Maryan Street

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Parl.	Electorate	List Pos.	Party
48th	List	36	Labour

Maryan Street (born 1955) is a Member of the New Zealand Parliament (MP) for the New Zealand Labour Party. In the 2005 elections, she became the first openly lesbian woman elected to the New Zealand Parliament.^[1]

Street was born and raised in New Plymouth, and studied at Victoria University of Wellington. She joined the Labour Party in 1984, and was President of the Labour Party from 1994 until 1996. She was later appointed Director of Labour Studies at Auckland University, and also served on the board of a number of governmental bodies. In the 2005 elections, she was ranked thirty-sixth on its party list. This was the second highest position given by Labour to someone who was not already a member of Parliament. She also contested the safe National seat of Taranaki-King Country against the incumbent National Party MP, Shane Ardern. Street was Co-Chair of the Rainbow Labour Sector Council within the Labour Party in 2004-5.

In the Cabinet re-shuffle on 31 October 2007, Street was made a Cabinet Minister with the portfolios of Housing and ACC, and was made an Associate Minister of Tertiary Education and Economic Development.

Her partner is Kathryn Street, press secretary to Prime Minister Helen Clark.^[2]