Louisa Wall

Louisa Hareruia Wall (born 17 February 1972) is a New Zealand former double international sportswoman, former politician, and human rights advocate.

Her master's thesis, on the contributions Māori women had made in Parliament, was supervised by public policy professor and former National MP Marilyn Waring.

[2][8][9][10] In 2004, she studied health issues on a Rotary International scholarship to Louisiana and Washington, D.C.[4] Wall is openly lesbian and is a strong advocate for human rights.

[4] From childhood, Wall was involved in many sport, including rugby union, football, karate, basketball, and netball.

[4] She played club rugby as a five-year-old but was banned at the end of the season after organiser Owen Delaney realised she was a girl.

[16][17] Wall also made the New Zealand women's national rugby union team, the Black Ferns, in 1995, as a wing.

Standing in Tāmaki Makaurau, she lost to the incumbent, Māori Party co-leader Pita Sharples, and was not returned as a Labour list MP.

However, she returned to Parliament as a Labour List MP in 2011 after Darren Hughes resigned and higher-ranked former MPs declined to take the position.

[28] Sitting as a list MP for the five months until the 2011 general election, she sat on the law and order and regulations review committees.

[37] She was an outspoken, independent critic of China, whom she accused of harvesting organs from the minority Uyghur and Falun Gong populations.

[38] Claire Trevett of The New Zealand Herald wrote that the reason Wall could be so outspoken "was possibly because she knew she had no chance of getting into Cabinet, so had nothing to lose.

On 9 May 2020, the New Zealand Council of the Labour Party accepted Williams' nomination and supported Dunwoodie's request to remove the local electorate committee representation from the panel.

In her 2022 valedictory statement, she said part of the agreement brokered ahead of the 2020 Manurewa selection was that she would resign from Parliament during the term.

[46] In later years, Wall revealed the initial draft of the bill had been prepared by her then-civil union partner and later wife.

[54][53] During the first reading, Walls argued that safe zones were not a free speech issue but was about protecting women's rights to access abortion services.

The Harmful Digital Communications (Unauthorised Posting of Intimate Visual Recording) Amendment Bill proposed reforms by removing the requirement that the victim of revenge porn provide proof there was intent to cause harm and instead puts the burden of proof of consent on the person who shares the recording.

It was Wall's view that the cartoons, published in the Marlborough Express and The Press were "insulting and ignorant put-downs of Māori and Pacific people.

While the High Court did not overturn the Tribunal's decision it found the cartoons were objectively offensive and observed there should be a cause for reflection by Fairfax and their editorial teams.

[65][66] Wall submitted legislation enabling assisted suicide in 2016, inspired by the terminal illness of Lecretia Seales.

[72][73] In late June 2021, Wall expressed support for transgender athlete Laurel Hubbard, stating that she has every right to be at the 2020 Summer Olympics and hope that she would do New Zealand well.

[74] In June 2020, Wall joined the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China alongside National MP Simon O'Connor.

[77] In early July 2021, Wall alleged that China was harvesting organs from Falun Gong and Uyghur political prisoners.

She also alleged that China was detaining 1 million Uyghur in "education camps" as slave labour for picking cotton.

[80][81] The role was intended to support gender equality and the advancement and leadership opportunities for women and LGBTQI+ people in the Pacific Islands.

[33][35][43] Her resignation came into effect on 1 May 2022[1][85][86] and her seat in Parliament was filled by the next person on Labour's list, Lemauga Lydia Sosene.

Louisa Wall in 2011
Louisa Wall in 2011
Wall and other Labour MP marching in the Auckland pride parade , 2016
Wall attending a vigil in support of the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting , Wellington, 2016