What a wet and wild month! My thoughts are with the community in Mt Maunganui and wider area suffering from the shock of slips and tragic loss of life. The grief those poor families will be feeling, it is heartbreaking. There are rightly questions many will have about the slips that will need addressing through inquiry. These answers will come in time, but for now it’s about community coming together supporting each other. Thank you to the first responders who did their best to help and support. 

This month has been about community for me back here in Tāmaki too. If you missed it in Stuff, here is a link to an article about my break staying at home here in the electorate. Aside from having family stay, I’ve spent the ‘summer’ catching up with local businesses and community members across the electorate. In between rain, I popped in to see Nataliya at La Vista and Kirsty at Babylon Store with Tracey from the St Heliers Village Association and was thrilled to get pats in with Maddie (the dog). The Vets on Melanesia Rd in Kohimarama are thriving and lovely locals are still frequenting Little Kohi Café. Although I’m hearing parking is becoming more of an issue in both shopping areas.

There are so many new businesses and business owners entering the area in the past few months. This is very exciting, especially when NZIER are showing the highest level of business confidence in 12 years! In St Heliers I checked out Waterboy (and poured a pint), spotted great homeware at Nest & Stem, and nearly signed up for Pilates at Studio Pilates in the Village. The Allum Street Shopping Centre in Kohimarama also has some new business owners. Welcome to the neighbourhood Cara and Andie taking over Kitchen Spring! I take my hat off to all starting up a new venture, providing opportunities for local jobs, and growing our local economy.

My electorate office in Meadowbank assists all of you and your neighbours with a range of concerns from visa applications, housing assistance, through to support with Police. We do our best to help, or to provide connection to a service that is more appropriate for what you need. That’s why it’s so important for us to maintain relationships, like the ones we have with local Police. This month, I spent time at the Glen Innes Police station talking with the team serving our electorate in Youth Aid, Community Policing, Investigations and Victim Support. Please reach out if you need help and don’t know where to go. 

We’re starting to get excited about the next guest for our community meeting series! Please join me to hear Sir John Kirwan speak about his work to improve mental health across NZ. His Mitey program, established through the Sir John Kirwan Foundation is about engaging children in early school years and equipping them with tools for lifelong mental wellbeing. We can’t wait to hear more about it and new ideas to improve mental wellbeing across the country.

The meeting is 1:30pm – 2:30pm on Thursday 26 February at the St Heliers Community Centre. Please RSVP here and submit any questions to [email protected]

As always, it's a pleasure to serve as your local MP.