Many of you will have heard the news that, while I’ll be continuing as your MP until the election, I’ve decided not to stand again.
I owe you an explanation.
It’s fair to say that becoming your MP was probably more of a shock to me than anyone else. After 45 years as a National stronghold, I stood not expecting to win, but to raise awareness of the poverty in our town and to fight for better investment to alleviate that poverty: for more state housing, a new hospital and investment in our economic future, especially our port.
In the years since, we have made considerable progress. Northland has been prioritised for state housing and Whangārei has 127 state houses currently under construction, as well as 625 in the pipeline - not bad, when under the previous government, they managed two in nine years.
We fought and won the rebuilding of our hospital, the biggest infrastructure investment in Whangārei ever, on top of new cardiac and cancer facilities and an expanded maternity and paediatric unit. Our economic future is boosted by securing funding for a rail line to the port and a business case study for a dry dock.