Nuk Korako

Early life and family

Korako attended St Stephen's School in Bombay south of Auckland, Rangiora High School, and Lincoln College. He is married to Christine, and they have four sons. His father is from North Canterbury and was a freezing worker; his paternal grandfather was a wharfie.

Career

Korako is a businessman in the tourism sector and a Ngāi Tahu board member.

Political career

Korako has supported the National Party for many years, and contributed to Bob Parker's 2007 mayoral campaign.

Korako stood for Christchurch City Council in the 2013 local elections in the Banks Peninsula ward. Based on preliminary results, he was just five votes behind Andrew Turner, with 80 special votes still to be counted. On the strength that he may get declared elected, Korako attended the induction meeting, and joined the council delegation that met Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee. One week after the election, Turner was declared the winner with a five votes margin.

Korako was elected relatively late by the National Party over fellow contenders Lincoln Platt and Jason White, and had just 100 days for his campaign. He claims to have doorknocked 300 houses per day, but Labour members dispute that, pointing out that this would mean 10 hours of uninterrupted work, with just two minutes spent at each house.

He contested the 2014 election against Ruth Dyson of the Labour Party, who has held the Port Hills electorate since its inception in 2008. Based on preliminary counts, Dyson has a majority of 1,865 votes over Korako, who entered Parliament via the National party list.

In 2016, Korako had a private member's bill drawn by ballot for debate in Parliament. The Airport Authorities (Publicising Lost Property Sales) Amendment Bill would allow airports to decide the best way to advertise lost property for sale.