KEY POINTS:
Claire Trevett continues our series on Parliament's new MPs, based on their maiden speeches.
Tim Macindoe
National, MP for Hamilton West.
Tim Macindoe set out to shatter any illusions that the road to Parliament was as smooth as his leader John Key had made it look.
Last year's election was fifth time lucky for Mr Macindoe, who has been a National Party candidate in every election since MMP was introduced in 1996.
Mr Macindoe said he had "aspired from a tender age" to serve in Parliament. With some relish, he then catalogued his many doomed attempts to do so - losing the contest for the Karapiro electorate to Lindsay Tisch in 1999, losing to Paul Hutchison in Port Waikato in 1998, and losing to David Bennett in Hamilton East in 2004. "At the time I was mystified but I came to understand it some time later when our local paper named him the Waikato's sexiest politician."
In 2002 he thought he had struck gold when he was selected as the party's candidate for Tauranga. But "it wasn't a great year to be National's candidate against a resurgent Winston Peters. Timing is everything in politics."
Having finally got to "my cramped corner in the back of the House", he declared himself humbled and emotional.
The former chief executive of Arts Waikato, deputy principal of St Peter's School in Cambridge and prison tutor at Christchurch Women's Prison said education and dealing with children at risk were among his priorities.
"I have been concerned for more than a decade that our country is in danger of losing its soul. Every tragic incident of child abuse or illegal drug sale to the young and the vulnerable or senseless violent crime that occurs in our country is an attack on our society as a whole and the values that most of us hold dear."
Mr Macindoe won his seat from Labour's Martin Gallagher by 1618 votes. He is on the regulations review and social services select committees.
Kelvin Davis
Labour List
Vital Statistics:
Aged 41. Entered Parliament at 29 on Labour's List. Candidate in Tai Tokerau electorate. Spokesman on biosecurity and associate for education. Maori Affairs select committee.
Background:
Ngapuhi iwi, married with three children, lives in Kaitaia. A teacher in Northland since 1988, his most recent job was as principal of Kaitaia Intermediate from 2001 to 2007. Likes rugby, fishing, shooting and boating.
Personal:
Mr Davis spoke of his Maori heritage, including his tupuna Whetoi Pomare who was one of the signatories to the Treaty of Waitangi.
In his own words:
"It's time we stopped wallowing in self-pity and instead looked for solutions ... blaming the system implies we are too weak as a people to help ourselves, that we are victims."
Amy Adams
National, MP for Selwyn.
Vital statistics:
Won the newly established rural Selwyn electorate in Canterbury. On finance and expenditure, and regulations review select committees.
Background:
Auckland raised, she went to Canterbury University where she met her sheep farmer husband Don. Has been a lawyer for 15 years. Has two children.
Personal:
As a lawyer and farmer, she said she was recently called a "typical Nat". She said before people stereotype her they should know she was brought up by a solo mother who struggled to put herself through a psychology degree before working with disadvantaged families.
In her own words:
"[Agriculture] was our past and it remains our future. It is the primary sector that will help us as a country find our way through these troubled financial times."
