Whanganui elections results: Carl Bates wins electorate for National

Candice and Carl Bates, and key campaign team members Maryanne and Linde, cut the celebratory cake on election night.

Whanganui man Carl Bates (National) will be the new Member of Parliament for Whanganui.

Bates defeated sitting MP Steph Lewis (Labour) by 5070 votes on election night, although special votes may change that margin when the final results are announced in two weeks.

From the moment he was selected as the National Party’s candidate in February, Bates embarked on a high-energy campaign to gain name recognition outside Whanganui. By election day, he had made more than 30 visits to Stratford near the northern border of the Whanganui electorate and was a regular visitor throughout the electorate.

Born and raised in Whanganui, Bates attended Mosston School, Rutherford Intermediate and Whanganui High School. He left school after Year 12, enrolling extramurally at Massey University while working fulltime at McDonald’s in Whanganui. Whilst completing his accountancy qualification at Massey, he was appointed to his first directorship, of a non-profit specialised aged care facility in Palmerston North.

Further directorships including Arena Manawatu and UCOL. Shortly after the acquisition of the Whanganui Polytechnic led to Bates specialising in governance, and the establishment of Sirdar, a company that would ultimately train individuals and boards of directors in New Zealand and throughout Africa. He also became an author and conference speaker.

Returning to New Zealand to live in late 2020, Bates sold his business and decided to seek a candidacy for the 2023 General Election. Having joined the National Party as a 13-year-old in 1996, campaigning for Hon Peter Gresham that year, Bates sought and won the nomination as candidate for Whanganui.

“It was evident to me as a businessperson that the Government was spending a lot of money at a rate it couldn’t maintain. I realised it was vital the National Party had good, strong and experienced candidates in this election who had the experience and skills needed to lead the country through the next stage.”

The National Party’s values have always resonated with Bates, none more so than the value of “Competitive enterprise and rewards for achievement”. He believes that the Wellington bureaucracy has become far too involved in telling small businesses and farmers what to do and strongly believes that the nearer to the business decisions about it are being made, the better.

Bates headed to Wellington on Monday to commence a week of orientation and training. He is looking forward to final election results being confirmed, and a coalition government being formed. “Once that happens, Parliament will be a very busy place between now and Christmas,” he said.

He is keen to contribute to the repeal and replacement of Three Waters legislation and Labour’s rushed Resource Management 2.0 legislation, passed in the last days of the previous Parliament. He is also passionate about National’s proposed City and Regional Deals plan where central and local government will agree on a 10-year pipeline of work that will be locked in, making it immune to election cycles. He has already met with all the mayors and councils in the electorate to build relationships with them.

Bates believes that the Whanganui electorate has almost unlimited untapped potential, and wants to be actively involved in unlocking that potential.

“Whanganui is in my DNA” he says “And I want to play an active role in creating a growing, vibrant community that will give my children and everyone else’s children an abundance of future opportunities”.