Fauono Ken Laban (born 1957) is a New Zealand rugby league footballer, broadcaster and politician. Since 2013 he has been a member of the Wellington Regional Council.
Fauono Ken Laban (born 1957) is a New Zealand rugby league footballer, broadcaster and politician. Since 2013 he has been a member of the Wellington Regional Council.
Laban grew up in Wainuiomata with his older sister Winnie Laban, who was later a Member of Parliament. His parents, Amy and Ken Snr, came to New Zealand from Samoa in the 1950s; both of their fathers were Samoan politicians in the Legislative Assembly of Samoa. [1] He attended Scots College in Wellington. [2] Straight after leaving school he joined the New Zealand Police, working there for 16 years. He then briefly went into community work before entering broadcasting. In 1990 he became a sports commentator for TVNZ. In 2000 he began commentating rugby on Sky. [1] He married Donna Liddell, a police inspector. [1]
He was a noted rugby league player and played for the Wainuiomata Lions. His final game for the club was their victory in the 1990 Lion Red Cup final, where Wainuiomata beat Otahuhu 34–12, thought to be the first win by a non-Auckland team at Carlaw Park. [3] He later coached rugby league until retiring in 1999. [4]
Laban has had a Lower Hutt-based political and governance career for more than twenty years. In 2004 he stood for a seat on the Hutt Valley District Health Board (DHB) for the Labour Party affiliated Hutt 2020 ticket and was elected; he remained a member of the DHB until its disestablishment in 2022. In 2007 he stood for Mayor of Lower Hutt as the Hutt 2020 candidate, but was unsuccessful, in a close three horse race with incumbent David Ogden and city councillor Ray Wallace. [5] In 2010 he was elected to both the Hutt City Council as a councillor for the Wainuiomata ward and the Hutt Mana Charitable Trust as a trustee representing Lower Hutt. He continued on the Trust until 2022. In 2013 he stood down from the city council and won a seat on the Wellington Regional Council, which he retained in 2016, 2019 and 2022. In December 2024 he was appointed to the board of Sport New Zealand. [6]
Laban was bestowed with the matai title of Fauono from his mother’s village, Vaiala. [1]
Wainuiomata is a large dormitory suburb of Lower Hutt, in the Wellington metropolitan area in New Zealand. Its population was estimated as being 20,250 as of June 2024, with a density of 1,600 people per km2. European settlement of Wainuiomata began in the 1850s with timber-felling and farming and began to grow in the 1920s. After World War 2 there was rapid population expansion, with Wainuiomata earning the nickname 'Nappy Valley' because of the large number of families with young children. From the late 1980s the economy slowed and the population decreased, but since about 2020 there has been a housing boom and corresponding increase in population. Wainuiomata is noted for being the origin of New Zealand's kōhanga reo movement.
Luamanuvao Dame Winifred Alexandra Laban is a former New Zealand politician. She served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Mana electorate, representing the Labour Party, and was the Labour Party's spokesperson for Pacific Island Affairs and for interfaith dialogue. Laban is the Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Pasifika) at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington and is a respected leader in the local Pasifika community.
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