Karen Chhour

The Honourable Karen Chhour MP
Chhour in 2023
4th Minister for Children
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 November 2023
Prime Minister	Christopher Luxon
Preceded by	Kelvin Davis
2nd Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 November 2023
Prime Minister	Christopher Luxon
Preceded by	Marama Davidson
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for ACT party list
Incumbent
Assumed office 17 October 2020
Personal details
Born	1980 or 1981 (age 42–43) Australia
Political party	ACT
Spouse	Menglin Chhour
Children	4

Karen Louise Chhour (born 1980 or 1981) is a New Zealand politician. She has been a member of parliament for ACT New Zealand since the 2020 general election.

Early life and career

Chhour is of Māori descent and belongs to the Ngāpuhi iwi. She was born in Australia and moved to New Zealand as a baby, first living with her grandparents in Kaeo before moving back in with her mother on the North Shore at the age of 5. She regularly ran away from home and ended up in foster care, which she states as a reason for her interest in addressing homelessness and child poverty. She worked in property management prior to becoming involved in politics.

Political career

New Zealand Parliament

Years	Term	Electorate	List	Party
2020–2023	53rd	List	7		ACT
2023–present	54th	List	6		ACT

First term, 2020–2023

In the 2020 general election, Chhour was placed seventh on the ACT party list and ran for the electorate of Upper Harbour. Chhour came fourth in Upper Harbour. However, ACT won 8% of the party vote, which entitled it to 10 MPs including Chhour. In her first term, Chhour was ACT's spokesperson for social development, children, and child poverty reduction.

In early December 2021, Chhour criticised the Labour Government's plans to introduce legislation under its Smokefree 2025 programme that would ban anyone under the age of 14 from legally purchasing tobacco for the rest of their lives. Older generations will only be permitted to buy tobacco products with very low-levels of nicotine while fewer shops will be allowed to sell tobacco products. Chhour argued that prohibition was unworkable and that the new law would create a black market for tobacco products.

On 28 September 2022, Chhour in her capacity as ACT's children spokesperson questioned the Minister of Children Kelvin Davis about the relationship between Oranga Tamariki (the Ministry for Children) and the Māori group Te Whānau o Waipareira Trust, which was being investigated for financing Māori Party candidate John Tamihere's campaign during the 2020 New Zealand general election. In response, Davis had made a statement telling Chhour to "enter the Māori world and stop looking at the world through a "vanilla lens." Chhour, who is Māori, was offended by his remarks, stating that Davis had taken away her mana. In response, ACT Party leader David Seymour described Davis' comments as "nasty" and "totally racist." The following day, Davis contacted Chhour and apologised for his remarks. Chhour accepted his apology. That same week, Chhour had introduced a member's bill that proposed repealing Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989, which requires Oranga Tamariki's chief executive to recognise and commit to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Second term, 2023–present

Chhour stood for re-election at the 2023 general election. She finished fourth in the Upper Harbour electorate but was returned for a second term as a list MP.

In late November 2023, Chhour assumed the positions of Minister for Children and Minister for the prevention of Family and Sexual Violence in the Sixth National Government.

Section 7AA law change

On 30 November 2023 Chhour, as Children's Minister, defended the Government's plans to repeal Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989, which requires Oranga Tamariki (Ministry for Children) to ensure that Māori babies who are uplifted from unsafe homes remain in the care of their wider family (whānau). She argued that focusing on race detracted from the ministry's primary focus of protecting "at-risk" children.

