Sue Bradford (born 1 July 1952 in Auckland) is a New Zealand activist, academic, and former New Zealand politician who served as a list Member of Parliament representing the Green Party from 1999 to 2009. Bradford is an eco-socialist. In 2019, she penned an op-ed stating her reluctance to vote for the Green Party in the future. She criticised the party from the left in regards to her opinion that the party underwent a centrist direction under the leadership of James Shaw and Marama Davidson. Bradford had previously ran for the leadership of the Greens on a left-wing platform, losing to Metiria Turei in 2009. Early life Sue Bradford graduated from the University of Auckland in History and Political Studies, and later obtained an MA in Chinese. Furthering her academic education she undertook postgraduate study at the University of Canterbury where she received a diploma in journalism, and a PhD in Public Policy at Auckland University of Technology. The title of her doctoral thesis was: A major left wing think tank in Aotearoa: An impossible dream or a call to action? She has also spent time on the unemployment benefit and the domestic purposes benefit. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s Bradford had a high profile as an activist against various social and economic reforms pursued by the governments of the day. Accordingly, she became something of a bête noire amongst supporters of the right in New Zealand. Member of Parliament As a member of the Green Party, Bradford first won election to the Parliament as a list MP in the 1999 election. She had joined the Green Party in 1990, and had contested the 1998 Auckland mayoral election as the Green candidate. Before joining the Greens, she worked actively in the NewLabour Party, and served as its vice-president from 1989 to 1990. Bradford was the Green Party spokesperson on ACC, Agriculture, Buy Kiwi-Made, Community and Voluntary Sector, Community Economic Development, Gambling, Housing, Industrial Relations, Internal Affairs, Mental Health, National Library and Archives, Racing, Regional Development, Rural Affairs, Small Business and Social Development. The New Zealand Herald selected Bradford as Backbencher of the Year for 2000. Bradford has successfully pushed through three member's bills: removing the defence of "reasonable force" when corporally punishing or smacking children; letting mothers in jail keep their babies for longer; and making the adult minimum wage apply to 16- and 17-year-olds. It is considered an achievement