Paul Eagle – Wiki, Bio, Age, Wife, Net Worth

Upon the announcement that Annette King intended to stand in the 2017 general election as a List MP only, Eagle stated that he had encouragement from local constituents to stand for King’s Rongotai seat. However he had not yet decided whether or not to contest the Labour nomination for the electorate. On 20 January 2017, days after Labour leader Andrew Little (who also lives in Island Bay) announced he was not intending to stand in the seat, Eagle confirmed he would allow his name to go forward as a nominee for Labour in Rongotai. He also announced that he had the full backing of Wellington Mayor Justin Lester, and if he was successful in entering Parliament he would step down from the position of Deputy Mayor. On 3 February 2017 Eagle was confirmed as the sole applicant for the Rongotai candidacy and nominated unopposed. Eagle was also ranked 34 on Labour’s party list for the election. He won the seat with a 10,900 majority.

Eagle, a member of the Labour Party, was first elected to Wellington City Council in 2010, replacing long-time Green Party councillor Celia Wade-Brown who was subsequently elevated to the Mayoralty. Eagle was re-elected in 2013 and in 2016 with increased majorities. He was frequently referenced as one of the city’s most popular and best-performing councillors. Eagle resigned his seat on the council after his election to parliament, necessitating a by-election in the Southern Ward. The by-election was won by Fleur Fitzsimons of the Labour Party, who received Eagle’s endorsement.

Eagle’s birth mother put him up for adoption and he was adopted by a Methodist minister and his wife who was a hospital worker. He has kept contact with his birth mother who told Eagle she couldn’t keep him due to the lack of a domestic purposes benefit. When Eagle was five, his adoptive father ran for the Mt Eden Borough Council as a candidate for the Labour Party, a race in which he was ultimately unsuccessful. When he was aged 12 the family relocated to Wellington and became socially and politically active and agitated against the 1981 Springbok tour.

Tahere Paul Eagle (born 10 January 1972) is a New Zealand politician and member of the New Zealand House of Representatives for the Rongotai electorate. He was previously a Wellington City Councillor and Deputy Mayor, and was the first person of Māori descent to enter the office of Deputy Mayor of Wellington.