Background
Walker was born in Lower Hutt in 1982.
Walker was born in Lower Hutt in 1982.
She was raised by a mother on the Domestic Purposes Benefit and attended Waterloo School, Hutt Intermediate School and Hutt Valley High School, where she was deputy head girl.
She was a list Member of Parliament for the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand. In September 2005 Critic"s annual "Offensive Issue" included a fictional diary of a man who used drugs to stupefy and rape women. The Office of Film and Literature Classification banned the issue in early 2006, after Walker"s tenure as editor had ended.
She moved from Dunedin to Wellington and in 2006 began working as a media adviser to the Green Party.
The next year she moved to the Office of Treaty Settlements, working as an analyst. After two years in Oxford, Walker returned to New Zealand and the Green Party.
On 5 April 2012, Walker"s Lobbying Disclosure Bill was drawn from the ballot of private members" bills and introduced to Parliament. lieutenant had originally been written by Sue Kedgley, but was narrowed in scope under Walker.
The bill was modelled on a Canadian law, with similar legislation in Australia and America also being an influence.
Its intention was to make interactions between MPs and lobbyists more transparent. lieutenant passed its first reading but was rejected by a parliamentary select committee in August 2013. In January 2013 Walker unveiled the Green Party"s Home for Life scheme, aimed at getting low income earners into their own homes.
By the end of the Parliamentary term she was Green Party spokesperson for Housing, Electoral Reform, Children, Open Government, Arts Culture & Heritage, and Students.
Three months before the 2014 general election, Walker withdrew from the Green Party list, citing "a recent unexpected change in my family life". She had been placed twelfth - high enough to be returned to Parliament.
She remained the party"s (unsuccessful) candidate for Hutt South, campaigning only for the party vote, and has not ruled out a return to politics. She has written that she wishes to return to public life when family commitments allow her to:.
From 2001 she studied at the University of Otago, graduating with a Bachelor (Honours) in English and Politics, as well as winning a Blue for her achievements with the Otago University Debating Society. At the time of the ban she said the article was "defendable in that it highlights a very important issue", but when Critic interviewed her in 2012 she called it "a mistake to publish that particular article the way that we did". She spent 2009-2011 as a Political and Media Adviser to the party"s MPs, leading a poverty research project for the party, and she co-convened the Young Greens of Aotearoa in 2010.
Placed twelfth on the Green Party list for the 2011 election, Walker was elected to Parliament when the Greens gained 14 seats. Since stepping down as a Green Member of Parliament, Walker is working at the Office of the Children"s Commissioner, and writes a blog reviewing books written by women.