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Summarised by Centrist
Retiring ACT MP Mark Cameron says he remains grateful for his six years in Parliament as worsening kidney and heart problems force him to step down.
The Northland dairy farmer said representing rural New Zealand had been an “incredible privilege”.
“If I got my kidney tomorrow, I’d be back the day after,” Cameron said.
Cameron is living with kidney failure and undergoes dialysis three days a week. He had hoped to receive a transplant and return to Parliament in March, but heart failure following a reaction to medication removed him from the transplant list.
“I really love representing rural New Zealand,” he said. “I just can’t do it.”
Despite his own difficult experience, Cameron praised those caring for him.
“The doctors and nurses are incredibly good people. They really are,” he said.
But he said the system around them was failing, with staff struggling to find beds and patients sometimes treated in corridors.
“It’s not because of the people, it’s because of, ‘Well, we need the bed, mate,’ kind of thing.”
“Thirty-three billion bucks later, something’s not going right.”
Cameron also called for better rural connectivity, particularly to improve mental health care and access to telehealth.
He said isolation was worsened when people could not reliably contact doctors, services or friends.
“If we fix those things, I think we’ve made a significant inroad into the problem,” he said.
His reflections on Parliament were marked by gratitude towards political opponents who had supported him.
Cameron spoke warmly about Green MP Steve Abel.
“We’re totally opposed to each other on so many things, on so many levels, but what a great human being,” he said.
“We’re 120 very fortunate people with a very privileged job.”
Cameron urged MPs to remember that shared responsibility.
“Stop the bloody party politics nonsense,” he said.
