// Workers AI · dad joke modeIs Laura McClure a good baker? She's the mac to my cheese.
Laura McClure | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) McClure in 2025 | |
| Member of the New Zealand Parliament for ACT party list | |
| Assumed office 14 October 2023 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Laura Barbara McClure 3 August 1985 Christchurch, New Zealand |
| Party | ACT New Zealand |
| Children | 2 |
Laura Barbara McClure (born 3 August 1985), previously known as Laura Trask, is a New Zealand politician. She was elected to the New Zealand House of Representatives in the 2023 New Zealand general election, representing ACT New Zealand.
Early life and family
[edit]McClure was born in Christchurch on 3 August 1985, and raised there as the eldest of three children.[1][2][3] Her father Bill McClure, who moved from England to New Zealand in the 1970s, was a former general manager at Kraft Heinz who later founded a fire evacuation business.[1] Her mother Sharyn (née Neame), one of eight children, was a hairdresser who grew up in public housing.[1][2] McClure's parents disagreed with one another politically, with her mother being a staunch Labour Party supporter and her father a National supporter; she grew up in an environment of significant political discourse.[1]
She attended Burnside High School and began an arts degree at the University of Canterbury but did not complete the course, instead training as a pharmacy technician. She married Riki Trask, a construction project manager. They have two children.[4]
Career
[edit]McClure worked as a pharmacy technician in Christchurch and Wellington. After having their first child, McClure and her husband took over the Auckland branch of her father's fire safety business.[1] She is a registered fire safety evacuation consultant.[5] While living in Auckland, McClure advocated for 24-hour medical support for south Auckland, as she found herself driving more than 40 kilometres (25 mi) for after-hours medical care for her children.[6]
In 2020, she started volunteering for the ACT Party in Christchurch and worked for Toni Severin, a Member of Parliament elected on the ACT list. In a 2023 interview, McClure described her entry into politics as spontaneous, saying she would "have absolutely laughed" if someone told her ten years prior that she would become a politician.[1]
Member of Parliament
[edit]| Years | Term | Electorate | List | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023–present | 54th | List | 10 | ACT | |
2023 general election
[edit]Under her married name Laura Trask, McClure contested Banks Peninsula in the 2023 election. She was tenth on ACT's party list, placed higher than Severin at 14.[7] Speaking to The Press about her list position, McClure said did not expect to be given a winnable position and “it was not an ideal situation that I wanted to be in, but at the same time, I’m very honoured.”[8] On election night, McClure came fourth, with 2,073 votes based on final results, but entered parliament due to her position on the party list.[9][10]
McClure's primary political concerns are oriented around regulation and the perception of "specific extra rights" for members of particular demographic groups. McClure criticises New Zealand's education system as "incredibly woke", which she defines as policies that detract from educating children in favour of ideological pursuits. She supports cutting government spending, which she considers the primary factor in inflation.[1]
First term, 2023–present
[edit]After being elected to Parliament on the ACT party list, McClure was appointed ACT spokesperson on education, mental health, small business, and seniors. She sits on the social services and community committee and the foreign affairs, defence and trade committee.[11]
During her first term, McClure authored a member's bill called the "Deepfake Digital Harm and Exploitation Bill," which seeks to amend the definition of intimate visual recordings to include "deepfake" images. The bill was drawn from Parliament's "biscuit tin" on 23 October 2025.[12] The proposed bill also seeks to expand the remit of the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015 to include deepfakes.[13]
McClure has also sponsored the Broadcasting (Disestablishment of Broadcasting Standards Authority) Amendment Bill, which proposes abolishing the broadcasting regulating, the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA). She argued that regulator operated based on the definition of a broadcaster established in 1991.[14] After the BSA ruled on 31 March 2026 that it had jurisdiction over the online radio station The Platform, McClure criticised the regulator, calling it "a bureaucratic empire that has taken a law written for rabbit-ear TV, and stretched it over the internet."[15][16]
In May 2026, Webb was part of a cross-party delegation of four New Zealand MPs including Maureen Pugh, David Wilson and Duncan Webb who visited Taiwan, meeting with Taiwanese legislators and foreign ministry officials. In response, the Chinese government in early June 2026 banned the four from visiting China, Hong Kong and Macau for a year on the grounds that their actions violated the One China policy. The Chinese Embassy in New Zealand stated that their travel ban could be waived or rescinded if they apologised for their actions.[17][18] In response, McClure said that the "demand for an apology was frankly insulting," and refused to apologise for visiting Taiwan.[18]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Williams, David (13 September 2023). "The Sure Things: Act's Laura Trask would kill off red tape 'overkill'". Newsroom. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
- 1 2 "Births". The Press. 6 August 1985. p. 43. Retrieved 19 October 2023 – via PapersPast.
- ↑ "Laura Trask". ACT Party. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
- ↑ Trask, Laura (1 February 2024). "Maiden statement". New Zealand Parliament. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
- ↑ "Ex-TVNZ reporter, climate protester & rugby boss: The new MPs on track to enter Parliament". The New Zealand Herald. 15 October 2023. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
- ↑ Earley, Melanie (19 December 2018). "Long drive for medical help for mum of child with seizures". Stuff. Retrieved 16 October 2023.
- ↑ Neilson, Michael (16 July 2023). "Act Party list: Some big falls and a few surprises". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
- ↑ Gill, Sinead (3 October 2023). "On the list: Christchurch candidates on the cusp of Parliament". The Press. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
- ↑ "Banks Peninsula – Official Result". Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 23 November 2023. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
- ↑ "2023 General Election – Successful Candidates". Electoral Commission. 3 November 2023. Archived from the original on 22 November 2023. Retrieved 25 November 2023.
- ↑ "Trask, Laura". New Zealand Parliament. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
- ↑ "Bill to criminalise explicit 'deepfakes' pulled from ballot". Radio New Zealand. 23 October 2025. Archived from the original on 18 March 2026. Retrieved 4 April 2026.
- ↑ Daalder, Marc (14 January 2026). "Political parties respond to spread of sexual deepfakes on X". Newsroom. Archived from the original on 30 January 2026. Retrieved 4 April 2026.
- ↑ Ryan Bridge and Laura McClure (28 January 2026). "Things have moved on": ACT MP calls for dissolution of BSA (podcast). Newstalk ZB. Archived from the original on 31 January 2026. Retrieved 4 April 2026.
- ↑ Ricketts, Emma (1 April 2026). "'I'm not a broadcaster, I'm a webcaster': Sean Plunket hits back at BSA as Minister considers options". Stuff. Retrieved 4 April 2026.
- ↑ McClure, Laura. "BSA power grab: Radical bureaucrats move to police online speech". ACT New Zealand. Archived from the original on 3 April 2026. Retrieved 4 April 2026.
- ↑ Smith, Sam (3 June 2026). "Four New Zealand MPs banned from visiting China for one year after Taiwan visit". Stuff. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
- 1 2 Graham-McLay, Charlotte (4 June 2026). "China bans New Zealand lawmakers after they visited Taiwan". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 9 June 2026. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
