Life an 'open canvas' for dethroned Lawrence Yule, as he rules out local politics return

Lawrence Yule says it has been a privilege and an honour to serve as the Tukituki MP for the past three years. Photo / Paul Taylor

"Losing is never easy" but Lawrence Yule got to enjoy the first bacon and egg breakfast with his family that he has had in a while on Sunday.

Yule, a farmer who held the role of Hastings mayor for 16 years before becoming Tukituki MP, says he is leaving Parliament with his "head held high" after a three-year term that had a been an "honour and privilege".

In the immediate aftermath of defeat to Labour's Anna Lorck, Yule ruled out a return to the Hastings District Council table, saying current mayor Sandra Hazlehurst is doing a "fantastic job".

A job in the private sector is an option he'll take some time to mull over, the first time he's had to contemplate it since 2001, but he said he was keen to continue to work in a way that benefitted the Hawke's Bay community.

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Tukituki is one of many electorates throughout the country that swung from National to Labour on Saturday. Lorck won the seat by 772 votes in her third time running.

With the "Labour tsunami" and margins other electorates have been lost by, Yule said he was feeling okay with the end result and wouldn't change a thing about his campaign.

"I'm still pretty comfortable about where we got to.

"From one election to the next we lost about 3700 votes. Many of my colleagues have lost between 8000 and 10,000 votes so locally I thought we actually performed really well compared with the rest of New Zealand."

One aspect he said was "disappointing" was the number of candidate votes given to Act and New Conservative in Tukituki.

Act candidate Jan Daffern received 918 votes and New Conservative candidate Nick McMinn-Collard received 587 votes.

"I thought maybe 300 or 400 would have done that but 1500 did it," Yule said.

"I just think some people haven't fully grasped how MMP works.

"I think if we'd taken that out it would have been a very, very closely run thing.

"But that happened, I can't change it, in our view we ran a very good campaign.

"I wish Anna Lorck all the best."

Jim and Barbi Speers, and Kevin Watkins were among friends, family, supporters and volunteers at Lawrence Yule's party on election night. Photo / Paul Taylor

Yule said the life of an MP in Wellington is "hard and complex" and shouldn't be underestimated.

"It's brutally demanding. You would start work at 7am, finishing at 10pm and in a very intense world where you are expected to perform – debating, select committees and, when you come home on a Thursday night, with constituency work throughout the weekend.

"But not many people get to do it so it's a huge honour to do it."

Yule said he hadn't thought about whether he would stand in Tukituki again, and where he went next would depend on where life took him.

"It's an open canvas really - I'm not worried about it, it's just different."