Sarah Pallett

Pallett was born in Jersey, Channel Islands and spent her early years in the United Kingdom.[2] She came to New Zealand with her husband and two daughters. Since divorced, she was a midwife for 10 years, working as a rural midwife and then at Christchurch Women's Hospital.[3] She became a midwifery lecturer at Ara Institute of Canterbury, and also served as president of the majority union of academic staff at Ara.[4]

Pallett founded and now chairs the Canterbury Women’s Branch of the Labour Party.[5]

During the 2020 election, Pallett won the seat of Ilam by a final margin of 3,463 votes, ousting incumbent National Member of Parliament Gerry Brownlee.[6] Dominic Harris of news website Stuff called it "perhaps the most unlikely of election night coups".[3]

Pallett was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 36, but was diagnosed early and survived it stating she is "one of the lucky ones".[2] Pallett lives in Ilam with her husband Andy,[4] whom she married on 9 July 2021 in the halls of parliament.[7] Her son-in-law, Matthew Grace, was her campaign manager.[3]