The Botany electorate has two additional new MPs who have come in via their party lists.
Naisi Chen, who was 38th on the Labour list, and Damien Smith, 10th on the ACT party list become MPs following great results by their respective parties.
Chen said she is proud to be elected as a Labour List MP after Prime Minister-elect Jacinda Ardern and Labour swept back into Government on Saturday.
“With 49 per cent of the vote, New Zealanders gave Labour a strong mandate to continue with another term of transformational change in government,” Chen said.
“I’m honoured to be elected as a Labour List MP for the next Parliamentary term. I’m looking forward to starting my work to ensure that east Auckland has an effective voice in the Labour government.”
Chen said she is committed to advocating for east Auckland, with a focus on representing all parts of the community.
She’s particularly focused on the Chinese community which represents over 35 per cent of east Aucklanders.
In Parliament, Chen has a number of key areas of interest. “I want to focus on issues around youth, arts and culture and information technology,” she said.
“As Labour continues to make transformational change for our society, I will seek to be a voice for the next generation and support Labour’s innovative solutions to the problems facing our community.
“I’m proud to have run a strong campaign in Botany and want to congratulate Chris Luxon on his election as MP for Botany.
“It’s great that our community will have three MPs to ensure the views of Botany residents resonate in Parliament from both the Government and opposition benches.”
Smith was jubilant with ACT’s historic result.
“The ACT Party now has nine new MPs plus (leader) David Seymour equalling 10; making ACT the third largest party in the NZ Parliament after a record-breaking historical result for the ACT Party with this number of MPs returned,” Smith said.
“A huge thank you to the Times readers. Our east Auckland Campaign ACTivist managers John Alcock and Stuart Wilson delivered a highly successful campaign across east Auckland.
“It’s been an amazing team effort and media are commenting on ACT’s highly organised, on-message campaign. As David Seymour said on Election Night, we just took the first big step toward Campaign 2023.
Smith edged in at number 10 (ACT will have 10 seats in the House). “Thank you to all the people of east Auckland. The ACT Caucus has already started working for you with its first meeting the day after the election result,” he said.
Smith said he will bring his skills to the House around the rebuild of a post-Covid NZ economy, promoting the reduction of debt and stopping wealth taxes and balancing the Government’s books. He is a former business banker and consultant who has worked for British Steel, Mars, MGM, ASB & Macquarie Bank.
“Politicians should live within the same means as its citizens and households,” Smith said.
“The ACT Party will continue to hold the NZ Government accountable for its direction and promote its own common-sense policies and principles for adoption in the House and ensure the views of east Aucklanders are heard loud and clear.”
