Richard Prebble
Columnist, former cabinet minister and ACT Party leader.
Some electorate races matter not because they will decide the government, but because electing an outstanding candidate will make for a better parliament.
Frankly, many MPs are third raters whom you would not employ to take out the rubbish.
It is not often I agree with Winston Peters, but Chris Bishop is a remarkable MP.
New Zealand has wasted billions of taxpayers’ dollars as incoming governments cancel their predecessors’ infrastructure projects.
One of this government’s achievements is securing cross-party agreement that this waste must stop and that New Zealand needs a bipartisan, long-term infrastructure plan.
While all parties deserve credit, Chris Bishop was the driving force.
For over 30 years, parliament has known the Resource Management Act was flawed. Successive governments failed to replace it.
Bishop succeeded.
Labour opposed aspects of the replacement legislation but is not campaigning to repeal it. That is a measure of Bishop’s remarkable ability to achieve difficult reform.
What has his Labour opponent, Ginny Andersen, achieved that compares?
Besides, Andersen is number 12 on Labour’s list. She will be back in parliament regardless.
But for boundary changes, Bishop would probably win easily.
Now he needs voters who normally support Labour to recognise that parliament will be better if he is returned.
They can still give Labour their party vote.
And perhaps, by electing Chris Bishop, they will give National a better future leader.
This article was originally published by I’ve Been Thinking.
