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Robyn Edie / Stuff
Penny Simmonds, Invercargill National Party candidate, is Invercargill’s new MP. (File photo)
Invercargill’s new MP electorate is Penny Simmonds of the National Party.
She beat Labor Party’s Dr. Liz Craig by just 225 votes to take the hotly contested seat that now includes Tuatapere, Otautau and Ohai-Nightcaps.
Simmonds got 17,929 votes with Craig trailing with 17,705. In total, 40,338 votes were counted.
The Invercargill party’s vote went to Labor, with 47.7 percent, and the National Party, with 29.7 percent.
Provisional votes released on October 17 put Simmonds as the winner, but with a margin of just 685 votes, neither candidate was willing to cancel it until the final results, which included at least 3,000 additional special votes, were announced on the Friday.
READ MORE:
* Invercargill candidates patiently await the results of the electorate’s official elections
* At least 3,000 Invercargill votes yet to be counted
* South votes in red but new faces are blue
Simmonds needs little introduction to Southlanders. As the former executive director of the Southern Institute of Technology, she came up with the Zero Fee Plan to revitalize Southland’s economy and bring young migrants to the region.
The position helped her build important relationships with agencies and institutions in a variety of sectors.
She had made a name for herself with her husband Marty for 36 years and is passionate about tackling rural infrastructure and new freshwater regulations that southern farmers say don’t work for them.
Craig has been an MP for the Invercargill Labor Party List since 2017.
The experienced public health physician established the New Zealand Child and Youth Epidemiology Service before beginning her political life and recounts her legislative work around quality standards for rental housing and access to health services for children among his political achievements.
She decided to work within her community before a more specific portfolio activity and said she saw herself as a connector, making sure Southland’s issues were on the table in Wellington.
Before the election, Craig said he wanted to focus on improving the health of Invercargill’s New River estuary, improving the housing shortage in the electorate, and realigning the Southern Regional Development Strategy (SoRDS), which relies too heavily on tourism and international students. .
The Southland electoral seat was taken by Joseph Mooney of the National Party, who won by a margin of 5,645 votes over Jon Mitchell of the Labor Party.
