Moana Mackey

Moana Lynore Mackey (born 28 February 1974 in Auckland, New Zealand) is a New Zealand politician and has represented the New Zealand Labour Party in the Parliament of New Zealand since 2003. She has Māori, Irish, Scottish and Spanish ancestry.

Personal life

Born in Auckland, New Zealand and raised in Gisborne, Mackey attended Mangapapa Primary School, Ilminster Intermediate and Lytton High School. While in high school, Mackey would participate in Young Labour, the New Zealand Youth Orchestra and Youth Parliament. After leaving high school, she attended Victoria University of Wellington from 1993, graduating with a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology. Remaining in the Wellington area, she worked as a scientist, leading a team at an environmental laboratory in Lower Hutt and became a member on the Petone Community Board.

From 1999 to 2000, Moana Mackey served as President of Young Labour.^[1] She also worked in the Trade Union movement.

She currently lives in Gisborne.

Member of Parliament

Mackey entered Parliament on 29 July 2003 through the Labour party list after Graham Kelly vacated his list seat. Her mother, Janet Mackey, also sat as a Labour MP until 2005 — the two formed the first mother-daughter pair in New Zealand parliamentary history. In the elections that year, Janet Mackey retired from politics, and Moana Mackey contested but lost the East Coast electorate seat (formerly held by her mother) to National Party candidate, Anne Tolley by 1219 votes. However, she returned to Parliament as a List MP. Mackey unsuccessfully contested East Coast again in the 2008 general election, losing to National's Anne Tolley by 6,413 votes.^[2] Mackey again returned to Parliament as a list MP for the Labour Party.

Further reading

• Parliamentary biography retrieved on 17 April 2008.

References