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Deon Swiggs

Summary

Deon William Swiggs (born 6 September 1986) is a New Zealand politician serving as the Environment Canterbury Councillor representing the Christchurch West/Ōpuna Regional Constituency. He previously served as the Christchurch City Councillor representing the Central ward from 2016 to 2019. Prior to Swiggs being elected, he was most well known for his participation in Rebuild Christchurch, an organisation founded after the 2010 Canterbury earthquake.

Councillor
Deon Swiggs
Swiggs in Christchurch City Council chamber
Christchurch City Councillor
In office
8 October 2016 – October 2019
Preceded byWard established
Succeeded byJake Mclellan
ConstituencyCentral Ward
Environment Canterbury Councillor
Assumed office
8 October 2022[1]
Serving with Craig Paulings
Preceded byMegan Hands
ConstituencyChristchurch West/Ōpuna
Personal details
Born (1986-09-06) 6 September 1986 (age 37)
Nelson, New Zealand
Political partyLabour Party (until 2016)
Websitedeonswiggs.com
Deon Swiggs at AMI Stadium

Early life and up to 2019 edit

 
Deon Swiggs meets Prince Charles in Christchurch

Swiggs was born in Nelson, New Zealand, and is the oldest of three siblings. Until Swiggs was 5, he was raised at Parihaka Pa as a Christian. Swiggs was educated at Marlborough Boys' College where he was a sixth form prefect. After graduating in 2004, Swiggs joined the Royal New Zealand Navy in 2005 as a navigation officer. Swiggs left the Navy in 2008 to pursue a career in the business sector.[2] In 2008, Swiggs worked as a real estate agent for Harcourts in New Plymouth before transferring to Christchurch in 2009. He left the company in 2010 to form Swiggs Consulting Limited. Later in 2010, Swiggs was offered the position of South Island Accounts Manager at AdzUp.[2]

At the time of the 2010 Canterbury earthquake, Swiggs was working for AdzUp, two days later he founded Rebuild Christchurch, which collated information from a variety of sources and placed this information in an easy to understand format. Swiggs has been called one of the innovate new entrepreneurs born out of the Christchurch earthquakes.[3] On 22 February 2011, Swiggs was in the AdzUp office located in the Christchurch CBD when the first earthquake struck.[4]

In April 2011, Swiggs was made redundant from AdzUp due to the earthquakes. From this time, Swiggs worked full-time on RebuildChristchurch.co.nz and studied on the side.[5] In 2012, Swiggs was nominated for Young New Zealander of the Year.[6] and was named alongside Roger Sutton and Bob Parker as a leader in the Canterbury Rebuild.

Swiggs was accepted into a placement at the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology in February 2013 into a Bachelor of Applied Management. In March 2013, Swiggs Graduated from CPIT with Bachelor of Applied Management Majoring in Sales and Marketing [7] and Graduate Diploma in Innovation and Entrepreneurship.[8] The Press reported on 27 April 2013 that Swiggs was contemplating running for Councillor of the Christchurch City Council.[9]

On 26 August 2013, Swiggs announced he had put his nomination forward for the Christchurch East by-election.[10] On 22 September 2013 Swiggs found his nomination was unsuccessful. Poto Williams was selected and elected Member of Parliament.[11]

In July 2015, Swiggs and Christchurch broadcaster Chris Lynch along with award-winning filmmaker Gerard Smyth spent a week interviewing various citizens of Christchurch about their views on the Christchurch Earthquake Recovery Act draft transition recovery plan, which expired in April 2016. As of 28 July, the video, When a City Falls, has been watched more than 30,000 times.[12][13]

On 31 May 2016, Swiggs announced that he would stand for Christchurch City Council as an independent in the newly created Christchurch Central ward in the 2016 local body elections. On 8 October 2016, he was elected to the council.[14][15]

Swiggs was a founding trustee on the Canterbury Insurance Advocacy Service funded by council to advocate for people with insurance issues.[16] Swiggs resigned as a trustee on 23 December 2016.[17]

In September 2019 Swiggs identified himself as the councillor accused of sending "grossly inappropriate", sexually explicit messages to young people, and made young people feel unsafe and uncomfortable through touching and other comments made at events.[18][19] He denied any allegation of misconduct.[20]

Screenshots released by Swiggs on 3 October 2019 show some of the messages related to the complaint made by the Canterbury Youth Workers Collective.[21][22][23] A preliminary investigation revealed that two of the complaints warranted further investigation, while a third complaint was referred to another agency, presumed to be the police.[24] In the 2019 New Zealand local elections, Swiggs was unsuccessful in being re-elected.[25]

Present edit

Presently, Swiggs is the chair of The Rebuild Build Christchurch Foundation, director of Rebuild Christchurch and the Councillor-Elect for the Christchurch West/Ōpuna Constituency for Environment Canterbury. Elected in the 2022 New Zealand local elections, he joined Craig Pauling as Councillor for the Christchurch West/Ōpuna Constituency.

