Quick Facts
Biography
Damian Light (born c. 1984) is a New Zealand politician who has been the leader of the United Future party since Peter Dunne's resignation in August 2017. He had previously served as the president of the party. Light is also the first openly gay leader of a political party in New Zealand.
Personal life
Light was born and raised in Auckland. He attended Rosmini College in Takapuna. He currently lives in Botany Downs, Auckland, with his partner, Josh Harding. He works as an improvement analyst at AsureQuality, and previously worked as a line manager at KiwiRail.
Political career
Light stated that he was motivated to become involved in politics at the 2002 general election after seeing Peter Dunne's memorable television debate with the "worm". He first stood for parliament at the 2008 general election in the North Shore electorate and ranked 13 on United Future's party list. At the 2011 general election Light was again United Future's candidate for North Shore and was ranked 12 on the party list In the 2014 general election Light was United Future's candidate for the Northcote electorate and ranked third on the party list. In the 2017 general election, Light is United Future's candidate for the Botany electorate, and first place on the party list.
Upon becoming party leader, Light stated he would prefer United Future to gravitate closer towards Labour than National as he claimed to possess a 'social conscience' and indicated his key area of policy concern was drug reform. After appearing in a televised debate on TVNZ 1, Light went viral on social media, being compared to Hollywood film star Ryan Gosling, with "Damian Light" trending on Twitter, and United Future's website crashing from an increased surge in internet traffic.