Tim Barnett (politician)

Born in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, on 4 August 1958, he moved to New Zealand in 1991 with his former partner, Jonathan Kirkpatrick.[1] Educated at the London School of Economics, graduating with a B.Sc. (Honours) in Economics (Government) in 1981. In the United Kingdom he had been the inaugural executive director of the Stonewall Lobby Group, which was the first professional lobby group set up in that country to work for equal rights for lesbian and gay people.

He was elected to Parliament as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Christchurch Central in 1996. He has been active in many community-based organisations in New Zealand, including the lesbian, gay and transgender (LGBT) section of the Labour Party, (Rainbow Labour) which he helped to found in 1997, and is a supporter of UniQ, the Queer Students Association at New Zealand universities. He was the Parliamentary promoter of the Prostitution Law Reform Bill, a Bill in his name, which became law in 2003 and thus made New Zealand the first country in the world to decriminalise prostitution, and an outspoken supporter of the Civil Union Bill, which became law in 2004 and made New Zealand the first country outside Europe to legislate for equal relationship status for lesbian and gay couples. He was appointed Senior Government Whip after the 2005 election. He was known to be very active in his local electorate chairing a Youth Advisory Committee as well as being a regular contributor to the St Albans Neighbourhood News.

At the 2005 general election, Barnett was re-elected with 52.35% of the vote and a majority of 6,694. He retired at the 2008 general election.

Barnett was appointed as the global programmes manager for the World AIDS Campaign in February 2009 and was based in Cape Town, South Africa.

In July 2012, Barnett returned to New Zealand and was appointed as general secretary of the Labour Party.[2]

In October 2015, Barnett was appointed to the iwi tribal authority of the Ngai Tuhoe as the Group Manager for Iwi (Tribe) based at the Southern Hemispheres largest living building, Te Uru Taumata in Taneatua, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. In that role Barnett held the portfolio's Health, Housing, Education and Social Well-Being. Barnett resided in the rural township of Ruatoki during that period.

In June 2017, Barnett become the CEO of FinCap (The National Building Financial Capability Trust) which is a new nationwide organisation dedicated to serving and strengthening New Zealand's network of financial capability and budget advice agencies. Those local services support people facing urgent and deep financial problems to manage their debts and successfully find ways forward. FinCap has a network of 200 agencies throughout NZ and works with government and NGOs on a range of issues that aims to change of landscape of harm that debt and other associated factors has on the well being of all New Zealanders.

To date, Barnett also supports and assist with iwi governance strategic planning as an advisor and a mentor to Members of the New Zealand Parliament.

• Access to justice: rhetoric or reality [Australasian Law Reform Agencies Conference (2004: Wellington, NZ)], Wellington, [N.Z.]: Law Commission, 2004

• Barnett's contribution is a paper entitled: "Law reform and politicians."

• Human rights and New Zealand law: proceedings of the Centre for Peace Studies seminar, 18 September 1999 [Occasional paper (University of Auckland. Centre for Peace Studies); no. 8.], Auckland, [N.Z.]: Centre for Peace Studies, University of Auckland, 1999

• Barnett's contribution is a paper entitled: "Human rights and New Zealand law."

• Barnett, Tim (1996), Aroha poha tikanga: volunteering in Aotearoa/New Zealand: produced for the Community Employment Group of the Department of Labour, Christchurch, [N.Z.]: The Group

• Barnett, Tim (1996), Volunteer centres in Aotearoa/New Zealand / produced for the Community Employment Group of the Department of Labour, Christchurch, [N.Z.]: The Group

• Barnett, Tim (2001), Report by the New Zealand delegate to the Ninth Annual Meeting of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum held in Valparaíso, Chile 14–19 January 2001 [New Zealand. Delegation (Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (9th: 2001: Valparaíso, Chile)), Wellington, [N.Z.]: House of Representatives

• Barnett, Tim (chair) (2000), Inquiry into matters relating to the visit of the president of China to New Zealand in 1999: report of the Justice and Electoral Committee, Wellington, [N.Z.]: House of Representatives

• Barnett, Tim (chair) (2001), Inquiry into the 1999 general election: report of the Justice and Electoral Committee, Wellington, [N.Z.]: House of Representatives

• Barnett, Tim (chair) (2001), Transcripts of evidence heard in the course of an inquiry into matters relating to the visit of the president of China to New Zealand in 1999 : special report of the Justice and Electoral Committee, Wellington, [N.Z.]: House of Representatives

• Barnett, Tim (chair) (2004), Inquiry into the 2002 general election: report of the Justice and Electoral Committee, Wellington, [N.Z.]: House of Representatives

• Barnett, Tim (chair) (2005), Inquiry into the 2004 Local Authority elections: report of the Justice and Electoral Committee, Wellington, [N.Z.]: House of Representatives

• Barnett, Tim (chair) (2005), Visit to Australia 22 to 26 May 2005: report of the Justice and Electoral Committee, Wellington, [N.Z.]: House of Representatives

• Barnett, Tim (writer); Hughes, Tony; Hague, Kevin (eds.) (1992), The case against discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation in the New Zealand Police Force: a report , Auckland, [N.Z.]: New Zealand AIDS FoundationCS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)

• Derby, Mark; Howie, Glen (photographer) (2002), Good work and no pay: ten years of volunteering in Wellington, Wellington, [N.Z.]: Steele Roberts, ISBN 1-877228-25-7

• Barnett is one of eighteen people profiled in this volume.

• Kerr, Jacqueline; Weitkunat, Rolf; Moretti, Manuel (eds.) (2005), ABC of behaviour change: a guide to successful disease prevention and health promotion, Edinburgh, [Scotland]: Elsevier Churchill Livingstone, ISBN 0-443-07428-3CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)

• Barnett's contribution is a paper entitled: "Political and legal environments."

• Tim Barnett's website (archived)
• Former Members of New Zealand Parliament page