26 Facts About Maryan Street

Maryan Street was born on 5 April 1955 and is a New Zealand unionist, academic and former politician.

Maryan Street was president of the New Zealand Labour Party from 1993 to 1995 and a Labour Party list member of the New Zealand House of Representatives from 2005 until 2014.

Maryan Street was the first openly lesbian MP elected to the New Zealand Parliament.

Maryan Street thereafter trained as a teacher and taught at Westlake Girls High School.

Maryan Street joined the New Zealand Labour Party in 1984, and was the party's senior vice president from 1991 to 1993 and president from 1993 to 1995.

Maryan Street succeeded Margaret Wilson and Ruth Dyson as the third female Labour Party president; all three would together serve as Members of Parliament between 2005 and 2008.

Maryan Street justified this by saying she thought her statement was made in the best interests of the party.

Maryan Street wrote to Moore asking him to step down voluntarily, but he refused.

In 1990, Maryan Street was appointed senior lecturer in management relations and director of labour studies at Auckland University.

Maryan Street gained a Master of Philosophy in industrial relations from Auckland in 1993 and began, but did not complete, a PhD on worker participation.

Maryan Street was named as a potential future candidate for Labour in September 2004 and confirmed that November as a candidate for the 2005 general election.

Maryan Street said she stood for public office to campaign for social justice and believed human rights were at the core of democracy.

Maryan Street was deputy chair of the health committee, and sat on the commerce and regulatory review committees, from 2005 until 2007, when she was appointed a Cabinet minister in the Fifth Labour Government.

Maryan Street was regarded as a competent minister by columnist John Armstrong and progressed legislation intended to improve affordable housing availability and to support pensioners to access vocational rehabilitation schemes.

Maryan Street was returned each time for her second and third terms as a list MP.

Maryan Street sat on the parliamentary committees for education, foreign affairs, health, and justice between 2008 and 2014, and chaired the regulations review committee from February 2013 to August 2014.

Maryan Street has been a lead supporter of legislated human rights for the LGBTQI communities.

Maryan Street advocated on behalf of political prisoners and refugees from Myanmar.

Maryan Street supported Grant Robertson in the 2013 Labour Party leadership election.

Maryan Street was defeated for a third time in Nelson at the 2014 general election.

Maryan Street declined the opportunity to return as a list MP in 2017 and did not contest the 2017 general election.

Maryan Street worked as an international observer of general elections across Africa and Asia, mostly on behalf of the Commonwealth, with a focus on human rights and good governance.

Maryan Street has observed elections in Lesotho, Sierra Leone, and the Maldives.

Maryan Street has worked for KiwiRail as employment relations manager from 2015 to 2022.

Maryan Street was appointed to the Victoria University of Wellington council for a four-year term from 2021 and to the KiwiRail board in July 2022 for a three-year term.

Maryan Street was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal for service to New Zealand in 1990 and the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal for service to women in 1993.