Elizabeth Dorothy Craig (born 1967) is a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party. She served as a Member of Parliament from 2017 to 2023. As a public health physician before entering Parliament, she is known for her research work on child poverty.
Early life and family
Craig was born in 1967[1] and received her secondary education at Spotswood College in New Plymouth. She left New Plymouth at the age of 18 to attend medical school in Auckland.[2] She was married to David Craig for 27 years, with whom she has two children.[3][4] In January 2020 she married Philip Melgren.[5]
Prior to the 2014 election, she lived in Dunedin. For the 2014 election, the family split its time between Dunedin and Romahapa in The Catlins.[3] In 2016, when her selection for the Invercargill electorate was confirmed, she started looking for a house in Invercargill and has lived there since.[6][7]
Public health career
Craig is a public health doctor and child poverty advocate.[8] In 2009, she won a $50,000 Dunedin School of Medicine's research development investment award, and she established a child and youth health policy research unit with that funding.[9] She was the director of the New Zealand Child and Youth Epidemiology Service of the University of Otago.[10] In 2012, she warned that New Zealanders had to get used to poor children suffering from Third World diseases.[11] She was part of a group that compiled an annual child poverty monitor, and the group has been credited with making the issue one of the core topics of the 2017 election.[12] Craig resigned as director from the research group, and as editor of the child poverty monitor, prior to the 2014 election.[3]
Craig stressed that her political views were formed through her work on child poverty, and "not the other way around".[3] She joined the Labour Party in 2010 and was a contributing author of Labour's children's policies for the 2011 and 2014 elections.[13] She stood for Labour in the Clutha-Southland electorate in the 2014 election, placing second. Ranked 32 on the Labour list, she was not returned on the list either.[14]
In May 2016, she was selected unopposed to contest the Invercargill electorate at the 2017 election.[12] Craig was placed 31 on Labour's party list.[15] Craig lost the electorate to incumbent Sarah Dowie, but entered parliament via the Party list.[16] In her first term, she was a member of the health, environment and regulations review committees.[17]
During the 2020 election, Craig contested the Invercargill electorate but lost to National candidate Penny Simmonds by 224 votes.[18] Craig had trailed by 685 votes in the preliminary results, causing speculation that she could win the seat when the special votes were counted.[19][20] Despite this defeat, Craig was able to remain in Parliament via the Labour Party list.[21]
Craig was chair of the health select committee from 2020 to 2022 when she was appointed the Parliamentary Private Secretary for Health.[22]
During the 2023 New Zealand general election, she contested Invercargill for a third time.[23][24] She came second place to National candidate Penny Simmonds, who won by a margin of 10,945 votes.[25] Due to her low ranking on the Labour Party list, she was not re-elected to Parliament.[26]
