Street was named as a potential future candidate for Labour in September 2004 and confirmed that November as a candidate for the
2005 general election. In May 2005, she was selected to contest the
National Party stronghold of
Taranaki-King Country, which she lost to the incumbent
Shane Ardern in the September election. Ranked thirty-sixth on the party list, the second highest position given by Labour in 2005 to a person who was not already a member of Parliament, Street was elected to parliament as a list MP. In her 16 November 2005
maiden statement, Street set out a human rights agenda. She said she stood for public office to campaign for social justice and believed human rights were at the core of democracy. “I have not come into this House to be less than brave about the human rights of those whom some would seek to marginalise. I seek an inclusive, just, and tolerant society as one that is more likely to be peaceful, productive, and safe for our children to grow up in. A pluralist society is stable because of its differences, not despite them. It is the very differences between people, working together peacefully and with respect for each other, that allow a society to remain strong and cohesive.” She was deputy chair of the health committee, and also sat on the commerce and regulatory review committees, from 2005 until 2007, when she was appointed a Cabinet minister in the
Fifth Labour Government. Between 31 October 2007 and 19 November 2008 she served as
Minister of Housing,
Minister for the Accident Compensation Corporation, Associate Minister of Tertiary Education, and Associate Minister of Economic Development. and progressed legislation intended to improve affordable housing availability and to support pensioners to access vocational rehabilitation schemes. In the
2008 and
2011 general elections, Street contested the
Nelson electorate, where she was defeated by National Party incumbent
Nick Smith. She was returned each time for her second and third terms as a list MP. With Labour in opposition after the 2008 election, Street was the party's spokesperson for tertiary education, trade, Treaty of Waitangi negotiations and foreign affairs in the
49th New Zealand Parliament and for health, the environment, disarmament and arms control, and state services in the
50th Parliament. She sat on the parliamentary committees for education, foreign affairs, health, and justice between 2008 and 2014, and chaired the regulations review committee from February 2013 to August 2014. ethical investment, banning the importation of goods made by slave labour, and
the right to die with dignity, though none were enacted. She has also been a lead supporter of legislated human rights for the LGBTQI communities. Street advocated on behalf of political prisoners and refugees from Myanmar. In 2010, she put a motion before the New Zealand Parliament to affirm the commitment to human rights for political prisoners in Myanmar and visited Myanmar in November 2012 to observe the rollout of the Gavi vaccination programme. Street supported the professional development of young leaders from Myanmar and participated in the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade's Myanmar Young Leaders Programme. Street supported
Grant Robertson in the
2013 Labour Party leadership election. She was defeated for a third time in Nelson at the
2014 general election. Despite her relatively high place of 15th on the Labour Party list, the party's poor performance under leader
David Cunliffe meant she was not returned as a list MP. She declined the opportunity to return as a list MP in 2017 and did not contest the
2017 general election. == International work and later career ==