Brent Catchpole is a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 politician. He is a member of the New Zealand First

New Zealand First

New Zealand First is a political party in New Zealand that was founded in 1993, following party founder Winston Peters' resignation from the National Party in 1992...

 party.

Professional life

Before entering politics, Catchpole worked first as an accountant

Accountant

An accountant is a practitioner of accountancy or accounting , which is the measurement, disclosure or provision of assurance about financial information that helps managers, investors, tax authorities and others make decisions about allocating resources.The Big Four auditors are the largest...

 and then as a marketing

Marketing

Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...

 director for a tourism company. He now works as a political lobbying consultant.

Member of Parliament

He was elected to Parliament as a list MP

Party-list proportional representation

Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems emphasizing proportional representation in elections in which multiple candidates are elected...

 in the 2002 elections

New Zealand general election, 2002

The 2002 New Zealand general election was held on 27 July 2002 to determine the composition of the 47th New Zealand Parliament. It saw the reelection of Helen Clark's Labour Party government, as well as the worst-ever performance by the opposition National Party.Arguably the most controversial...

, but lost his seat in the 2005 elections

New Zealand general election, 2005

The 2005 New Zealand general election held on 17 September 2005 determined the composition of the 48th New Zealand Parliament. No party won a majority in the unicameral House of Representatives, but the Labour Party of Prime Minister Helen Clark secured two more seats than nearest rival, the...

. He was his party's spokesperson on Communications & IT, Environment, Biosecurity, Internal Affairs, and Tourism portfolios.

Local body politics

In 2007 he was elected to the Papakura District Council in the Ardmore ward. He had also contested the Papakura mayoralty

Mayor of Papakura

The Mayor of Papakura was the head of the municipal government of Papakura, New Zealand, and presided first over the Papakura City and then Papakura District . The mayor was directly elected using a First Past the Post electoral system....

 that year, together with Calum Penrose

Calum Penrose

-Political career:In 2007 Penrose was elected the Mayor of Papakura, defeating incumbent John Robertson.In the 2010 Auckland Council elections Penrose won a seat in the Manurewa-Papakura ward standing under the Manurewa-Papakura First Action ticket....

 and the incumbent John Robertson

John Robertson (New Zealand)

John Struan Robertson is a former New Zealand politician.-Member of Parliament:He was an MP from 1990 to 1996, representing first the National Party and then United New Zealand. He was first elected to Parliament in the 1990 general election as MP for Papakura, replacing Merv Wellington...

. They received 757, 5386 and 3985 votes, respectively. Penrose was thus elected.

In the 2010 local body elections, he stood for the Papakura Local Board and the Counties Manukau District Health Board. He was successful with the local board, but unsuccessful with the District Health Board.