or Albany, which covered a similar area. In the 2017 general election, Stanford won the electorate easily, with 66% of the vote.[9]

In the 2020 election, Stanford stood again for East Coast Bays. During the campaign she also attended a debate of Auckland Central candidates, as National had not selected a new candidate for the electorate by the debate.[10] Stanford retained East Coast Bays by a margin of 8,764 votes.[11]

Stanford was promoted as the spokesperson for education and associate spokesperson for Ethnic Communities while retaining her portfolio for immigration on 6 December 2021, in the Shadow Cabinet of Christopher Luxon.[12] This led to her ranking being promoted from 25 under the Shadow Cabinet of Judith Collins to 7 under the Shadow Cabinet of Christopher Luxon.[13]

In Government, 2023–present

During the 2023 election, Stanford retained East Coast Bays by a margin of 20,353 votes, defeating Labour's candidate Naisi Chen.[14] Following the formation of the National-led coalition government, she assumed the portfolios of Minister of Education and Minister of Immigration.[15]

Views and positions

In her maiden speech Stanford spoke on matters of conservation, sustainability, marriage based on love rather than gender, and a desire to see political parties work with one another to seek enduring, practical solutions.[16] In a 2018 interview, she said her priorities in her first term included resourcing police stations in her electorate, improving local roading projects, and supporting local schools.[2]

Stanford's political views sit on the progressive side of the National Party. She supported decriminalising abortion and allowing euthanasia in conscience votes in 2019. She has sat on the environmental select committee and has been involved in developing National's environmental policies.[6] In 2019 she supported students who were striking for climate action, despite her party leader and many other National MPs initially opposing them.[17] She believes that the Green Party could work with National, saying that if the Greens "could just relax a little bit... they could do so much good."[4] Stanford says that her blood "runs blue and it always will", but acknowledges a touch of green, saying "maybe it's a tealy blue".[6]

References

  1. ↑ "Roll of members of the New Zealand House of Representatives, 1854 onwards" (PDF). New Zealand Parliament. 24 May 2019. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  2. 1 2 Bennett, Aidan (March 2018). "A Chat with Erica Stanford". www.channelmag.co.nz. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  3. ↑ "Meet the backbencher: Erica Stanford". The New Zealand Herald. 4 January 2017. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Murphy, Tim (26 June 2017). "The Sure Things: Erica Stanford". Newsroom. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  5. 1 2 "National selects East Coast Bays candidate – Scoop News". www.scoop.co.nz.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Walls, Jason (22 October 2019). "A short lunch: For years she produced reality TV shows, now she sits in Parliament – meet Erica Stanford". NZ Herald. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  7. ↑ Vance, Andrea (14 November 2021). "National's Erica Stanford – a shining star in a dull sky?". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 14 November 2021.
  8. 1 2 "New candidate selected to contest National's East Coast Bays electorate". Stuff. 10 January 2017.
  9. ↑ "East Coast Bays – Official Result". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  10. ↑ Adams, Josie (10 August 2020). "Central heating: fringe parties pipe up from crowd in first Auckland debate". The Spinoff. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  11. ↑ "East Coast Bays – Official Result". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
  12. ↑ "National reshuffle: Judith Collins and Todd McClay the losers, Chris Bishop, Erica Stanford shoot up ranks". NZ Herald. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  13. ↑ Whyte, Anna; Producer, Senior Digital Political. "Opinion: The winners and losers in National's new line up". 1 News. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  14. ↑ "East Coast Bays - Official Result". Electoral Commission. 3 November 2023. Archived from the original on 23 November 2023. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  15. ↑ "Who gets what? List of New Zealand's new ministers". 1 News. TVNZ. 24 November 2023. Archived from the original on 23 November 2023. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  16. ↑ "New National MP wants cross-party pragmatic solutions". The New Zealand Herald. 14 November 2017.
  17. ↑ McIlraith, Brianna (3 May 2019). "National MP Erica Stanford backs school climate strikes, unlike party leaders". Stuff. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
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