Denise Roche (Ngāti Raukawa) is the director of the performer’s union Equity New Zealand. The beginning of her tenure coincided with the outbreak of the global pandemic which catapulted her into a flurry of activity with other stakeholders in the industry to support the recovery of the screen sector.
Denise has more than two decades experience as a union organiser, educator and strategist and her immediate role before coming to Equity was as a specialist advocate for collective bargaining in the transport and logistics industries. Her career includes having served as a politician for local government and as a list Member of Parliament for the Greens.
In her spare time Denise maintains her commitment to protecting the environment. Her voluntary work includes governance roles for several community and environmental organisations and she is a ministerial appointee to the Ministry for the Environment’s Waste Advisory Board and last year contributed to the work of the Climate Commission as a technical adviser to support the development of the Emissions Reduction Plan.
