Sandra Lee retires

1.00pm

Cabinet Minister Sandra Lee announced today she was retiring from Parliament and would not stand as a candidate in the July 27 election.

"After holding public office continuously -- at local then central government level -- for nearly 20 years, I have opted to spend more time with my family and to have some time that is my own," she said in a statement.

Ms Lee, who is minister of conservation, local government and associate minister of Maori affairs, said she would serve out her remaining time in those portfolios and would be available in a caretaker role if she was needed after the election.

Ms Lee said she had told Prime Minister Helen Clark of her decision.

"I have had to weigh my public responsibilities to the people who voted for me and the policies I have always advocated and have been supporting in government, against my private responsibilities to my family," Ms Lee said.

Ms Lee was deputy leader of the Alliance when the party split into two factions, and she supported Jim Anderton in Parliament after that.

She was elected MP for Auckland Central in 1993, the first Maori woman to be elected on the general role.

She became a list MP after that and was leader of Mana Motuhake, one of the constituent parties of the Alliance, until she was replaced by Willie Jackson last year.

Ms Lee said today some of her supporters had wanted her to contest Auckland Central again but she did not want to split the centre-left vote in the electorate.

"In my view a split centre-left vote creates an opportunity for a centre-right candidate to come through the middle and capture the seat from the incumbent (Labour's Judith Tizard)," she said.

- NZPA

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