MP Carl Bates celebrates summer events in first General Debate speech

Whanganui MP Carl Bates grasped the opportunity to speak in his first General Debate with both hands.

With Parliament having sat under urgency this week, the normal Wednesday afternoon General Debate was held over to Thursday.

Whanganui MP Carl Bates grasped the opportunity to speak in his first General Debate with both hands.

In the space of five minutes, he spoke about widespread public approval of the job the coalition Government was doing in its first 100 days, lambasted the former Labour government’s profligate spending and delivered a spirited endorsement of the Whanganui electorate’s summer events.

Bates spent last weekend at the Egmont A&P Show in Hāwera, where he was delighted with the positivity of the people he spoke to.

He talked about bringing Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey to Whanganui in March, where he will engage with local mental health professionals.

He also referred to Doocey’s tourism portfolio, advising that he had organised a hui with local tourism providers so they could meet the minister and discuss the industry’s performance.

He described the recent Whanganui Vintage Weekend as “a wonderful weekend that demonstrates how creative regional and provincial New Zealand can produce domestic and international tourism activities”.

He had praise for La Fiesta, describing it as “New Zealand’s best women’s festival”, and invited fellow MPs to take part in Artists Open Studios from March 15, calling it “another example of great domestic tourism”.

Bates spoke of the cellphone tower on State Highway 4, which went live last week, and disclosed that he is launching a petition focusing on digital connectivity in Pātea and along State Highway 3, where there are significant mobile blackspots and inadequate internet access.

Improving connectivity would, he said, “ensure rural and provincial New Zealand has the sort of access to wireless connectivity to do the work we do to keep this country going”.