High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Rainbow Labour is part of the New Zealand Labour Party. It started as a branch in Chris Carter`s Auckland Waipareira electorate in 1997, just after Chris Carter had been narrowly defeated in the election the previous year. At about the same time, Tim Barnett, newly elected to Parliament as an openly gay man, started a Rainbow branch in Christchurch. During the next few years the branches expanded in size, with the Auckland branch becoming one of the largest in the Labour Party. This led to the formation of a Rainbow Sector Council within the Labour Party, which gave the branches a nationwide focus and co-ordinating body. In 2004, at a vote at the Party`s Annual Conference, Rainbow Labour was invited to nominate candidates for a permanent representative position elected from the floor of Conference, on the Party`s controlling body, the New Zealand Council.