Mark Mitchell (politician)


Mark Patrick Mitchell is a New Zealand politician and a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives. He is a member of the National Party.

Early life

Mitchell was born on Auckland's North Shore and lived his early years at Whenuapai air base, where his father was a flight lieutenant and his mother's father, Air Commodore Frank Gill, was the base commander. Gill was later a National Party cabinet minister, between 1975 and 1980. Mitchell attended Rosmini College.
He was in the New Zealand Police for thirteen years from 1989 to 2002, including time as a dog handler and in the Armed Offenders Squad. After leaving the police, Mitchell undertook an executive education short course at Wharton Business School.
Mitchell worked for eight years as a private security contractor and spent time in Iraq, including the siege of the Italian-run An Nasiriyah compound in Southern Iraq by the Mahdi militia in 2004.

Member of Parliament

Fifth National Government, 2011–2017

Mitchell was selected as the National Party's candidate for Rodney on 26 April 2011, replacing Lockwood Smith.
Mitchell voted against the Marriage Amendment Bill, a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry in New Zealand.
In 2014, Nicky Hager's book Dirty Politics presented evidence which suggested that Mitchell had hired political strategist Simon Lusk during the National Party selection process for the Rodney electorate. Lusk appeared to have collaborated with blogger Cameron Slater to discredit Mitchell's opponents, particularly Brent Robinson. Mitchell strongly denies ever paying Lusk or Slater.
He served as Chairperson of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee from the 2014 general election, before being appointed Minister for Land Information and Minister of Statistics in December 2016. In May 2017, he was promoted to Cabinet and became the Minister of Defence, while dropping the Statistics portfolio. In 2017, Mitchell said he would not quit politics if National lost the 2017 general election.

Coalition Government, 2017–present

During the 2017 general election, Mark Mitchell was re-elected in the Rodney electorate, defeating Labour candidate Marja Lubeck by a margin of 19,561 votes. Following the formation of a Labour-led coalition government, Mitchell was appointed as National's Spokesperson for the defence, disarmament, and justice portfolios. On 22 January 2019, he was designated as National's Spokesperson for Pike River Re-entry.

Personal life

Mitchell has two children and has had three marriages, including to Peggy Bourne, who is the widow of rally driver Possum Bourne.