Tracey Lee McLellan (born 20 May 1970) is a New Zealand politician. From 2020 to 2023, she was a Member of Parliament in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

for the Labour Party. In 2024, she re-entered parliament after the resignation of fellow Labour List MP

Rino Tirikatene Rino Tirikatene (born 1972) is a New Zealand Labour Party politician and a former member of the House of Representatives. He comes from a family with a strong political history. Tirikatene represented the Te Tai Tonga Māori electorate from th ...

Early life

McLellan was born in

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, Australia in May 1970, before moving to Southland, where she grew up in a

state house State House or statehouse may refer to: Buildings *Aso Villa or State House, the official residence of the President of Nigeria *Government House, Dominica or The State House, the official residence of the President of Dominica * State House, Bar ...

. Her mother was disabled and unable to work. McLellan moved to Christchurch in 2002. McLellan has a master's degree from Massey University, and a PhD in psychology from the

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...

and worked in academic psychology specialising in sports injuries and concussion, as a research scientist at the University of Canterbury. Later she became a union organiser for the

New Zealand Nurses Organisation The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO), Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa is New Zealand's largest trade union and professional organisation that represents the nursing profession, midwives, hauora and caregivers. It is one of the old ...

Political career

Labour Party activism

McLellan has been a member of the Labour Party since 2011. She was chair of the electorate committee and was joint campaign manager to

Ruth Dyson Ruth Suzanne Dyson (born 11 August 1957) is a former New Zealand politician. She was a Labour Party Member of Parliament from 1993 to 2020. She represented the electorate from the election to 2020. She also held a number of senior offices i ...

's campaign in the electorate at the . In May 2019 she won a by-election to become vice president of the Labour Party. Following

Nigel Haworth Nigel Anthony Fell Haworth (born 1951) is a New Zealand economics academic and politician. He was elected President of the New Zealand Labour Party in February 2015, succeeding Moira Coatsworth. Education and academic career Born in Wales in 1 ...

's resignation over his handling of abuse allegations within the party, McLellan (who was a member of a panel which dismissed initial complaints) became acting party president. She was selected as its candidate for the Banks Peninsula electorate in November 2019, ahead of three other nominees:

Reuben Davidson Reuben John Davidson is a New Zealand television producer and politician. He was on a Christchurch community board from 2019. In the 2023 general election, he was elected to represent the Christchurch East electorate in Parliament. Early life ...

, Joe Davies and Tyrone Fields. In January 2020, McLellan identified ACC and health as portfolios in which she would like to make a difference, but says that her electorate has diverse needs from climate change effects in

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and Lyttelton, to education, health, housing and water issues.

Member of Parliament

During the 2020 general election held on 17 October, McLellan was elected with a majority of 13,156 over National's Catherine Chu and

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

Member of Parliament

Eugenie Sage Eugenie Meryl Sage (born 1958) is a New Zealand environmentalist and former politician. She was a Green Party Member of Parliament in the New Zealand House of Representatives from 2011 to 2023. Sage served as Minister of Conservation, Minist ...

. In 2023 general election McLellan led the contest for Banks Peninsula on the election night preliminary count, but lost the seat to National's Vanessa Weenink after special votes were counted. She was ranked 27th on Labour's party list, too low to win a list seat given Labour's collapse in the election, and so left Parliament. In late January 2024 she returned to parliament as a

List MP A list MP is a member of parliament (MP) elected from a party list rather than a geographic electoral district. The place in Parliament is due to the number of votes the party won, not to votes received by the MP personally. This occurs only in ...

following the resignation of

. Following the resignation of

Grant Robertson Grant Murray Robertson (born 30 October 1971) is a retired New Zealand politician and member of the Labour Party who served as the Minister of Finance from 2017 to 2023, as Minister of Foreign Affairs in November 2023, and as the 19th Deputy Pr ...

in mid-February 2024, McLellan assumed the Corrections and Associate Health portfolios in the Shadow Cabinet of Chris Hipkins. In early March 2025, McLellan gained the Christchurch Issues portfolio. While she retained the corrections portfolio, she lost the associate health portfolio. On 11 March 2025, McLellan was appointed junior whip of the Labour Party.

Family

McLellan is a single mother to two sons. One son, Jake, was elected a member of the

Christchurch City Council The Christchurch City Council (CCC) is the local government authority for Christchurch in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority elected to represent the people of Christchurch. Since October 2022, the Mayor of Christchurch is Phil Ma ...

in 2019. She credits her son with pushing her to join the Labour Party.

References

External links

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:McLellan, Tracey 1970 births Living people New Zealand Labour Party MPs New Zealand MPs for Christchurch electorates Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives 21st-century New Zealand women politicians Women members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Massey University alumni University of Canterbury alumni Candidates in the 2020 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2023 New Zealand general election Australian emigrants to New Zealand