First term, 2014–2017

At the 2014 election, after Turia had retired from politics, Rurawhe contested the Te Tai Hauāuru electorate for Labour and defeated Chris McKenzie of the Māori Party.^[5][9]

In his first term of Parliament, Labour was in Opposition and Rurawhe was appointed as the Labour Party spokesperson for civil defence and emergency management (2014–2015), internal affairs (2015–2017) and Treaty of Waitangi negotiations (2017). He was also junior whip after the election of Jacinda Ardern as Labour Party leader.

In July 2015, Rurawhe introduced the Official Information (Parliamentary Under-Secretaries) Amendment Bill. Under the provisions of the bill, information held by parliamentary under-secretaries would be classified as official information and consequently subject to Official Information Act requests. The bill was passed into law with the support of all parties except New Zealand First and received royal assent in July 2016.^[10]

Second term, 2017–2020

Rurawhe retained Te Tai Hauāuru for Labour in the 2017 general election.^[11][12] Following the formation of the Sixth Labour Government in October 2017, Rurawhe was elected to the office of assistant speaker. National Party MP Simon Bridges challenged Rurawhe's election to the Chair on grounds that Rurawhe's name was still on the door of the whip's office. Party whips are not eligible to be a presiding officer.^[13] Speaker Trevor Mallard ruled that a name on a door in Parliament is not binding on the House and that the speaker's office had already been notified in writing that Rurawhe was not a whip, so the election could proceed.^[14]

Third term, 2020–2023

Rurawhe won re-election in the 2020 general election, defeating the Māori Party's candidate, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. When the official results were released, Rurawhe had a majority of 1,035,^[15] but after the Māori Party requested a recount in Te Tai Hauāuru, Rurawhe's majority increased slightly to 1,053.^[16][17] Following the election, Rurawhe was nominated as deputy speaker in the new Parliament, and was formally appointed to the role on 26 November.^[18]

As part of a cabinet reshuffle on 13 June 2022, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern designated Rurawhe to replace Trevor Mallard as the next speaker of the House. It was announced that Mallard would resign in mid-August 2022 to assume a diplomatic position in Europe.^[19][20] On 24 August Rurawhe was elected as speaker of the House with the support of both the governing and opposition parties, becoming the second Māori to hold the position, after Peter Tapsell.^[21][22] As speaker, Rurawhe promised to award opposition parties more opportunities to question Government ministers if the governing Labour Party did not shorten some of its answers to its parliamentary debate questions.^[23]

Fourth term, 2023–present

Rurawhe did not contest the Te Tai Hauāuru electorate in the 2023 general election, but stood as a list-only candidate, as all previous incumbent speakers under MMP have done. He felt that the demands of being speaker meant that he could not serve the electorate fully.^[2][24] He was placed 11 on the Labour party list.^[25] During the 2023 general election, Rurawhe was re-elected on the party list.^[26]

Following the formation of the National-led coalition government in late November 2023, Rurawhe became spokesperson for Whānau Ora and Associate Māori Development in the Shadow Cabinet of Chris Hipkins.^[27]

Political views

Rurawhe voted against the End of Life Choice Act 2019^[28] and against the Abortion Legislation Act 2020.^[29]