Mary Dorothy Batchelor QSO (née Foley, 7 January 1927 – 12 March 2009) was a New Zealand trade unionist, feminist and Labour Party politician.

After divorcing her husband, her subsequent experiences as a solo working mother strengthened her motivation to further women's rights and employment opportunities which led her to become active politically.

[1] In the 1960s she was living in St Albans and was an officeholder in the local branch of the Labour Party and was a member of its electorate committee.

During the Third Labour Government she clashed with socially conservative Prime Minister Norman Kirk over abortion and homosexual law reform, both of which he opposed.

He referred to her as "orange roughy" after she dyed her hair a startling shade of red, one of the few times she achieved any semblance of prominence in her parliamentary career.

In the lead up to the 1984 election she narrowly survived an electorate committee vote of no confidence and a challenge from local union leader Paul Piesse and automotive surveyor David John Penny for the Labour Party nomination in Avon.

Despite having served in Parliament since 1972, and therefore one of Labour's most experienced MPs, she was overlooked for a place in Cabinet after the government was formed.

[1] After Parliament, Batchelor purchased a second house on Australia's Gold Coast, so that she could avoid the Christchurch winters and be near her daughter and granddaughter.