It's too early for New Zealand First leader and Northlander Winston Peters to say if he will take on long-time National MP Phil Heatley in the Whangarei electorate at next year's general election.
But the perennial politician predicts there will be an early election, saying National's grip on power is unstable, given problems with its coalition partners United Future and ACT.
Mr Peters was in Ruakaka on Wednesday outlining how his party would ensure the rail line to Auckland was upgraded and a rail link to Port Marsden constructed if his party formed part of the next government.
He used the meeting before real estate agents and business leaders at Outboard's Restaurant to attack National - the party he left in 1993 before forming NZ First - saying despite decades of Northland voting in National MPs the region's future had been derailed by the ruling party. The region still had some of the worst statistics in the country when it came to unemployment, crime, health and education outcomes.
Mr Peters and his party have had an increasing presence in Whangarei and in February the NZ First Whangarei Parliamentary Office was opened on Bank St, its first office in the town since 2008. When asked by the Northern Advocate if this meant he was going to take on Mr Heatley, who has been Whangarei MP since 1999, Mr Peters said decisions on how the party would stand in electorates would not be made until much closer to the election.