Rosslyn Noonan

Rosslyn Joy Noonan (née Shaw; born 1946) is a New Zealand politician and trade unionist. She was an organiser for several trade unions and the Labour Party and served for a time in local government. Later she served as New Zealand's Human Rights Commissioner.

Biography Early life Noonan was born Rosslyn Joy Shaw was born in 1946 to journalist parents. Her father was Trevor Shaw, who worked as a reporter for The New Zealand Herald. Much of her early childhood was spent overseas, first in Nigeria and the then in the Belgian Congo before returning to New Zealand and completing her secondary education at Auckland Girls' Grammar School. She later married Michael A. Noonan, a New Zealand filmmaker and producer with whom she had two children.

Political career Noonan joined the Labour Party in her youth and while studying at Auckland University joined the famous Princes Street branch. She was the first in her family to attend university where she studied history and focused on the emergence of trade unions and wrote her MA thesis on the unemployed riots of 1932 during the Great Depression. She was on the organising committee of the 1975 United Women's Convention, working alongside leading feminist organisers such as Sue Piper, Deidre Milne and Margaret Shields.

In 1980 Noonan unsuccessfully contested the Wellington mayoralty against Michael Fowler. Despite losing the mayoralty, she was elected for two terms as a councillor on a Labour ticket between 1980 and 1986. She was one member of the "troika" (a group of three female Labour councillors alongside Helene Ritchie and Hazel Bibby) who frequently opposed Fowler around the council table. It culminated in 1982, when Ritchie successfully passed a motion officially declaring Wellington a nuclear-free zone. Also during her time on the council she led the opposition to proposals to privatise city council housing. Arguing that the provision of low-cost, affordable housing was of enormous benefit to the city which had flow-on benefits to ratepayers. Wellington ended up keeping the state housing, one of the few councils that did so.

She was in favour of homosexual law reform in New Zealand and listed her name openly in support.

In 1990, Noonan was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.

Other activities Noonan was involved with trade unionism and entered the field herself via the Kindergarten Teachers' Association. From there she launched her career with the unions and worked for the New Zealand Educational Institute, including eight years as its national secretary from 1988 to 1996. She then left for a position as the human rights coordinator for Education International, an international teachers' organisation in Brussels. In 2018, she was appointed to head a review panel of the family court system in New Zealand by Justice Minister Andrew Little.

In the 2020 Queen's Birthday Honours, Noonan was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to human rights.

Noonan's husband, Michael, died in 2023.

Publications by Noonan