The minister who’s risen from tribal issues to the world stage
Nanaia Mahuta is sitting in her office at New Zealand’s parliament. The bookshelf behind her is filled with artefacts and mementoes, many of them gifts from around Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific. “Ask about any of them,” she said. “There’s a story behind each.”
On the lower shelf rests the carved walking stick that belonged to her late father, Sir Robert Mahuta. She says her earliest political memories are of her father battling the construction of the Huntly power station. “I was
