{"id":540336,"date":"2026-07-23T13:09:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T13:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/540336\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T13:09:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T13:09:48","slug":"former-minister-peeni-henare-appointed-kaihautu-maori-for-new-zealand-rugby-te-ao-maori-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/540336\/","title":{"rendered":"Former minister Peeni Henare appointed Kaihaut\u016b M\u0101ori for New Zealand Rugby \u2013 Te Ao M\u0101ori News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">New Zealand Rugby has announced former Cabinet minister and Horahora Rugby player Peeni Henare will take up the role of Kaihaut\u016b M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cPeeni brings extensive leadership experience across governance, public service and executive leadership, along with a deep commitment to te ao M\u0101ori and the future of Aotearoa.\u201d the social media post said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Henare resigned earlier this year from the Labour Party, after 12 years in Parliament. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He entered Parliament in 2014 as MP for T\u0101maki Makaurau and went on to hold several senior ministerial portfolios under the Labour government, including Defence, Wh\u0101nau Ora, Civil Defence and Veterans, while also serving as an associate minister for Health and Housing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Four months after delivering his valedictory speech, he will now join the executive team, where they say he will help shape the future of the game by supporting M\u0101ori to thrive across rugby and ensuring te ao M\u0101ori continues to be reflected throughout the organisation and the wider rugby system. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He will also provide strategic leadership on M\u0101ori engagement with iwi, hap\u016b, clubs and provincial unions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">In 2025, New Zealand Rugby and the New Zealand M\u0101ori Rugby Board committed to establishing the Kaihaut\u016b M\u0101ori role as an executive position following the death of longstanding New Zealand Rugby kaum\u0101tua Luke Crawford in 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Before entering politics, Henare worked in M\u0101ori development and community leadership and has longstanding ties to rugby through Horahora Rugby Club. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/KF2KEDFB2FEMJLA4NP4PB3HZDE.png\"  width=\"800\" height=\"1066\"\/>Former Minister Peeni Henare pictured with National MPs at a charity rugby match in 2025. Photo: Parliamentary Rugby Team Facebook. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He also represented Parliament\u2019s cross-party rugby team in charity and exhibition matches during his time as an MP, later joking he was \u201ccut in half\u201d by former All Black Rodney So\u2019oialo in one of those fixtures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand Rugby has announced former Cabinet minister and Horahora Rugby player Peeni Henare will take up the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[266097,266095,111,143604,43,139,69,266096,176746,266094,228583],"class_list":["post-540336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-kaihautu-maori","tag-maori-rugby","tag-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand-rugby","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-nzr-executive-appointment","tag-peeni-henare","tag-rugby-governance","tag-te-ao-maori"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}