Teanau Tuiono

During the 2020 general election, Tuiono stood as the 8th ranked list candidate for the Green Party and as the party's candidate for Palmerston North. He came third place in Palmerston North, with 2,039 votes. With the Greens winning 10 seats, he became a list Member of Parliament. Tuiono is the Green Party's first Pasifika MP.

In December 2020, Tuiono joined fellow Green MP Golriz Ghahraman and Labour MP Ibrahim Omer in pledging to form a new parliamentary Palestine friendship group to "raise the voices of Palestinian peoples in the New Zealand Parliament" during an event organised by the Wellington Palestine advocacy group to mark the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people.

At the 2019 local-body elections, Tuiono stood for Mayor of Palmerston North as the Green Party candidate, running a campaign focusing on the local effects of climate change. He finished a distant second to incumbent Grant Smith.

Tuiono stood for the Green Party at the 2017 election and was 16th on the party list. This was not high enough for Tuiono to be elected to parliament, as the party won only 8 seats.

He attended the protests at the anti-Springbok tour protests in 1981. Prior to entering parliament, Teanau Tuiono organised protests for subjects such as GCSB laws, the TPPA, and support for Australian Aboriginal rights. He was also involved in translating Facebook into Māori. In 2021 during a debate on new anti-terrorism laws he recalled how his home had been raided by police during the 2007 New Zealand police raids.

Teanau Tuiono (born 25 December 1972) is a New Zealand politician. In 2020 he became a Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives as a representative of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Tuiono was born on 25 December 1972. He is both Cook Islands Māori (Atiu) and New Zealand Māori (Ngāpuhi and Ngāi Takoto); he is tangata whenua, and also belongs to the Pasifika/Moananui diaspora. Tuiono grew up in Te Atatū and Ōtāhuhu, with a two-year period in Rarotonga. He initially enrolled for an engineering certificate but partway through changed to a BA in Māori Studies at the University of Auckland. He credits an environmental paper he took there, taught by Jeanette Fitzsimons, as turning him into environmental activism. He followed his BA with a law degree, also from the University of Auckland.