Terisa Ngobi never imagined being a politician. Despite growing up in a pro-Labour Party household with a large hoarding of Annette King on the front lawn, it took some coercion to get her to office.
“It wasn’t a career goal for me,” she said.
“Somebody asked me and I said no. Somebody asked me again, and I said no. I said no quite a few times.”
Ngobi grew up in a modest former state house in Dorset St, Levin. Her father Bill Watters was a staunch union man and Labour Party supporter. He was involved behind the scenes in the campaigns of Labour minister Annette King in the 1980s, and then a supporter of her successor Judy Keall in the 1990s.
Their front lawn was used for election signs. She remembers coming home from school and being greeted by a huge hoarding of King.
Former Ōtaki electorate Labour MP's Annette King and Judy Keall. Photo: Foxton Historical Society
“My friends thought we were selling our house. They thought it was a real estate sign,” she said.
“I said Mrs King is running and they said ‘where is she running to?’”
Ngobi said she grew up with a social conscience and a sense of social justice. People were often coming and going and meetings were held in the kitchen. Tea table conversation would often swing to politics and the issues of the day. She and younger brother Kieran were made to wear red ribbons on election day.
Watters was a former vice-president of the Service Workers union and a life member of E Tū. His parents had come from Scotland, immigrating in 1956 with the promise of a job, spending six weeks on a boat. They settled in Levin and joined the local church.
Their mother Sia immigrated to New Zealand from Samoa in 1972, the youngest of an extended family of 13 siblings, settling in Porirua. Initially she was homesick, but that passed after meeting Watters. She also became involved in civic affairs, helping set up a Pacific Advisory Group, and took a keen interest in politics.
“We grew up with service in our house. Mum was always helping with advocacy and helping translate for Work and Income. It’s just how it was,” she said.
Ngobi, who is of Samoan, Chinese, German, Irish and Scottish descent, attended Fairfield Primary School in Levin. She was one of “only a few brown kids” in her year. After attending Horowhenua College she worked as a nurse at the now-defunct Kimberley Hospital for four years, working three jobs to save up for her OE to the UK.
She met future husband Henry Ngobi during a five-year stint working in England.
Terisa Ngobi, Labour candidate for the Ōtaki seat, with her family.
On their return, she started working in the public sector with people who had mental health and disabilities, then with Ministry of Social Development (MSD) as a case manager then Kainga Ora, and Oranga Tamiriki as a procurement adviser.
In the background she was acutely aware that her home electorate of Ōtaki, traditionally a swinging seat between Labour and National, was in the balance with the announcement that National Party incumbent Nathan Guy was not seeking reelection in 2020.
Guy had a mortgage on the seat after serving three terms. The last Labour candidate to win the Ōtaki seat was Darren Hughes, in 2005. National was putting up Tim Costley to take over from Guy.
Ngobi’s name was being bandied about as the next Labour candidate, but with a young family in tow it took time for her to convince herself to stand, despite the encouragement.
“I talked to Henry. We’re not rich. We’re luckier than most, but not rich by any means. We’re trying to be the best parents we can be, and we knew that initially there would be no pay,” she said.
“Henry said this is about doing something for [the] kids, for their future, and that would come with sacrifice.”
“I saw the difference Labour was making and this was a chance to win the seat for Labour. We honestly didn’t think we would get voted in. But we campaigned hard and our volunteers campaigned hard, and we did.”
Ngobi received 21,867 votes to Costley’s 18,879. There was a long gap to the Green Party candidate Bernard Long with 2135.
Tim Costley was the National Party candidate for Otaki.
It was so close that Ōtaki was the last electorate in the country to be decided. At about 10.30pm on election night, with a cup of tea and “sober karoake”, the phone rang. Costley had conceded.
Ngobi was the first person of Pasifika descent to win the Ōtaki electorate. She has sat on the Social Services and Transport select committees and is chairwoman of the Infrastructure, Environment and Transport Caucus and Labour co-chair of the Parliamentary Champions for Accessibility Legislation (PCAL) Group. She sits on the Pacific, Union, Rural and Women’s Caucus and the Asia, Africa and Pacific Parliamentary Friendship Groups.
