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Labor Liz Craig is waiting until each special vote is counted before placing a call on the election results.
Interim results with 100 percent counted (minus special votes) placed national candidate Penny Simmonds in the lead with 16,372 and Craig with 15,687.
After watching his game’s big win against Club Southland on Saturday night, Craig said he would be waiting until all the special votes were counted.
He will also have to wait and see if he will retain a seat on the MP list after a hotly contested recount in Invercargill’s electorate.
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Whether Craig maintains a spot on the list would depend on results in other parts of the country.
The interim results for the party’s vote for Invercargill’s electorate had Labor at 47.5 percent and the National at 30.3 percent, which Craig was happy about.
Working with community agencies that focus on water quality and advocating for housing were factors in a race that was tighter than in previous elections, he said.
“It’s really good to see that result shrink and reduce that margin.”
Kavinda Herath / Things
Southland Labor candidate Rino Tirikatene and Invercargill Labor candidate Liz Craig.
The people at Invercargill were grateful for the wage subsidy, as well as the Covid-19 response from the previous government, Craig said.
Te Tai Tonga Labor MP Rino Tirikatene joined Craig and gave the crowd of about 40 people a lively boost of energy towards the end of the night.
“We will count those votes and we will not stop until we get to the last one,” Tirikatene said.
Earlier in the evening, as Craig and Simmonds were side by side in the recount, Craig said he would wait until all special votes were counted before a possible recount request could be considered.
“I think there will be a significant number of specials because a lot of people would potentially have signed up and voted that day, and you have to count them,” Craig said.
It would be two weeks before the final result was known, he said.
Kavinda Herath / Things
Invercargill Labor candidate Liz Craig.
If a recount was considered, Craig would get advice from the Labor Party.
Craig entered Parliament in 2017, with the intention of bringing together decision-makers and the people affected by those decisions.
She has spoken about the future of the Tiwai smelter and the future of the Southern Institute of Technology under vocational education reform, Invercargill’s social housing needs, and the plan now under reconsideration to remove air traffic control from the LA airport. city.
“I can and do advocate with my colleagues. But I think it’s much more important that we put our community leaders in front of the key decision makers in Wellington, ”he had previously said.
Labor leader Jacinda Ardern announced late last month that if successful on Election Day, Labor would extend the life of the smelter from three to five years.
One of the first things Craig did when he first entered Parliament in 2017 was work on a legislative framework to improve equality standards for rental housing, the income support that was earned through payments from Best. Start and drive for better access to primary care, hospital care, and children’s health services.
But there is still some work in progress, for example, the state and potential for improvement, Invercargill’s New River Estuary. The project was put on hiatus when Covid-19 arrived.
Craig also maintained the intent to get better information on the effect of accumulated silt, algae, nutrients, and leaching from the old Invercargill tip, as well as working for a legislative change to improve legal requirements for monitoring and remediation.
If she is still a member of the list, Craig would like to focus on making sure the volume of social housing built increases.
A doctor with a background in public health, especially for children, he established the New Zealand Child and Youth Epidemiology Service before beginning his political life. Craig, who has two grown children, married Philip Melgren in January.
