Northland ‘plenty to be proud of’
As your newly elected Member of Parliament I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support and let you know I consider it a real honour to be your MP.
Over 14 months ago I was selected by the National Party to be their candidate in Northland and I began my campaign to win the seat back.
On the September 23 election and after a huge amount of hard work I realised my dream.
What followed was some pretty unprecedented events that not many people would have ever predicted.
We now have a coalition government with some vastly different policy positions from what we have experienced over the last nine years.
As with any change of government there is always a period of uncertainty and concern and we will have to see how this plays out.
My focus is purely on Northland and improving our prospects and our future.
I intend to ensure Northland is never forgotten in the seat of power and will not let any opportunity pass by me to do that.
For example we instigated a public petition recently to keep the attention on the Northland motorway that the former National government had planned for many years ago and had begun construction on last year.
The coalition government has poured cold water on this project and we need to highlight this poor decision on their part and keep the pressure on.
A four lane highway extending from our largest city into Northland is the key to our economic future and I urge you to get in behind us and support our petition on my Facebook page.
I do feel confident in our long term future we have plenty to be proud of and to look forward to.
In recent years we have experienced record growth in tourism, employment, building consents, new car sales, export earnings and more.
We have a huge resource in our geothermal power plant near Kaikohe.
When expansion plans are completed the plant will produce all of Northlands energy needs.
Our own deep water port at Marsden Point Northport have exciting expansion plans for the future and are in the consultation stage.
The political year is about to begin and there is plenty on the agenda for this year. One such change has been signalled by the coalition government in the area of industrial relations and the proposals are in a word chilling.
None of these proposed changes were ever really campaigned on by them.
We will be highlighting their proposals over the coming months and opposing them every step of the way.
We don’t welcome the 1970s industrial relations but it seems that’s where we are going.