In mid April 2024, the Waitangi Tribunal summoned Chhour to provide evidence at an urgent inquiry into the repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The Tribunal asked the Minister to answer several questions including how many caregivers working with the Ministry had raised concern over the impact of Section 7AA and to provide specific examples of children being placed into unsafe conditions because of Section 7AA. In response, Crown lawyers filed judicial proceedings in the High Court seeking to block the Tribunal's summons. ACT leader Seymour criticised the Waitangi Tribunal's summons, saying that "they're buying a fight with someone with much greater mana." On 24 April, the High Court overturned the Waitangi Tribunal's subpoena to Chhour. In response, Treaty rights activist and lawyer Annette Sykes announced that she would appeal the High Court's decision. Crown Law has indicated Chhour plans to introduce her bill to repeal Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act in mid-May. Once Parliament has the bill, the Tribunal must cease its investigation into the issue. On 29 April, the Tribunal released an interim report claiming that the proposed repeal of Section 7AA would harm vulnerable children. The Tribunal is expected to release its report by 12 May 2024.

On 13 May, the New Zealand Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the Waitangi Tribunal and overturned the High Court ruling against Chhour's summons. That same day, the Government's Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill was introduced into Parliament.

Youth justice

In early March 2024 Chhour announced that Government would be launching a pilot military-style academy for serious youth offenders in mid 2024. The pilot boot camp would be run by Oranga Tamariki and have a rehabilitative and trauma-informed care approach as well as a military component. The Government's boot camp programme was criticised by Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, IHC director of advocacy Tania Thomas, Professor Joanna Kidman, Auckland youth development worker Aaron Hendry and human rights law firm Cooper Legal, who argued that boot camps did not address the causes of crime and would have an adverse impact on disadvantaged children and young people, particularly Māori and the intellectually disabled. In response to criticism, Chhour argued that boot camps were needed to show young offenders "there were consequences for their actions but they could benefit from a chance to turn their lives around." Retail NZ issued a statement expressing cautious support in light of high retail crime in New Zealand.

0n 23 June 2024, Chhour confirmed that the Government was working to introduce a Youth Serious Offender (YSO) declaration as part of its goal of reducing serious youth reoffending by 15 percent. The YSO declaration would give Police and youth courts greater powers including sending serious youth offenders to a military-style academy, expanded use of electronic and judicial monitoring and allowing Police to arrest youth offenders for not complying with bail conditions and other court orders. Young persons that would be covered under the Youth Serious Offender category include those aged between 14 and 17 years at the time of their offending, have had two serious offenses punishable by a ten-year prison sentence proven in court, and have been assessed as likely to reoffend or have failed to respond to intervention programs.

On 20 July 2024, Chhour and Acting Prime Minister David Seymour unveiled the Government's "Military-Style Academy Pilot" for youth offenders to the media, who were given a tour of its facilities.

Parliamentary work culture

During an interview with ThreeNews in early August 2024, Chhour said she faced bullying and an "unsafe work environment" at Parliament due to her ministerial responsibility for the Government's contentious Section 7AA repeal and boot camp policies. In May 2024, Chhour had been the target of Te Pāti Māori (TPM) social media statements attributing her alleged disconnection from Māori culture and family to her uplifting as a child and TPM MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi's remarks denouncing her as a puppet of the ACT party. Chhour and ACT whip Todd Stephenson had complained about these comments to Speaker Gerry Brownlee. Though Brownlee indicated that he would seek an apology from Kapa-Kingi, this was contradicted by Te Pāti Māori. Chhour expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of follow up to her complaint. In response to the alleged bullying of Chhour, ACT leader Seymour had accused Brownlee of "greenlighting" racial harassment for not pressing TPM on apologising to Chhour and said he was beginning to lose confidence in Brownlee's role as Speaker. ACT MPs had also refused to remove their party-branded lapel pins in protest of Brownlee's handling of Chhour's complaints. In response to the controversy, Labour and Green MPs Chris Hipkins, Kelvin Davis and Ricardo Menéndez March said that all MPs had the right to feel safe at Parliament but defended the right of opposition politicians to criticise Chhour's role in rolling out "controversial" and "harmful" government policies.

Personal life

Chhour lives on the North Shore. She met her husband Menglin, a Cambodian refugee, in intermediate school. They lost touch when she moved schools, but reconnected when she was 16, working at McDonald's after dropping out of high school. They have four children together.

In 2020, Chhour reconnected with her long-lost Australian father and discovered she has two sisters.