George Warren Hawkins QSO (born 1946) is a New Zealand local government politician and former Labour Party Member of Parliament.

In early 1977 he stood as a candidate for the Labour Party nomination in the Mangere by-election, but he lost out to future prime minister David Lange.

[17] In his maiden statement, he praised Douglas and Michael Bassett, and the economic and local government reforms they oversaw during the previous administration.

[4][20] Through the 1990s, he was aligned with Mike Moore and Phil Goff and was part of their attempted coup to relieve Helen Clark of the Labour leadership in 1996.

[22] As police spokesperson, Hawkins was critical of the development and cost overruns of the Integrated National Crime Information System (INCIS), which was eventually abandoned in 1999.

[30] Early reports indicated that the burglary policies were having some success despite not meeting the targets set,[31][32] but violent crime continued to rise.

[33][34] Hawkins suggested that the rise in crime was an effect of the previous government's stricter social welfare policies.

[40] Hawkins received responsibility for citizenship as associate internal affairs minister in July 2000 and was assigned the full portfolio that November.

He was seen as "pro-gaming" but progressed government policy to prevent the building of any new casinos in New Zealand and established a new Gambling Commission.

[48][49][50][51][52] When it was revealed he had known about the crisis for several months before taking any action, there were calls for his resignation; eventually responsibility for the issue was reassigned to the commerce minister, Lianne Dalziel.

[61] In response, Hawkins withdrew his name from the party list, won his Manurewa electorate by a 12,000-vote margin, and proactively ended his ministerial career by issuing a post-election statement that he would not accept reappointment as a minister.

[4] Audrey Young of The New Zealand Herald reported that Hawkins was regarded by colleagues as a quiet maverick, asking written questions of ministers in the same manner that Opposition MPs would do.

[63] Hawkins was successful in having the bill introduced into Parliament without a ballot,[64] and it was referred to the social services committee on 2 July 2008.

"[6] With Daniel Newman, who worked in his local office, Hawkins lobbied to make boundary changes ahead of the 2008 general election that were intended to improve his already strong majority in Manurewa.

[74] Following the defeat of the Labour government in 2008, Hawkins was appointed housing spokesperson by Clark's successor as leader, Phil Goff.

Initially, Hawkins favoured Labour list MP Shane Jones but later gave his allegiance to his former advisor Ian Dunwoodie.

[79][80] In the end, Louisa Wall won the nomination with Hawkins' blessing and he retired from Parliament at the election, giving his valedictory statement on 29 September 2011.

[84] On 15 December 2005, Hawkins was granted retention of the title The Honourable, in recognition of his term as a member of the Executive Council.