Ōtaki MP Terisa Ngobi is interviewed by media at Parliament.
She said she had worked hard to deliver surety around the extension of a new highway from Ōtaki to north of Levin, funding to help improve Lake Horowhenua, improved rail connectivity for people in the Ōtaki electorate, while plans to improve health services in her constituency were taking shape.
The new highway got the go-ahead recently, there was $11.8 million from a post-Covid-19 Provincial Growth Fund towards a wetland that would act as a filter for nutrients entering the lake, a new rail service stretching to Levin increasing connectivity with Wellington, and a new health facility was proposed for Levin.
“I look back at my maiden speech and I’m pretty stoked at what we have been able to achieve,” she said.
The Levin train station's platform is being redone. Staff from Kiwi Rail watch as now former transport minister Michael Wood talks about the importance of good public transport, with fellow MPs Tangi Utikere and Terisa Ngobi listening.
She cried when she received a phone call a few weeks ago confirming that funding was approved for a rail service that would bring at least four commuter trains between Palmerston North and Wellington every day.
“It’s not just a train. It’s a game-changer. It’s access to health services, jobs, training, mobility for people with disabilities, mobility for elderly, especially for rural areas like ours,” she said.
“It prioritises equality.”
The next push would be for investment in bus services in towns like Levin.
“It’s not just about a train or a bus. If people can’t afford a car or afford to run a car then it limits their ability [to] access these essential things. It’s a starting block, public transport should be the right of every New Zealander,” she said.
“It keeps people here, too. And it helps the local economy. They’re bringing those dollars home. We need things to be good here. I live here. My kids live here. My parents live here. I truly care about what happens here.”
Labour MP Terisa Ngobi looks at the damage from a tornado that ripped through Levin and blew apart her office last year.
Ngobi was on the scene early when a tornado ripped through the middle of Levin in March last year. It ruined about 50 homes, including her office on Oxford St. The Labour office has now moved to the Weraroa shopping complex.
Ōtaki Labour MP Terisa Ngobi on Oxford St this morning. The tornado has ripped apart her electorate building just south of where she stands.
While conscious it wasn’t a disaster on the scale of the recent floods in Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne regions, and miraculously no lives were lost, it was a significant event that displaced many people from their homes. The community banded together to clean up, forming teams that helped strangers.
Damage to the rear of MP Terisa Ngobi's electorate office in Levin. Photo / Terisa Ngobi
The alarm in the Ngobi house goes off at 5.30am. They share the cooking. Henry works from home and picks up a lot of the slack. Their three boys Azaria, 12, Vito, 11, and Tebasawa, 7, play rugby and rugby league.
“I couldn’t do it without Henry, and Mum and Dad. I’m not in Parliament - we’re in Parliament,” she said.
She has always enjoyed a day at the races. As a kid she would have “one each way” bets. Her uncle Jim Watters was a staunch racing man and administrator, and a former secretary of the Levin Racing Club during its halcyon days in the 1980s.
An annual Christmas meeting at the Ōtaki-Māori Racing Club in late December has doubled as an end-of-year function with Labour party colleagues since the election.
Labour Party MPs Lemauga Sosene, Paul Eagle, Tersia Ngobi and Soraya Peke-Mason attended an annual Christmas function at the Ōtaki racecourse late last year.
Last week two intermediate-aged pupils with an interest in politics spent time in her new office. Leo Arnault-Martin, 12, and Lavara Makutu, 12, got an insight into what life was like for a politician, including sitting in on a media interview.
Lavara Makutu, Leo Arnault-Martin and Labour MP Terisa Ngobi.
With the next election on the horizon they asked her if she would stand again. She said there was no question.
“I know it’s a marginal seat. I don’t take anything for granted. Hopefully people will see I really care and am working hard for the electorate, from Foxton to Paraparaumu.”
- Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ on Air.
