Ayesha Verrall | |
|---|---|
 Verrall in 2023 | |
| 43rdMinister of Health | |
| In office 1 February 2023 – 27 November 2023 | |
| Prime Minister | Chris Hipkins |
| Preceded by | Andrew Little |
| Succeeded by | Shane Reti |
| 2ndMinister for COVID-19 Response | |
| In office 14 June 2022 – 1 February 2023 | |
| Prime Minister | Jacinda Ardern Chris Hipkins |
| Preceded by | Chris Hipkins |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| 27thMinister for Research, Science and Innovation | |
| In office 14 June 2022 – 27 November 2023 | |
| Prime Minister | Jacinda Ardern Chris Hipkins |
| Preceded by | Megan Woods |
| Succeeded by | Judith Collins |
| 14thMinister for Seniors | |
| In office 6 November 2020 – 1 February 2023 | |
| Prime Minister | Jacinda Ardern Chris Hipkins |
| Preceded by | Tracey Martin |
| Succeeded by | Ginny Andersen |
| 8thMinister for Food Safety | |
| In office 6 November 2020 – 14 June 2022 | |
| Prime Minister | Jacinda Ardern |
| Preceded by | Damien O'Connor |
| Succeeded by | Meka Whaitiri |
| Member of theNew Zealand Parliament forLabourparty list | |
| Assumed office 17 October 2020 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Ayesha Jennifer Verrall 1979 (age 45–46) Invercargill, New Zealand |
| Nationality | New Zealand Maldivian |
| Political party | Labour |
| Spouse | Alice |
| Children | 1 |
| Relatives | Mohamed Nasheed (cousin) |
| Alma mater | University of Otago (MB ChB, PhD) London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (MSc) Gorgas Institute (DipTropMedH) |
| Website | University of Otago profile |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Infectious diseases |
| Institutions | University of Otago, Wellington |
| Thesis | Innate Factors in Early Clearance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (2018) |
| Doctoral advisors | Philip Hill Katrina Sharples Reinout van Crevel Bachti Alisjahbana |
Ayesha Jennifer Verrall (/ˈaɪʃə/EYE-shə;[1] born 1979[2][3]) is a New Zealand politician,infectious-diseases physician and researcher with expertise intuberculosis andinternational health. Since 2020 she has been aMember of the New Zealand House of Representatives for theLabour Party.
Verrall was previously a senior lecturer in pathology and molecular medicine at theUniversity of Otago. She came to public attention during theCOVID-19 pandemic when, after criticising theGovernment's pandemic response, she was commissioned to audit the contact tracing system. Soon after, she was elected to Parliament and appointed to theCabinet. She served asMinister for Food Safety,Minister for Research, Science and Innovation,Minister for Seniors, andMinister of Health in the Sixth Labour Government.
Verrall was born inInvercargill to Lathee and Bill Verrall. She was raised inTe Anau. Her mother was born in theMaldives and was the first Maldivian to pass Cambridge examinations in English and study in New Zealand on aColombo Plan scholarship.[4][5] Verrall is named after her grandmother, who died when Lathee was two years old.[3] In 1997, she was a member of theNew Zealand Youth Parliament, selected to representClutha-Southland MPBill English.[6]
Verrall obtained aBachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) in 2004 from theUniversity of Otago Dunedin School of Medicine.[7] She became the president of theOtago University Students' Association in 2001.[4] While in this role she lobbied for interest-free student loans.[5] In 2003, Verall led the formation of theNew Zealand Medical Student Journal (NZMSJ).[8]
During the next decade, Verrall trained intropical medicine,bioethics andinternational health in the United Kingdom, Singapore, and Peru.[9] She graduated with aMaster of Science from theLondon School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from theUniversity of Alabama through theGorgas Institute inLima, Peru.[10][11]
In 2018, Verrall completed herPhD intuberculosis epidemiology at the University of Otago, in collaboration withPadjadjaran University inIndonesia andRadboud University Nijmegen in theNetherlands. Her research investigated the early clearance immune response to theMycobacterium tuberculosis infection among Indonesian people who were highly exposed to the bacteria yet remained uninfected.[10][12] She developed the Innate Factors in Early Clearance of M. tuberculosis (INFECT) cohort as part of her dissertation.[13]
Before entering national politics, Verrall was a senior lecturer at theUniversity of Otago in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine. She taught microbiology to medical students and researched tuberculosis epidemiology, immunology, and host-pathogen interactions.[10] She was also an infectious diseases physician at theCapital and Coast District Health Board inWellington and became an elected member of its board in the2019 local elections. She stood representing theLabour Party and was appointed as the board's deputy chair.[14][15]
