Since the late 1990s I have worked at the intersection of government, politics and business.

From 1996 to 1998 I was Commonwealth Scholar from Australia to New Zealand funded by the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan at the University of Auckland. While at Auckland University I completed an Master of Arts (First Class Honours) in political studies. My thesis "Three's a crowd" : an examination of the bases of electoral support for two established parties and a new party contesting the centre of the New Zealand electorate utilised data from the New Zealand Election Study to understand electoral competition in New Zealand’s first election under the Mixed-Member Proportional (MMP) electoral system.

During this time I also wrote a chapter on the election in the Waipareira electorate at the same 1996 election published as “Waipareira: A Four-Way Fight” in From Campaign to Coalition: The 1996 MMP Election edited by Jonathon Boston, Stephen Levine, Elizabeth McLeay and Nigel Roberts.

As part of this work I also wrote an opinion piece for the New Zealand Herald: Henare and co probably best to stay with party

While my MA thesis focused on electoral politics, I subsequently became interested in institutional politics, particularly the interface between legislative and executive power in parliamentary democracies.

While working as a doctoral scholar at University of Auckland I became interested in the reforms made to the New Zealand Parliament’s Standing Orders in the lead up to electoral system change in 1996.

I presented a paper on this topic to the Australasian Political Studies Association annual conference in Christchurch: What the Australian Senate can House of Representatives.

I was subsequently awarded the Winthrop Doctoral Scholarship to the University of Western Australia to complete a PhD on the topic.

While I never completed the PhD I did present a number of papers drawn from it including:

Public Perceptions of the New Zealand Parliament at the Australasian Study of Parliament Group 1999 National Conference at the New South Wales Parliament. This was subsequently published in volume 14 of Legislative Studies (now rebranded as the Australasian Parliamentary Review) and republished in the NZ Parliament and Business Trust Information Bulletin 2000 edition 3.

Do New Zealand Select Committees make a difference? at the Australasian Study of Parliament Group 2000 National Conference at the Queensland Parliament.

Select committees and their role in keeping Parliament relevant: do New Zealand select committees make a difference?

Paper presented to the Australasian Study of Parliament Group National Conference: 14-16 July 2000 Customs House and Queensland Parliament Brisbane, Qld, Australia

The role of New Zealand Parliament in the Treaty of Waitangi settlement process

In this paper presented to the Australasian Political Studies Association Annual Conference, 24 September 2001, Parliament House, Brisbane I analyse the role of New Zealand Parliament and its select committee system in the Treaty of Waitangi settlement process.