1. Rachel Jane Brooking was born on 18 October 1975 and is a New Zealand Labour Party politician and Member of Parliament who served as the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries and Minister for Food Safety in the Sixth Labour Government.
18 Facts About Rachel Brooking
1. 2.
Rachel Brooking first became an MP at the 2020 New Zealand general election.
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Rachel Brooking specialised in environmental, resource management and local government law, and worked for a period for the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment in Wellington before returning to Dunedin to practice law with Anderson Lloyd.
4.
In 2019, Rachel Brooking was appointed to a government panel charged with reviewing the Resource Management Act 1991.
5.
Rachel Brooking became a student activist in 1994, her first year at university, protesting against education minister Lockwood Smith over excessively high student fees.
6.
Rachel Brooking was elected president of the Otago University Students' Association in 1997.
7.
In 2010, Rachel Brooking was appointed to the board of University Book Shop Ltd, and in 2019 to the board of Dunedin International Airport.
8.
At the 2020 election Rachel Brooking stood for Parliament for the Labour Party.
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Rachel Brooking hoped to be Labour's candidate for the Dunedin South electorate, later renamed Taieri, but Labour selected Ingrid Leary instead.
10.
Rachel Brooking was ranked 46 on the party list, which was a high enough ranking to enter Parliament.
11.
The day after Dunedin MP David Clark announced on 13 December 2022 that he would retire, Rachel Brooking said she would seek the Labour candidacy for the electorate in 2023, for which she was selected.
12.
On 11 April 2023, Rachel Brooking was appointed as Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, and allocated the associate environment and immigration portfolios.
13.
Rachel Brooking was given the Food Safety portfolio following Meka Whaitiri's switch to Te Pati Maori.
14.
In late November 2023, Rachel Brooking was given the environment, food safety, and space portfolios in the Shadow Cabinet of Chris Hipkins.
15.
On 5 December 2023, Rachel Brooking was granted retention of the title The Honourable, in recognition of her term as a member of the Executive Council.
16.
On 7 March 2025, Rachel Brooking gained the RMA Reform portfolio in addition to her existing portfolios.
17.
Rachel Brooking is married to Chris Jackson, a cancer specialist who was the medical director for the Cancer Society of New Zealand.
18.
Rachel Brooking's father Tom Brooking is an emeritus history professor and retired lecturer at the University of Otago.