Posted: October 12, 2025
Just a massive thank you.
If you gave me your vote — and especially if you're one of the many who gave me your #1 vote — I'm sorry I couldn't get into the top eight for you.
😥
I am just so grateful that you believed in me
From a standing start with no prior profile, you trusted what I had to say, and how I said it, and you got me pretty close to representing you, your children, and your grandchildren.
😊
It's a tough message to sell
It's not cool being out there saying our system is making most families intergenerationally poorer and our governments poorer too (here he goes again!). Especially when personally you might be one of the lucky ones doing just fine.
Unfortunately the fundamentals aren't changing and I really don't want to bang the same drum in three years time.
I have hope though.
If we accept that the broader system is making things worse for our rangatahi — if we fall in love with the problem — then we can just get on with solving things for ourselves out here.
Now is the time to build our own resiliency, build our own self-sufficiency, get our primary industries up the value chain, protect our environment, and support and invest in each other.
✊
Now, what's next for '26? God knows.
Other diary entries
- Final call: Vote like you mean it!
- Asked about the kiwifruit industry
- On household incomes and wealth
- Briefly on climate change, and retail
- On council waste
- My council candidate video
- That not being on social media thing
- Podcast with Jack Marshall - Now That's an Idea
- TL;DR? Here's the 1 minute pitch
- How to vote
- Ways to support horticulture without a background in horticulture
- A good overview of my, and your other fave's, policy positions
- Bringing education, research, trusts, and industry together; and the problem with Joint Ventures
- A bit of motivation to make a start
- The homeless - what to do?
- Māori Wards - a union of Te Ao Māori and a struggling western democratic capitalism
- Insulation - a personal reflection on the Trust Tairāwhiti AGM