Veteran NZ First MP Shane Jones running in Northland

NZ First leader Winston Peters described Jones as a Harvard-educated “nationalist” who also knew a thing or two about milking cows. Photo / Michael Cunningham

NZ First will try to claw its way back into Parliament by running a “two-tick” campaign in Northland through veteran MP Shane Jones.

The party tumbled out of Parliament in 2020, when Jones was also running a two-tick campaign in the seat. He came third, more than 10,000 votes behind Natonal’s Matt King.

Labour’s Willow-Jean Prime won the seat - but narrowly.

No poll has NZ First currently above the 5 per cent threshold, meaning winning an electorate seat is currently their only path to Parliament.

NZ First leader Winston Peters described Jones as a Harvard-educated “nationalist” who also knew a thing or two about milking cows.

“Born and bred in Northland, he is a nationalist who understands with great acuity the importance of the provinces, the need to grow provincial wealth and employment, thereby uplifting the economic future of so many people living here and who choose to make Northland their home.

“Shane Jones is Harvard University-trained, but he has never forgotten where he came from or, for that matter, how to milk cows,” he said.

Peters told a crowd of supporters in Northland that other parties had failed to deliver for Northland - until the seat fell into NZ First hands in the 2015 byelection.

“For nigh on half a century, all sorts of political parties, candidates and representatives have made you numerous promises, the unacceptable result being that they just failed to deliver.

“Northland is in an infrastructural time warp, best evidenced by numerous stop-gap measures which can be seen everywhere and over a thousand single lane bridges, serious road closures, sitting like an albatross around the prospect of our future growth.

“In the lifetime of many people here, we went from having Government print, the glassworks, a fertilizer works, Marsden Point refinery and the construction of North Port; the port with the greatest developmental potential in this country, and yet with no railway servicing it.

“All this happened decades ago, and then we became the ‘forgotten province’,” Peters said.

Peters said this state of neglect changed when he won the seat from National in the 2015 byelection, and followed that up by going into Government with Labour in 2017.

“From 2015 to 2020, that briefly changed,” Peters said.

“The railway line between Whangārei and Auckland had 17 tunnels unable to carry containers by rail.

“Those tunnels have now been deepened and the rail line is being strengthened, and the rail between Kauri and Otiria, closed under the previous government, is being re-opened, as evidenced by the piles of sleepers on the side of the rail line in preparation for renewal.

“The GeoTech study linking a new rail line joining Marsden Point with Oakley has been completed and now awaits the commitment to be built,” he said.