Andrew Little new Labour President

Jenny Michie | 1st March 2009 | 10:51 pm

EMPU National Secretary Andrew Little is the new Labour Party President

Andrew Little is the new President of the NZ Labour Party. Mr Little was elected unopposed in a NZ Council by-election following the resignation of outgoing President Mike Williams.

Andrew Little has been National Secretary of the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union, New Zealand's largest private sector trade union, since August 2000.

He has previously served as President of the New Zealand University Students' Association and is on the board of Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki (WITT), Student Job Search and the Centre for High Performance Work.

Andrew lives in Wellington's Island Bay with his wife Leigh and his seven year old son, Cameron.

The Party's Returning Officer, General Secretary Mike Smith says both Andrew Little and the new Vice President Moira Coatsworth, who is replacing Marian Hobbs, were the only nominees for the two vacancies on New Zealand Council.

Moira is a member of the Labour Party Council representing the Waikato and Bay of Plenty electorates. She was a child psychologist for twenty years. Since then she has held national roles in the Ministry of Education's specialist services and in the NGO mental health and disability sector. She is now self employed, living and working from the Coromandel Peninsula

Mr Smith says Andrew Little brings strong organisational and strategic skills to the Party, which complement the new energy of the Parliamentary leadership under Phil Goff.

Mr Smith also paid tribute to Mike Williams who was President for eight years and led the Party through two election victories in 2002 and 2005.