Priyanca Radhakrishnan


Priyanca Radhakrishnan is an Indian-born-New Zealand politician who was elected to the New Zealand parliament at the 2017 general election as a representative of the New Zealand Labour Party.

Early life and career

Radhakrishnan was born in Chennai, southern India but her family is from Kerala. She grew up in Singapore before finally moving to New Zealand. She attended Victoria University of Wellington and graduated with a master's degree in Development Studies.
After graduating Radhakrishnan worked as a social worker amongst the Indian community in Auckland. Her great grandfather was very active in left wing progressive politics in India and played an instrumental role in the formation of the state of Kerala. She joined the Labour Party in 2006 and has worked on the internal party policy development process and has been active in both local and regional party organisation.

Political career

A the election, Radhakrishnan was ranked number 23 on the Labour Party list, the highest newcomer, but narrowly missed out on election due to a drop in Labour's party vote that year. In October 2016, Radhakrishnan was selected as Labour's candidate for the electorate of for the. She was also ranked number 12 on Labour's list, making her the highest-ranked Labour member not already an MP and a significant increase from her ranking three years earlier.
Radhakrishnan did not win the electorate, but entered parliament via the Party list.
Radhakrishnan was mugged in broad daylight in an Auckland street after returning from a visit to Bangladesh.
Following a cabinet reshuffle on 27 June 2019, Radhakrishnan was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary for Ethnic Affairs.