Rachel Boyack | |
|---|---|
 Boyack in 2023 | |
| Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Nelson | |
| Assumed office 17 October 2020 | |
| Preceded by | Nick Smith |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | Labour |
| Residence | Nelson |
Rachel Elizabeth Boyack-Mayer is a New Zealand unionist and politician. Since 2020,she has been a Member of Parliament for the Labour Party.
Boyack was born in Timaru and grew up in Palmerston North,having moved there aged nine. [1] She attended Ross Intermediate with future MPs Tangi Utikere and Tim Costley and went on to Palmerston North Girls' High School. [1] [2] Her father,Jonathan Boyack,was a public health administrator who worked as an area health board chief executive and later moved to Birmingham where he was a hospital trust chief executive. Her parents separated in the 1990s and she was raised by her mother,a church organist. [3] [4] Her maternal grandfather,Alan Earl,was considered for the National Party candidacy in Wairarapa but was reportedly passed over due to his opposition to the 1981 Springbok rugby union tour. [4]
Boyack earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Auckland and was a member of the National Youth Choir. [5] She married Scott Mayer,an accountant,and the couple moved to Nelson,where Boyack was assistant director of music at Christ Church Cathedral. [6]
For three years,Boyack was the student union president for Saniti,the student union for Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology. [7] [8] Following that,from about 2012 onward,she was the Nelson organiser of First Union. [7] Her activities included protesting low wages at supermarkets, [9] clashing with the mayor of Nelson,Rachel Reese, [10] and opposing the closure of a bank's branch in Stoke. [11] [12] In 2018 she was appointed to the board of governors of the Nelson Environment Centre and was also on the board of the Nelson Women's and Children's Refuge. [13]
| Years | Term | Electorate | List | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 –2023 | 53rd | Nelson | 57 | Labour | |
| 2023 –present | 54th | Nelson | 42 | Labour | |
Boyack has been a member of the Labour Party since 2005. [7] She was selected as its candidate for the Nelson electorate in January 2017, [14] having expressed an interest in doing so in 2015. [7] The Nelson electorate had been held by National Party MP Nick Smith since 1996. She was also placed on the Labour party list at 48th place. [15] She finished runner-up,but lowered Smith's majority by 3000 votes. [16]
She was selected to stand in Nelson for Labour again in 2020. [13] In the 2020 general election,she was elected to the Nelson seat by a final margin of 4,525 votes,ousting the incumbent Smith. [17] [18]
In her first term as a Member of Parliament,Boyack served as deputy chair of the governance and administration committee and deputy chair of the petitions committee. [19] She sang a hymn at the conclusion of her maiden statement on 10 February 2021. [4] Her private member's bill,the Plain Language Bill,was debated a first time in October 2021. [20] The bill proposed requiring public agencies to appoint plain language officers in a bid to make public facing government documentation more comprehensible. The bill was opposed by the opposition National Party,who attempted a filibuster, [21] but passed into law in October 2022. [22] Boyack also oversaw the passage of a private bill modernising the governance arrangements of the Cawthron Institute. [23]
Official results for the 2023 New Zealand general election,as of 3 November 2023,showed Boyack retaining the Nelson seat by 29 votes over National's candidate Blair Cameron. [24] On 8 November,the National Party sought a judicial recount in the Nelson electorate. [25] [26] On 10 November,the Electoral Commission confirmed that Boyack had won Nelson by a margin of 26 votes,three votes fewer than the final vote results. [27]
In late November 2023,Boyack became spokesperson for the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC),arts,culture and heritage,and animal welfare in the Shadow Cabinet of Chris Hipkins. [28]
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