“The East Coast has been through so much this year and it needs an experienced champion in Parliament.”
Mr Coffey wasted no time in his East Coast campaign by welcoming Government funding of up to $257 million for Tairāwhiti and Wairoa for immediate works on state highways affected by severe weather.
The funding comes from the $6 billion National Resilience Plan
“Now most links into cyclone- and flood-affected areas are open, now is the time to make these roads safer and more resilient to future weather events,” said Mr Coffey.
“This extra funding will replace or strengthen and rebuild damaged bridges, and will improve the road surface on major stretches of road where potholes and cracks were left after the weather events.”
The New Zealand Herald believes Mr Coffey was appointed as the new candidate on Sunday just days after Ms Allan announced she would step down at the election.
Mr Coffey had announced earlier in the year that he would retire at the election following the birth of Taitimu five weeks early on January 25, his second child by surrogacy to husband Tim Smith.
Mr Coffey originally came to prominence as a television personality appearing as a What Now host and later becoming a Breakfast and weather presenter.
He won Dancing with the Stars in 2009.
Political success came in 2017 when he upset Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavel in Waiariki as Labour won all seven Maori seats.
But he lost the same seat to the Maori Party’s Rawiri Waititi three years later, Labour’s only electorate defeat in their 2020 landslide victory.
He remained in parliament as a list MP.
Mr Coffey was elected to the Rotorua Trust in 2016 as the highest polling candidate votes, was re-elected in 2019 becoming deputy chairman, but was not re-elected in 2023.
Mr Coffey says he knows this region well.
“As first the electorate and then the list MP based in the Waiariki region, I’m very aware that half of the Waiariki electorate overlaps half the East Coast electorate from Maketu to the East Cape.”
Mr Coffey “proudly acknowledged” his whakapapa of his kuia, after being raised between Gisborne and Uawa Tolaga Bay.
“Most importantly, whānau were my reason for stepping back, and it is my whānau who have given me the green light to stay in politics, challenge for the seat and to do my bit to support an area that I love that so needs a champion right now,” Mr Coffey said.
Labour’s list, announced yesterday, places Mr Coffey at 36, up from his previous ranking of 39.
But with National and Labour polling much closer to each other compared to 2020, a listing of 36 means Mr Coffey will only stay in Parliament by winning East Coast.
