Tax lawyer Barbara Edmonds is already familiar with the Beehive after a public service career, mainly in Inland Revenue, which has included secondments to the offices of National ministers Judith Collins and Michael Woodhouse and Labour’s Stuart Nash.

Tagata Pasifika reports that her parents came from Samoa in 1978. She grew up on Auckland’s North Shore and attended Carmel College and Auckland University.

She met her Ngāpuhi husband Chris and fell pregnant in her second year at university and told Tagata Pasifika: “By the time I finished my law and arts degrees about five and a half years later, I was pregnant with baby number five.”

She and Chris now have eight children and live in Titahi Bay. Edmonds’ Labour profile says she has coached and managed children’s rugby, tag, athletics, netball and surf lifesaving, and is a member of the board of trustees for Mana College.