Projects edit

Swiggs has worked on the following projects;

  • Project Christmas[26][27]
  • Lets Get It Done[28]
  • Football in the Gap[29]
  • The Canterbury Insurance Assistance Service[30]
  • Buck Brings Back Marmite[31]
  • A Beautiful Struggle[32]
  • Christchurch Panoramas[33][34]
  • Eyes East[35]

Personal life edit

Swiggs was the first Christchurch councillor who was openly gay at the time of his election. He is a supporter of the LGBTQ community.[36]

Awards edit

  • Local Hero Award in New Zealander of the Year Awards[37]
  • Christchurch City Council Service Award for Youth[37]
  • Community Service Award[38]

References edit

  1. ^ "Preliminary election results released".
  2. ^ a b Swiggs, Deon. "Deon Swiggs: About". Archived from the original on 9 October 2013. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  3. ^ "Entrepreneurs emerge from Chch quake". 3news.co.uk. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  4. ^ "New Zealand earthquake: Hard to move on when ground keeps moving". Los Angeles Times. 22 February 2012. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  5. ^ "Entrepreneurs emerge from Chch quake – Story – NZ News". 3 News. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
  6. ^ "CPIT Student in the Business of Recovery". Cpit.ac.nz. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  7. ^ "Student numbers up in line with rebuild – Story – NZ News". The Press. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  8. ^ "Student numbers up in line with rebuild – Story – NZ News". The Press. 28 December 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2013.
  9. ^ "The Press Campaigners set their sights on council seats". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  10. ^ Rachel Young (25 August 2013). "Deon Swiggs To Stand for Dalziel's Christchurch..." Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
  11. ^ "Poto Williams selected as Labour Christchurch East Candidate". Scoop.co.nz. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
  12. ^ MEIER, CECILE (28 July 2015). "'Huge wave of support' for locally-led recovery". The Press. Fairfax Media.
  13. ^ "When a City Falls". NZOnScreen.com. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  14. ^ Daly, Jo (14 October 2016). "Declaration of results" (PDF). Christchurch City Council.
  15. ^ "Rebuild Christchurch founder Deon Swiggs standing for council". The Press. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
  16. ^ "Canterbury Insurance Advocacy Service". Canterburyinsuranceadvocacyservice.wordpress.com. Archived from the original on 4 December 2013. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  17. ^ "Charities Services | Home".
  18. ^ Sam Sherwood and Blair Ensor (23 September 2019). "Christchurch city councillor Deon Swiggs reveals he is under investigation". Stuff. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  19. ^ Conan Young (21 September 2019). "Concern over time taken to probe complaints about a councillor". RNZ. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  20. ^ "Christchurch councillor accused of inappropriate behaviour identifies himself". RNZ. 23 September 2019. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  21. ^ Sherwood, Sam; Law, Tina (24 September 2019). "Christchurch City councillor Deon Swiggs taking 'short break'". Stuff. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
  22. ^ Swiggs, Deon. "Facebook messages 1". Retrieved 25 February 2021.
  23. ^ "2 Complainant Two". Retrieved 25 February 2021.
  24. ^ Law, Tina (14 October 2019). "Calls for continued investigation into ex Christchurch councillor's 'grossly inappropriate' actions". Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  25. ^ "Christchurch City Council 2019 Election Results". Christchurch City Council. 19 October 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
  26. ^ "Struggling Families Given A Boost". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  27. ^ "Stuff | Bus Makes Special Deliveries". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  28. ^ "Stuff | Getting it Done". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  29. ^ "Rebuild Christchurch | Football in the Gap". Rebuild Christchurch. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  30. ^ "Fairfax". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  31. ^ "Sanitarium | Buck Brings Back Marmite". Sanitarium. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  32. ^ "Newstalk ZB". Newstalkzb.co.nz. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  33. ^ "New pics illustrate change in Christchurch's cityscape". The New Zealand Herald.
  34. ^ Mathewson, Nicole (17 May 2015). "Aerial views of Christchurch prove popular". Stuff. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
  35. ^ "CTV to debut doco series on East Christchurch". Stuff. 23 September 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
  36. ^ "GayNZ.com Chch elects openly gay councillor, Deon Swiggs". 23 April 2017. Archived from the original on 23 April 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  37. ^ a b "CPIT student in the business of recovery". CPIT News. Cpit.ac.nz. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  38. ^ "Awards for those who donate their time". The Press. Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 2 December 2013.

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