Laura Trask

Trask 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] Trask's parents disagreed with one another politically, with her mother being a staunch Labour Party supporter and her father a Nationals supporter; she grew up in an environment of significant political discourse.[1]

Trask worked as a pharmacy technician in Christchurch for some time before moving to Wellington, where she met her husband, a construction project manager. After the couple had their first child, they moved to Auckland, where Trask and her husband took over the local wing of her father's business.[1] She is a registered fire safety evacuation consultant.[4] While living in Auckland, Trask advocated for more out-of-hours medical support for south Auckland.[5]

Trask started volunteering for the ACT Party in 2020, working for Toni Severin. Her entry to politics was spontaneous; in a 2023 interview, she stated she would "have absolutely laughed" if someone told her ten years prior that she would become a politician.[1] Trask contested Banks Peninsula in the 2023 election. She was tenth on ACT's party list, placed higher than Severin at 14.[6] On election night, Trask came fourth, with just over 1600 votes in the preliminary count, but entered parliament due to her position on the party list.[7]

Trask's primary political concerns are oriented around regulation and the perception of "specific extra rights" for members of particular demographic groups. She states she does not agree with all of ACT's positions, and has expressed support for transgender rights and the position that climate change is primarily caused by human actions. Trask 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 ACT's proposed budget and substantial cuts to government spending, which she considers the primary factor in inflation.[1]

Trask's husband is Māori. The couple have a son and daughter. Trask has almost no profile on social media, living as a private individual, and states she had not expected to enter politics.[1]