Grand prix boosts our region

LATE last week I spent some time in Taumarunui and Ohakune, meeting constituents about a variety of topics.

By the beginning of this week, I had visited every town in the electorate in the past 10 days - which makes for a lot of driving in an electorate as big as Rangitikei.

The first week back in Parliament passed uneventfully, with some good progress on various pieces of legislation and a lengthy debate following the Prime Minister's statement.

Most of us get a chance to speak during this debate and I seized the opportunity to talk about matters affecting rural New Zealand and the Rangitikei electorate in particular.

My week in Wellington ended with a Special Olympics board meeting on Friday. This year we will be sending a team of about 40 athletes to the World Summer Games in Los Angeles, at the end of July.

The team will be accompanied by about the same number of coaches and other assistants, and they are all looking forward to a very exciting opportunity.

Last weekend was a particularly busy one.

On Saturday, I attended the opening of the Burkes pump station on State Highway 56, which is part of the Manawatu drainage scheme. It has been installed by Horizons Regional Council following the 2004 floods and is the biggest in the Horizons catchment area.

It is the last of the big projects to be completed following on from the Kopane Bridge, the raising of the stopbanks and renovating the Motoua floodgates.

The end result of this extensive work is better protection of many thousands of hectares and quicker discharge of water when the spillways are activated. It has the capacity to pump 7500 litres per second, which will make a big difference for local landowners.

This has been a significant project and Horizons are to be congratulated for completing a very complex and expensive piece of work, which will most certainly create more opportunities for land use and encourage economic growth.

On Sunday, the New Zealand Grand Prix was held at Manfeild Park and was won by a young American driver from a field of 16 overseas drivers and three New Zealanders. This event is one of only two grand prix events held outside the Formula One series - the other is held in Dubai - so it is a very special occasion.

It is run entirely in Toyota race cars and attracts many millions of dollars into our regional economy. Toyota New Zealand have both promoted and sponsored the New Zealand Grand Prix over the past 10 years and it has now become a renowned spectacle in its own right.

Our region has worked hard to retain this event, so congratulations to everyone. It is a fantastic day of action that is now paying a very real local dividend - don't miss it next year.