The former Deputy Mayor is standing as an independent for Tauranga.
A former deputy mayor entering the race to become Tauranga’s MP says his independence means he will not have to “swallow a dead rat” - compromise to toe a party line - in seeking the “best deal” for the city.
Larry Baldock, 69, from Pyes Pā, is standing as an independent candidate but is no newcomer to politics.
Baldock served a term in Parliament as a United Future NZ party List MP from 2002 to 2005 and was the co-founder and leader of the Kiwi Party from2008 to 2011.
He stood in the Tauranga electorate for the Kiwi Party in 2008 and for the Conservative Party in 2011.
In local politics, he was elected to the Tauranga City Council for a fourth term in October 2019. Mayor Tenby Powell made him his deputy but Baldock resigned from that role in June 2020 after an attempted coup for the deputy mayoralty.
Larry Baldock in a Tauranga City Council meeting in 2020. Photo / Andrew Warner
Baldock told the Bay of Plenty Times that since then, he had been managing and maintaining several rental properties on a small block of family land in Pyes Pā.
“I have also been exploring further opportunities to create more housing on the place rather than people having to sleep in cars,” he said.
Baldock is the youngest of six children raised by a solo mother, Daphne, and said he had lived in Tauranga since he was 2. He has been married to wife Barbara for 46 years and they have three children and 10 grandchildren.
He said he had been contemplating putting his name forward for about three months.
“I felt I should stand because this electorate is not being represented well and we’ve got massive needs here. I know this place very well and what many of our city needs are.”
Larry Baldock is standing in the Tauranga electorate as an independent candidate. Photo / Alex Cairns
He also believed “electorate MPs’ votes and messages don’t carry as much weight in Parliament as party priorities take over” and said this was disappointing.
Baldock said if he was successful in winning the Tauranga seat as an independent MP, he would be free from those constraints and would fight for the “best deal” for the electorate.
“This electorate needs someone who can devote 100 per cent of their time to championing Tauranga’s needs in Parliament,” he said.
“I am able to work with both sides of the aisle but I will work hard to get the best deal for Tauranga, that’s my bottom line. I’m not going to swallow a dead rat. I never have. If you don’t do what you believe is right and stick to your own values and principles, what’s the point?”
Baldock said there were three main issues he was standing for in his election campaign: transport, housing and air quality.
Among Tauranga independent candidate Larry Baldock's main campaign issues is Tauranga's roading network. Photo / Alex Cairns
He said the city’s “urgent” transport needs included better roads to reduce congestion and carbon emissions.
Baldock said there was a “desperate need” to four-lane Turret Rd including the Hairini Bridge and finish the “ring road” system around the city.
“We have done all preparatory work in the city, now we need more Government support to make this happen.”
He said it was time for further discussion about the possibility of completing the ring road by freeing up some of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council’s more than $2 billion stake in the Port of Tauranga.
Baldock said Tauranga’s housing crisis was “just terrible” and prices would only increase the longer it continued.
“We have got the land ready for more housing, but we just need the roading connections to build them... this includes 3000 new homes in Tauriko West.”
On air quality, he said health studies had found 107 people died prematurely in the city each year from bad air quality, including 13 in the Mount Maunganui area.
“The poor people at Whareroa Marae have been breathing bad air all their lives... clean water and clean air are fundamental rights,” he said.
In his term as an MP, Baldock led the campaign for a national referendum to repeal anti-smacking legislation introduced in 2007 and, with volunteers and supporters, collected about 310,000 signatures from voters.
The non-binding 2009 referendum found most voters did not believe a smack, as part of good parental correction, should be a criminal offence. The Government chose not to change the law.
The No Vote petition organiser Larry Baldock celebrates a resounding victory as the provisional results of the anti-smacking referendum roll in. Photo / Kenny Rodger
Asked about his stance on that law today, Baldock said this was “not the reason” he was keen to return to Parliament.
Baldock is a Christian and described his beliefs as a “deep desire” to serve others.
Candidate nominations for the election close on September 15 and the list of candidates will be released the day after. Election Day is October 14.
Sandra Conchie is a senior journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and the 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.
