Carmel Sepuloni was born, raised and schooled in Waitara, Taranaki. Her father was a Samoan-Tongan migrant freezing worker and 'staunch unionist' and her mother was a Pākehā from a conservative farming family.

She moved to Auckland in 1996 to study towards teaching qualifications becoming a teacher and gaining experience in Samoa and with Auckland youth in alternative education programmes; an equity manager; and a research project manager in Pacific health at the University of Auckland.

Much of Carmel’s work as a Member of Parliament has been focused on improving educational and health outcomes for marginalised and vulnerable groups.

A born-and-bred West Aucklander, Christopher Penk lives in Glen Eden with his wife Kim.

Since attending Kelston Boys, Chris attended the University of Auckland, joined the Navy, served on Australian submarines and became a lawyer.

He replaces NZ’s former prime minister John Key at National’s candidate in Helensville.

Geoff grew up barefoot in Okaihau (Far North) and West Auckland. He has now lived in Wellington for more than 15 years, working as an economist for a variety of organisations such as Treasury and the Morgan Foundation.

When he’s not running for parliament Geoff enjoys performing and training improvised comedy, speaking Spanish, playing in a samba band and getting his hands dirty planting trees and cleaning up Wellington's town belt.

Growing up in Los Angeles made Julie Anne recognise early in life that transport and urban design have a profound impact on the way we live.

She graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA and studied Politics at the prestigious Sciences Po Paris, before moving to New Zealand as a scholar at the University of Auckland, where she gained a Masters of Planning Practice with First Class Honours.  She went on to work as a transport consultant at some of New Zealand's leading firms, undertaking ground-breaking research in transport economics and urban design.

Julie Anne has been an MP for the Green Party of New Zealand since 2011.

Among various creative and entrepreneurial endeavours, Julian is a devoted organiser of these events and deeply engaged citizen of the world.

After founding communico, providing all-media design, photography, video, and event production Julian launched into the startup world developing the controlroom.co tool for online marketing.

Intense curiosity and hunger for learning means he will always ask that burning question, a trait that isn’t always endearing but should ensure a lively panel discussion!