Prior to entering Parliament, Tennet was involved in the Labour Party at an organisational level. She was a member of Labour's Women's Council, the Regional Council for the Wellington region and a member of Labour's National Executive.[2]
She was an MP from 1987 to 1996, representing the Labour Party.[3] She was first elected to Parliament in the 1987 elections as MP for the Wellington electorate of Island Bay, replacing the retiring Frank O'Flynn.[4] She gave birth to her son while an MP and travelled to Parliament with her 24-day-old child to attend a special caucus meeting in 1988 to support Prime Minister David Lange in a leadership challenge by sacked finance minister Roger Douglas.[5]
In 1990 she became Labour's junior whip as well as becoming party spokesperson on employment and associate spokesperson on women's affairs.[2] In 1993, Tennet was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal.[6]
In the 1995 local elections she was chosen as the Labour Party's candidate for the Wellington mayoralty to replace the retiring Fran Wilde. Tennet came second in the election behind Mark Blumsky.[7] Media were anticipating a neck-and-neck result between herself and Blumsky, but Blumsky won a much larger majority than expected.[8] Wilde did not support Tennet's candidacy thinking she was not right for the role and she was only standing for mayor because the Island Bay seat was being abolished at the next general election. Tennet and another MP, Graham Kelly, described Wilde as a turncoat for her criticisms.[9]
Tennet, the third woman to have a child whilst an MP, decided that her priorities had changed since entering politics in order to spend more time with her six-year-old son she decided to retire from parliament at the 1996 election.[10]
Later activities
In 2009, Tennet was appointed chief executive of industry development organisation Textiles New Zealand.[11] In 2011 she became the chief executive of Community Law Centres o Aotearoa[10]
Norton, Clifford (1988). New Zealand Parliamentary Election Results 1946–1987: Occasional Publications No 1, Department of Political Science. Wellington: Victoria University of Wellington. ISBN0-475-11200-8.
Who's Who in the New Zealand Parliament 1993. Wellington: Parliamentary Service. 1993.
