It has been a busy two weeks in Parliament delivering for NZ and our region. This week we are in urgency to push through essential legislation.
This includes the bill to stop the blanket planting of pine trees across our productive farmland. For too long, productive sheep and beef farms have been replaced by pine trees in the race for carbon credits. That ends under this Government and I am proud to be the chair of the Environment Select Committee where we have navigated this bill through.
Tukituki also played host to the other Bay MP, MP for Bay of Plenty Tom Rutherford and it was great to show him around the fruit bowl of New Zealand!
OUT AND ABOUT
Showcasing the best of wine
Great things indeed grow here, right here in Hawke’s Bay! I had the pleasure of being shown around Ash Ridge Winery and speaking with Thalia Osborne who was recently announced as the 2025 Tonnellerie de Mercurey North Island Young Winemaker of the Year.
Thalia studied at EIT and now has a job with this local, family-run winery.
The award is a testament to her skill and hard work.
Serving the community
Our volunteer and career firefighters do incredible job of keeping our community safe, so it was great to bring MP for Bay of Plenty, Tom Rutherford along to meet our local Havelock North volunteer firefighters, as he has also been a volunteer firefighter.
The team showed us around the fire station, and we enjoyed spending time with the crew, especially Rod and Bruce who have been serving as volunteer firefighters for more than 25 years. We also got to see some of the old fire trucks!
Thank you for all you do to serve our community.
Out and about visiting Yummy!
We are the fruit bowl of New Zealand, so I couldn’t allow Tom to go back to Bay of Plenty without first sampling some of our Hawke’s Bay fruit!
We visited Yummy Fruit where owner Paul Paynter showed us around the packhouse and Tom sampled Granny Smith apples, his favourite.
I prefer the crunchy, sweet, red Ambrosia.
It was good to talk about the strong apple season, where growers have had good yield and quality. This year the apple industry reached $1 Billion for the first time, showing positive growth for the region.
Leading a school
I loved spending time with Principal Cherie Heeney at Flaxmere College.
She attended the school herself and is now the sixth principal and is doing a wonderful job leading the school.
It was great to see the newly developed buildings, which are a $20 million development committed under a National Government.
Cherie shared some positive feedback about some of our education reforms and provided some very constructive insights into NCEA, vocational learning and the challenges faced around truancy.
We discussed the successful cell phone ban in schools, and it was great to talk about my bill to ban social media for under 16s, which is attracting support from many principals across the country.
I have 61 schools across the Tukituki electorate and I love visiting every one of them to meet the teachers and kids and find out more about how we can work together to improve education.
Supporting local businesses at Edges Framing
A big thank you to Loretta who did an amazing job framing this very special Lino Print “The First Step”, which was given to me by my talented niece Emma.
Edges Havelock North do an incredible job, and I was so excited to pick up the artwork and hang it on our wall!
Super proud Mum!
I loved attending Hereworth School's Mary Poppins performance.
It was our son Hugo’s first time performing a solo on stage and we were all super proud of him.
It was an incredible show involving all the Year 7 and 8 kids. There some seriously amazing talent on show.
A big thanks to all the dedicated teachers who committed so many hours for our kids - to Mrs Stevens for leading the show, the choreography of Mrs McLeod, and the set design from Mr McCorkell.
Superb job to all!
GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Hawke’s Bay schools to get Learning Support Coordinators starting 2026
Teachers and students in Hawke’s Bay will now have additional support for those with neurodiverse and additional needs, thanks to a transformational government investment.
Increasing access to Learning Support Coordinators (LSC) in Hawke’s Bay / Tairāwhiti is fantastic news for Tukituki. It means our schools can identify student needs earlier and target support where it’s needed most.
For too long, parents, teachers, and principals have been calling out for this support, right now only 11,049 students have access to a LSC.
By 2028, every Year 1–8 student in Hawke’s Bay / Tairāwhiti – approximately 22,863 kids – will have access. This is a meaningful step forward for our kids. Every child in Tukituki will get access to the support they need to reach their goals and full potential.
Future focused secondary school subjects
As a Mum of four I want our youth to flourish and succeed. When our young people leave school, we want doors to open for them whether they’re going to tertiary study, learning a trade, or heading straight into work. These refreshed subjects will provide students with choice, purposeful pathways and opportunities for specialisation that set them up for success.
Core subjects like Maths and English remain, while new STEM-focused options let students specialise in areas such as Earth & Space Science, Data Science, Electronics, Mechatronics, and Further Maths.
Alongside these, students can also take Civics, Politics and Philosophy; Media, Journalism and Communications; Pacific Studies; Music Technology; and Te Mātai i te Ao Māori. With the rapid rise of technology, students can also learn about and use AI across a range of subjects.
New, industry-led subjects will give students choice and practical, career-ready pathways. We’re working with Industry Boards to expand vocational options in primary industries, health and wellbeing, outdoor education, engineering, construction, and tourism and hospitality.
Family boost changes come into effect
We know that many families are struggling with everyday costs, so I’m really excited to share with you that we’ve increased FamilyBoost payments and have expanded the amount of families who are eligible.
This means a family with weekly fees of $200 could have their payment increased from $50 to $80 a week. That’s over $1,500 a year extra, on top of what they were getting before to help with early childcare costs.
Around 21,000 more households are now eligible to receive FamilyBoost as a result of our changes. Families can now claim a rebate of up to 40% of ECE costs - up from 25% previously.
This is part of our plan to help you, and your family get ahead.
Check for eligibility on the IRD website.
Bill to ban surcharges passes first reading
The Government is stamping out another payment pain point – extending its surcharge ban to foreign issued cards and commercial cards to make life easier for businesses and consumers.
Including foreign cards is easier for everyone. A comprehensive ban means businesses don’t have to second-guess what’s in or out, and consumers won’t get stung by surprise add-ons at the checkout.
Next level boost for Major Events and Tourism
The Government has announced the next level boost for major events and tourism projects. Major events, whether they are sports showdowns, the world’s most popular artists or well-loved favourites, can be a bonanza for the cities and regions which host them, supporting local jobs and incomes in the hospitality and retail sectors and beyond.
This $70 million events and tourism investment package is about energising the events sector. The investment will allow New Zealand to compete with Australia to host big acts and will give international visitors even more reasons to come and explore New Zealand, while also encouraging Kiwis to get out and about
Package includes:
• a $40 million Events Attraction Package to secure large-scale international events from 2026.
• a $10 million Events Boost Fund to support existing events and attract international opportunities.
• a $10 million Regional Tourism Boost Campaign to incentivise international visitors.
• Up to $10 million for tourism infrastructure upgrades including cycle trails
Infrastructure pipeline progress in Hawke's Bay
We are a government of action and delivery with infrastructure projects in the pipeline to drive economic growth.
I was back in the House today asking our infrastructure minister about our Infrastructure delivery in Hawke’s Bay and we have 126 projects under construction!
The biggest so far is the four-laning of the Hawke's Bay Expressway.
We have $7 billion worth of NZ projects set to start by Christmas.
Forestry conversion bill passes third reading
The Bill to stop the large-scale farm to forestry conversion on high quality farmland has passed its third reading.
We must protect the future of New Zealand food production. For too long, productive sheep and beef farms have been replaced by pine trees in the race for carbon credits. This ends under our government.
Labour’s careless ETS settings turbocharged the sell-off of our farming base.
They enabled short-term profits ahead of long-term food production. This was careless – and it ends now.
We must take a right tree, right place approach and restore balance, making sure the ETS doesn’t come at the cost of New Zealand’s rural economy
In the media
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