Chris Carter was born on 4 May 1952, and brought up in the Auckland suburb of Panmure. He was educated at St Peter's College, Auckland and at the University of Auckland where he received an MA in history. Before entering politics, Carter had served as a teacher and as a poultry farmer. His partner is Peter Kaiser, a headmaster, and they have been together for over 40 years. On 10 February 2007, Carter and Kaiser were joined in the first civil union for a Cabinet Minister or Member of Parliament since civil unions in New Zealand were introduced after legislation was passed in December 2004.
Member of Parliament
Carter was the first openly gay man ever appointed as a New Zealand Cabinet minister. He had been a strong advocate of gay equality for some time, and continued this role on entering Parliament. In 1994, Carter was named by the Speaker of the HousePeter Tapsell for calling John Banks a hypocrite over his pro-life stance on abortions. Carter started one of the first branches of New Zealand Rainbow Labour for centre-left lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender people and others during the 1996–1999 term, after having lost the newly created Waipareira electorate to National's Brian Neeson by just 107 votes, and not having been placed on the Labour list for the election. At the, Carter was re-elected to his seat with 59.4% of the vote, a majority of 10,447. Labour lost power in the. Carter was re-elected, but his majority was almost halved to 5,298. On 14 June 2010, 4 days after the release of ministerial credit card records, Carter along with two other MPs Shane Jones MP and Mita Ririnui MP were demoted by Opposition Leader Phil Goff MP for misuse of such credit cards. In the case of Carter, he was accused of purchasing personal items with the card, which was outside the rules for Ministerial expenditure as a minister under the former Clark government over a six-year period. Carter repaid the money in full, a total of $26. His main dispute with Phil Goff was over allegations by Goff that Carter had travelled too much as a Cabinet Minister. All of Carter's travel as a minister was official travel and approved by Cabinet. Carter's demotion included removal from the front bench, and loss of the shadow portfolio of Foreign Affairs. Carter subsequently speculated publicly about whether he would continue as a Member of Parliament. As a cabinet minister, Carter was entitled to the title of The Honourable and became The Hon. Mr Chris Carter, which is a title granted for the rest of his life. On 29 July 2010 Carter was suspended from the Labour Party caucus for allegedly being behind an anonymous letter sent around the press gallery claiming there was a leadership challenge against Phil Goff; a charge he later admitted. On 17 August 2010, Speaker Lockwood Smith announced that Chris Carter was officially an independent MP and no longer a Labour MP. Carter remained an independent MP until his resignation as a Member of Parliament on 30 September 2011. Because Carter's resignation was less than six months prior to the general election on 26 November, no by-election was held to fill the vacancy he created.
United Nations
In early September 2011 Carter was appointed as programme manager of the Governance Unit of the United Nations Development Programme in Afghanistan, leading the strengthening of local governance in all 34 Afghan Provinces. He served in that role for 4 years. On 18 October 2013, Carter was waiting for a colleague to leave his compound in Kabul when a suicide bomber attacked a passing military convoy on the street some away; he was separated from the blast by a glass wall. If his Australian colleague had not been late, they could have been the victims of the attack themselves. Carter considered it a "close shave". In September 2015 Chris Carter was appointed as the Senior UN Advisor for Rakhine State in Myanmar after serving for 4 years in Afghanistan. His Myanmar role, which he filled until 2019, was to lead and coordinate development by UN Agencies operating in Rakhine State, a region of Myanmar marked by serious religious and ethnic conflict between Buddhist and Muslim communities.
Local politics
In 2019, Carter retired from the United Nations after seven years' service and returned to New Zealand to live in Te Atatū. He had rejoined the New Zealand Labour Party in 2018. In the 2019 New Zealand local elections, he was elected a member of Auckland Council's Henderson-Massey Local Board and became Chairperson. He was also elected as a member of the Waitemata District Health Board.
