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]