Roading, infrastructure and law and order are some key pieces of work re-elected Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell has identified for the next 100 days.
Speaking to the Bay of Plenty Times down at the Tauranga waterfront yesterday, Uffindell said he felt tired but buoyed and grateful for the support voters had shown to him on Saturday night.
Uffindell received 15,970 votes ahead of Labour’s Jan Tinetti, who had 8014.
He said it “felt good” to keep the Tauranga electorate seat by such a large margin.
“It’s good to get such a good mandate from the people of Tauranga. It shows me I need to continue working hard for them, and that’s exactly what I will do.
Uffindell said he’d worked hard for people in his electorate since being elected the MP in 2022, including getting the State Highway 29 infrastructure project “over the line”.
“There are other things we can start working on now - it looks like we [the National Party ] have won this election, or it looks like the National Party is in a strong position, which is fantastic.”
“And having been returned as the Tauranga MP, it’s going to be exciting three years ahead.”
Ufifndell said he was incredibly grateful to those who voted for him.
“But I was a lot more nervous going into this week than I was 18 months ago,” he said.
“There was a lot weighing on this election, and it’s just fantastic to see us doing well in Tauranga and also the National Party doing really, really well nationwide.”
He planned to head to the beach with his family yesterday, and this evening would fly to Wellington for a caucus meeting on Tuesday.
Uffindell said the rest of the week would be spent focusing on his constituents and their needs.
He said that over the next 100 days, he wanted to focus on getting on top of some of the critical issues facing the electorate.
Uffindell said there were some wider fixes a National-led government would do around the cost of living, law and order - such as backing up the police, stopping wasteful spending, and giving some people tax relief.
“That will flow through here into the people living in Tauranga, but we also need to invest into our infrastructure here, that’s really important.
“This is why we have named State Highway 29 as a road of national significance, and we are hoping to build that in the early 2030s to enable the faster flow of traffic over the Kaimai Range into the Port of Tauranga. That is a priority.
“And it will also free up about 20,000 more houses to be developed.”
Uffindell said State Highway 29A was also a focus.
“That’s a really key road, and we need to get that at least four-laned from the Tauranga crossing to up Barkes Corner. And I would like to see that continued further. I will be strongly advocating for this.”
Another priority, he said, was tackling local road congestion
Uffindell said Tauranga City Council’s Plan Change 33 - which would allow for more urban intensification - was “creating a lot of noise” here in local communities.
“I will be their voice to make sure people’s concerns are heard.”
Uffindell said he was looking forward to representing the people of Tauranga as part of a National-led Government and being a stronger advocate for the electorate.
“Locally, we have got a lot of challenges we’ll now be able to focus on.”
Sandra Conchie is a senior journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post who has been a journalist for 24 years. She mainly covers police, court and other justice stories, as well as general news. She has been a Canon Media Awards regional/community reporter of the year.
The couple spend five months a year in America running their business.