Suzanne Sinclair

Suzanne Sinclair ONZM JP
Sinclair in 2020
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Titirangi
In office 6 November 1993 – 12 October 1996
Preceded by	Marie Hasler
Succeeded by	Electorate abolished
Member of the Auckland City Council for Avondale Ward
In office 11 October 1986 – 14 October 1995
Preceded by	Ward established
Succeeded by	Phil Raffills
Personal details
Born	(1946-05-04) 4 May 1946 (age 78) Auckland, New Zealand
Political party	Labour
Children	1
Occupation	Teacher

Suzanne Mary Sinclair ONZM JP (born 4 May 1946) is a former New Zealand politician of the Labour Party. She was an MP from 1993 to 1996, representing the Titirangi electorate.

Sinclair was born in 1946 at Auckland.^[1] She was educated at Epsom Girls' Grammar School before attending Auckland Teachers College where she attained a diploma in teaching. Subsequently, she had a career in education as a teacher, literacy tutor, and a tutor for the Hillary Commission. She had one son.^[2]

Aside from education, Sinclair worked as an employment officer at the Department of Labour, a co-ordinator of the Friends of the Zoo programme at Auckland Zoo and managed a hire plant nursery business.^[2]

Sinclair joined the Labour Party in 1975 and held party positions in the New Lynn electorate and Labour's Auckland Regional Council. She was also a member of Labour's New Zealand Council.^[2]

In 1980 Sinclair stood unsuccessfully for the Auckland City Council on a Labour Party ticket.^[3] She was later elected to the council after at large was abolished and replaced with a ward system. She was elected in 1986 as a councillor for the Avondale Ward. She was re-elected in 1989 and 1992 before deciding not to stand again in 1995.^[4] She was also a member of the Avondale Community Board, the Portage Licensing Trust and the Auckland Institute of Technology Council.^[2]

Sinclair was first elected to Parliament in the 1993 election as MP for Titirangi when she beat the incumbent, National's Marie Hasler.^[5][6] The Titirangi electorate was abolished when mixed-member proportional (MMP) voting was introduced for the 1996 election. In the 1996 election, Sinclair unsuccessfully contested the Waitakere electorate, when she was in turn beaten by Hasler.^[7] Sinclair was also a list candidate ranked at 27, but Labour did not win sufficient votes for her to remain in Parliament.^[8]

For some years before the Britomart Transport Centre opened in 2003, Sinclair was the head of the Britomart information centre, which was funded by Auckland City Council.^[9] She was appointed by the Minister of Transport, Mark Gosche, to the chairmanship of the Road Safety Trust in March 2001,^[10] and she stepped down from this role in December 2007.^[11] Sinclair is currently relationship manager at the Ministry of Social Development (MSD). She chairs the WALSHtrust, an organisation in West Auckland supporting people with mental health, illness, and disability issues.^[12]

In the 2020 New Year Honours, she was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the community and governance.^[13] She is also a Justice of the Peace.^[2]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Suzanne Sinclair.

• Bassett, Michael (2013). City of sails: the history of Auckland City Council, 1989–2010. ISBN 978-1927262009.
• Temple, Philip (1994). Temple's Guide to the 44th New Zealand Parliament. Dunedin: McIndoe Publishers. ISBN 0-86868-159-8.
• Who's Who in the New Zealand Parliament 1993. Wellington: Parliamentary Service. 1993.