Labour MP Tāmati Coffey to retire from Parliament at election

Labour list MP Tāmati Coffey has announced he won’t stand for re-election.

Coffey first entered Parliament in 2017, winning the seat of Waiariki, which he lost in 2020.

He said he was retiring to spend more time with his newborn baby.

“After the birth of our second child, I’ve reprioritised where I want to put my energy and that’s into our two kids, Tūtānekai and Taitimu,” Coffey said in a statement.

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Coffey and his partner, Tim Smith, welcomed their second child in January.

Prime Minster Chris Hipkins said he had spoken to Coffey and supported his decision to resign.

“Tāmati has indicated that, having just become a dad for the second time that’s where his focus is at. I absolutely respect that.”

Following the birth of their daughter Taitimu earlier this year, Coffey said he wanted to advocate for surrogacy reform.

“More and more couples are having kids this way, so the law still needs to be changed to streamline the process. As a lawmaker, those changes are my priority this year,” he said.

In a statement announcing his intention to leave Parliament at this year’s general election, in October, Coffey said he hoped law change for surrogacy reform would pass before the end of this term.

Coffey’s private member’s bill, the Improving Arrangements for Surrogacy Bill, was pulled from the biscuit tin in 2021 and had passed its first reading in May last year. It sought to simplify the process for surrogacy arrangement, and allow parents to legally be recognised as a child’s parents when they were born – rather than wait until legal hurdles have been jumped after the birth.

He said he was pleased with progress in his other area of focusing, housing in Rotorua and across the Waiariki electorate.

“For Rotorua alone, there’s also 260 more state houses, with 300 more on the way, half the amount of people in emergency housing than there was a year ago, and an active plan underway to exit emergency hotels,” he said.

Coffey entered Parliament at the 2017 election, beating Māori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell for the seat of Waiariki. But the Māori Party retook Waiariki in 2020, with Rawiriri Waititi scoring a slim 415 vote victory.