I’m grateful to have the support of the National Party in the Taranaki-King Country electorate once again as we head toward the October 14 General Election.

I stood for Parliament in 2014, because I wanted to represent rural and provincial New Zealand and the people of Taranaki-King Country (TKC). That hasn’t changed.

After two terms in Opposition, I’m very keen to get into government, in order to make a real difference to those I represent.

During my time as an MP, I’ve had the responsibility of the three big geographical portfolios — Energy and Resources, Agriculture and now Conservation.

I’ve been able to bring my skills to these, know where they crossover, and how they fit together.

In a fourth term, I’d like to continue and extend the good conservation and predator-free work currently happening .

A lot can be done with the Conservation estate. Using public land wetlands as carbon sinks for example to help ease the pressure on agriculture, while we continue to find the scientific tools to mitigate its carbon emissions, is one.

I truly believe that if we all do our bit, together, we can make progress.

Local communities hold the key to Conservation in our country.

If I were to reduce anything it would be the numbers of people in Wellington and not in the regional offices.

National sees too much bureaucracy all our portfolios going forward. We’ve been saying for months now, there are far too many bureaucrats in Wellington.

We’ve got our work cut out for us.

Since the change in Prime Minister we’re going to need to work harder than ever before. It’s not going to be easy. There won’t be any room for complacency, and we can’t take anything for granted.

In 2020 there was a huge swing to Labour.

Despite retaining the party vote in Taranaki-King Country — one of the four seats to achieve this — three of those seats lost the party vote majority after special votes were counted.

I hope to successfully retain the seat again with the aim of getting that party vote back with a healthy majority.

So between now and October 14, I will be doing what I always do. Getting out and about in the electorate and managing my portfolio responsibilities. Contact one of my offices if you would like to meet with me.

I hope New Zealanders will return National to power with a clear mandate and clear partnership options.

That gives us the ability to get on with governing.

Money isn’t going to be plentiful. We will need to stop all wasteful spending quickly, concentrate on efficiencies, start lifting our productivity and undo the red tape.

National’s Getting Back to Farming policy is a reflection of that. Under it, sweeping changes will be made.

Most of our government’s current policy making is borne out of ideological views.

Watch out for our policy releases. Be informed and please contact me if you have any questions or would like help to change the government.

We don’t have many people in Parliament now who truly understand how agriculture works. It’s one of my main drivers for wanting to be there.

In our own party we have two retiring farmer MPs Ian McKelvie and David Bennett.

While we may gain more after October 14, having rural voices around the table is a must, because there is a rural and regional NZ culture that we cannot afford to lose.

We need to bring reality and common sense back into Parliament.

Because common sense, hasn’t been that common, of late.