Willow-Jean Prime | |
|---|---|
 Prime in 2023 | |
| 16thMinister of Conservation | |
| In office 1 February 2023 – 27 November 2023 | |
| Prime Minister | Chris Hipkins |
| Preceded by | Poto Williams |
| Succeeded by | Tama Potaka |
| 16thMinister for Youth | |
| In office 1 February 2023 – 27 November 2023 | |
| Prime Minister | Chris Hipkins |
| Preceded by | Priyanca Radhakrishnan |
| Succeeded by | Matt Doocey |
| Member of theNew Zealand Parliament forLabourparty list | |
| Assumed office 14 October 2023 | |
| In office 23 September 2017 – 17 October 2020 | |
| Member of theNew Zealand Parliament forNorthland | |
| In office 17 October 2020 – 14 October 2023 | |
| Preceded by | Matt King |
| Succeeded by | Grant McCallum |
| Majority | 163 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Willow-Jean Downs 1983 (age 41–42) |
| Political party | Labour |
| Spouse | Dion |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | University of Waikato |
Willow-Jean Prime (néeDowns; born 1983)[1][2] is a New Zealand politician. She was first elected a Member of theNew Zealand House of Representatives at the2017 general election as a list representative of theNew Zealand Labour Party. She was elected as the Member of Parliament forNorthland at the2020 general election and was re-elected as a list MP in 2023.
Prime wasMinister of Conservation andMinister for Youth in the final year of theSixth Labour Government.
Prime is of Te Kapotai,Ngāti Hine andNgāpuhi descent[3][4] and grew up inNorthland.[5] She attendedBay of Islands College inKawakawa.[6] Her father Barry (d. 2018)[2] was a train driver; she learnt to drive a train before a car and wanted to follow her father's career but was advised at school that women could not drive trains. Prime played basketball at school and was offered a scholarship to play in theUnited States.[7]
Prime is a graduate ofWaikato University holding a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Laws, post-graduate Diploma of Māori and Pacific Development with distinction, andMaster of Laws focusing on recent developments in Treaty settlements, Māori governance and indigenous development.[8] In 2014, she had started a Doctor of Philosophy in law at Waikato University.[9]
She worked as a solicitor in Wellington before returning to Northland.[7]
She lives nearPakaraka with her husband Dion, who is a teacher, and has two children.[7] She was pregnant during both her 2015 and 2017 election campaigns.[10][4]
| Years | Term | Electorate | List | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017–2020 | 52nd | List | 17 | Labour | |
| 2020–2023 | 53rd | Northland | 36 | Labour | |
| 2023–present | 54th | List | 9 | Labour | |
Prime began her political career when she was elected to theFar North District Council for Bay of Islands-Whangaroa in2013;[3] she was the youngest person on the council at age 30.[7] She was re-elected for a second term in 2016 and resigned from the council after she was elected to Parliament in 2017.[3][11]
Prime first ran for parliament in2014. She ran for theNorthland electorate, placing second with 29% of the vote.[12] She was placed 34th on Labour'sparty list for the election,[13] which due to a poor result by Labour was not enough for her to enter Parliament.
She ran again for the Northland electorate in itsby-election of 2015. The seat was strategically relevant asNew Zealand First leaderWinston Peters threatened to unseat the safe National position. Polls showed a close race between Peters and the National candidate, Mark Osborne, with Prime third on around 16 to 20% of the vote, but also that Peters would win if Prime withdrew from the race. Labour Party leaderAndrew Little did not oppose strategic voting, saying, "We have a candidate in the race, and she's a good candidate, and she's somebody who we want in Parliament. I have a duty to back her. But in the end, I want Northlanders to exercise their choice, to see that they could make a difference here. If they want to send a message to the government that we are sick and tired of being neglected, then they know what their choice is."[14] Ultimately, Peters won the by-election and Prime came third with 4.7% of the vote.[15]
Prime ran again in Northland at the 2017 general election. Labour placed her 16th onits party list,[4] later moving her to 17th following a reshuffle.[16] This high ranking almost guaranteed her entry to Parliament.[4] On the initial list, Prime had the highest Labour rank for a Māori candidate,[10] though after the reshuffle deputy leaderKelvin Davis was placed above her.[17] Prime said she would resign her seat in the Far North District Council should she be elected to Parliament.[4] Prime again did not win the Northland electorate, but entered parliament via theparty list.[18] She delivered her maiden statement on 9 November 2017 in which she shared her concerns about child poverty and youth suicide in Northland.[19] Prime sat on theFinance and Expenditure Committee from 2017 to 2019 and the Governance and Administration Committee from 2019 to 2020.[20] She was one of several Members of Parliament who had babies shortly before or during this term and spoke on the third reading of the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Amendment Bill in November 2017 while holding her second child.[21]
Following acabinet reshuffle on 27 June 2019, Prime was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary for Local Government.[22]
Prime ran again in the2020 general election, still contesting Northland but this time moved down to 36th on the Labour party list. Northland was again an important electorate; New Zealand First was polling poorly, but if its candidateShane Jones could win Northland it would stay in Parliament. Unlike the 2015 by-election, Prime and Labour offered no support to New Zealand First in Northland. Prime would not tell Northlanders to vote for Jones, saying “The prime minister has been clear that we haven’t made those sorts of deals before and we won’t now.”[23] While preliminary results indicated she had again lost the Northland electorate to the National candidateMatt King,[24] the final count released on 6 November gave her a victory with a majority of 163 votes.[25][26] King initially said that he would request a recount,[27] but the next day changed his mind as he had concluded that there was little chance of overturning the result.[28]
Following the 2020 election, Prime was appointed as Labour's assistant whip on 2 November.[20] She sat on the Justice Committee from 2020 to 2023 and was briefly a member of the Māori Affairs Committee in 2022. She also sat on thePae Ora Legislation Committee.[20]
In a cabinet reshuffle by Prime MinisterChris Hipkins on 31 January 2023 Prime was promoted into Cabinet and appointedMinister of Conservation,Minister for Youth, AssociateMinister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, and AssociateMinister of Health.[29] She succeededMeka Whaitiri as AssociateMinister of Statistics in May 2023 after Whaitiri's removal from the Government.[30] In her capacity as Conservation Minister, Prime announced protection measures for the Hauraki Gulf,[31][32] reform of the seventy-year-oldWildlife Act[33] and, along withOceans and Fisheries MinisterRachel Brooking, that the Government would create six new marine reserves betweenTimaru and theCatlins in the lower South Island.[34]
Prime was placed 9th on the Labour Party list for the2023 general election. It was reported her high placement reflected the late decision ofKiritapu Allan not to seek re-election.[35] At the election, Prime was unseated in Northland byNational Party candidateGrant McCallum who won a 6,000 vote majority; however, Prime was re-elected on the Labour Party list.[36][37]
On 30 November, Prime assumed the children, youth, and associate education (Māori) portfolios in theShadow Cabinet of Chris Hipkins.[38] On 5 December 2023, Prime was granted retention of the titleThe Honourable, in recognition of her term as a member of theExecutive Council.[39] On 6 December she was appointed a member of the Social Services and Community committee.[20]
On 7 March 2025, Prime gained the education portfolio but lost the youth and association education (Māori) portfolios during acabinet reshuffle.[40]
| New Zealand Parliament | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament for Northland 2020–2023 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Minister of Conservation 2023 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Youth 2023 | Succeeded by |
