Labour MP Vanushi Walters has always been determined to make a difference in the world, but when she was first asked to enter politics, her initial response was, “No thanks!”
With three young boys and a full-time career as a lawyer, life already felt like a juggling act.
“I remember two senior Labour Party people came to see me to ask about whether I’d think about standing as an MP, and I said, ‘Well, look under the dining table and you’ll see why that might not be the best thing right now.’ And there, my three-year-old had fallen asleep on the floor,” she laughs, speaking to Woman’s Day over a video call from her office in Parliament.
“At the time, it just seemed like a complete impossibility – I didn’t see how I could do it and still be there for the boys.”
But with the support of her husband, fellow lawyer Rhys Walters, her mother Ferne and extended family, plus encouragement from other MPs raising young children, Vanushi decided to take the leap. She entered Parliament in 2020, lost her seat three years later, then returned after David Parker’s resignation last year.
Standing up for what’s right
Today, she’s Labour’s shadow Attorney-General and spokesperson for foreign affairs, and family life has settled into a comfortable rhythm with Vanushi spending several nights a week in Wellington. Her boys – now aged 15, 12 and nine – are almost as comfortable as regular visitors in the halls of Parliament as they are at home in West Auckland.
“Sometimes they’d be running around barefoot in their togs in the hallways,” she smiles, recalling how excited they were to discover there was an indoor swimming pool in the basement of Parliament.
Standing up for what she believes in may define her political career today, but the foundations were laid long before Vanushi entered politics. One of her earliest memories is from primary school in Wellington, where she was deeply concerned when children with special needs were treated badly by some of their classmates.
Then, aged 12, her mother told her about Richard de Zoysa – her father’s second cousin, and a Sri Lankan journalist who was abducted and murdered in 1990 after speaking out against the government. It became one of the defining stories of her childhood.
A passion for justice
By the time Vanushi reached high school in Auckland, she couldn’t sit back and watch as she noticed a large number of Asian students had to eat lunch in a side cloakroom due to an overcrowded common room.
“That was one I raised with the principal,” she recalls.
Born in Sri Lanka, Vanushi spent five years living in Africa before her family settled in New Zealand. Social activism runs through her family. Her great-grandfather was the first mayor of Colombo, while her great-grandmother was Sri Lanka’s second woman elected to Parliament.
By 14, Vanushi was volunteering for Amnesty International.
“By this stage, the protection of human rights was a very important issue for me.”
She later studied law at the University of Auckland before completing a master’s degree in international human rights law at Oxford. Her career took her through organisations including the Auckland Refugee Council, YouthLaw Aotearoa and the Human Rights Commission, building a reputation in advocacy long before politics came calling. And that passion is still evident today.
Speaking up, always
When Woman’s Day speaks to Vanushi, she’s just finished speaking against Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ comments made to Green MP Lawrence Xu-Nan, telling him to “go back to your own country”. In her speech, she also questioned Prime Minister Christopher Luxon over what she describes as his failure to act.
She says, “It was racist and unacceptable – I don’t believe it’s tenable for our Minister of Foreign Affairs to make comments like that.”
For Vanushi, speaking out has never been a difficult decision. At home, though, she’s simply “mum”.
She misses her boys while she’s in Wellington, but they talk several times a day when she’s away and she makes every effort to be present for the moments that matter – even if that sometimes means Zooming into parent-teacher interviews.
“I explicitly tell them on repeat that if there’s something that’s extremely important to them, let me know because I will do everything to be there.”
It takes a village
None of it, she says, would be possible without Rhys and her mother, who lives just seven minutes away – yes, she’s counted! – and helps look after the boys several days each week.
“She has the children on my husband’s really intense work days. She takes them to activities and they have playdates at her house. It very much is a village and I’m so grateful.”
As the election approaches, Vanushi knows the weeks ahead will be busy. But she says she has never felt this much energy within the Labour Party and believes a change of government is ahead.
She enthuses, “There is excitement at what is possible – that we can have a better New Zealand. We can have a New Zealand where people aren’t worried about day-to-day issues like food and shelter, and where we’re standing up for the values that we believe in.”
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