Laila Harré
New Zealand politician
Laila Jane Harré (born 8 January 1966) is a New Zealand former politician and trade unionist. Joining the Labour Party at 15, she left in 1989 to join the left-wing splinter party NewLabour, later the Alliance. She was elected to the New Zealand Parliament in 1996 and re-elected in 1999. In her second term, she served as Minister for Women in the Fifth Labour Government, overseeing the introduction of paid parental leave. After long-time leader Jim Anderton split from the Alliance in 2002, Harré replaced him as leader. With the party's fortunes in steep decline, it failed to win any seats in that year's election.
Harré then worked as a trade unionist for the next decade, including as secretary of the National Distribution Union. She returned to politics as issues director for the Green Party in 2012, but left in 2014. She was then drafted as leader of Kim Dotcom's Internet Party, in alliance with the Mana Movement, but resigned after the party failed to win any seats in the 2014 election. She rejoined the Labour Party in 2016, and has remained active as a commentator on politics and current affairs.
The public source identifies “Laila Harré” as new Zealand politician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Laila, Harré and Zealand.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6473861. VIAF identifies the subject as 311580456. The Library of Congress control number is no2014142723. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1966, 1989, 1996 and 1999.
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This entry incorporates text from “Laila Harré” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.