During the2019–2020 New Zealand measles outbreak, Verrall advocated for a more strategic approach to allocating government resources to increase vaccination rates for measles and prevent future outbreaks.[16]
In March 2020, during theCOVID-19 pandemic, Verrall called for the government to urgently improve its data on the community spread ofCOVID-19 by expanding the testing criteria beyond sick people and increasing laboratory testing and contact tracing capabilities to reach 1000 people per day. At the time, contact tracing was only carried out for 50 cases per day.[17][18] Subsequently, Verrall was commissioned by the ministry to provide an independent audit of its contact tracing program.[19][20] Her report was submitted in early April and made public on 20 April.[21][22] It concluded that although the quality of contact tracing was good, the health sector was "understaffed and lacked cohesion," relied on slow, manual processes and hard to scale up.[3][23][24] The ministry accepted Verrall's recommendations.[22][25] In June 2020, Verrall was invited by theWorld Health Organization to share her audit report as an example of best practice.[26][27]
| Years | Term | Electorate | List | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020–2023 | 53rd | List | 17 | Labour | |
| 2023–present | 54th | List | 7 | Labour | |
The Labour Party announced its list candidates for theOctober 2020 general election on 15 June. Verrall was ranked 17th as a list-only candidate, the highest-ranked newcomer, positioned behind Cabinet ministers and the Speaker but ahead of other sitting MPs.[28][29][30] With that winnable position, she was immediately identified as a future health minister (David Clark, who had held that office since 2017, had been recently demoted amid several scandals).[31] Verrall said the COVID-19 pandemic was her "push" to move from academia and medicine into politics.[30] Her election as a list MP was confirmed in November and she gave her maiden statement in Parliament on 8 December 2020.[32][33]
Verrall was appointed as a new minister in the continuingSixth Labour Government's Cabinet, asMinister for Seniors,Minister for Food Safety, Associate Minister of Health and Associate Minister of Research, Science and Innovation.[34][35] Verrall also became ActingMinister of Conservation in April 2021 whenKiri Allan went on medical leave and Associate Minister for COVID-19 Response in February 2022.[36][37]
As Associate Minister of Health, Verrall unveiled the Government's new Smokefree 2025 plan in early December 2021. As part of the plan, the Government introduced legislation banning anyone under the age of 14 from legally purchasingtobacco for the rest of their lives. Older generations would only be permitted to buy tobacco products with very low-levels of nicotine while fewer shops will be allowed to sell tobacco products.[38][39] The law changes, passed in 2022,[40] were reversed by theSixth National Government in 2024 before they came into effect.[41]
In a June 2022 reshuffle, Verrall was reappointed as Minister for Seniors and Associate Minister of Health and newly appointed asMinister for COVID-19 Response andMinister for Research, Science and Innovation.[42] Another reshuffle, in February 2023, saw her promoted to beMinister of Health, retaining the research, science and innovation portfolio.[43][44] In a retrospective interview in 2025, Verrall said her priorities as Minister of Health had been "workforce, wait lists and winter."[45]
During the2023 New Zealand general election held on 14 October, Verrall was re-elected to Parliament on the Labour Party list.[46] Labour lost the election and in late November 2023 Verrall assumed the health, public service and Wellington issues shadow portfolios in theShadow Cabinet of Chris Hipkins.[47]
On 5 December 2023, Verrall was granted retention of the titleThe Honourable, in recognition of her term as a member of theExecutive Council.[48]
As Labour's health spokesperson, Verrall was critical of the appointment ofHealth New Zealand commissionerLester Levy and his financial management of the public health service.[49][50]
In a shadow cabinet reshuffle in early March 2025, Verrall lost her public service portfolio but retained the health and Wellington issues portfolios.[51]
Verrall is aFellow of theRoyal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP).
TheVerrall Award, granted by theNew Zealand Medical Student Journal, is named after her, to honour her efforts to form and secure funding for the journal in 2003.[52][8]
Verrall has one daughter with her partner Alice.[3] Maldivian politicianMohamed Nasheed is her cousin.[53]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Minister for Seniors 2020–2023 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Food Safety 2020–2022 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for COVID-19 Response 2022–2023 | Position abolished |
| Preceded by | Minister for Research, Science and Innovation 2022–2023 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Health 2023 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
