16th January 2017

Lawrey Selected as Green Party Candidate for Nelson

Nelson City Councillor Matt Lawrey has been selected as the Green Party’s candidate to stand in the Nelson electorate at this year’s General Election.

Lawrey was uncontested in his bid to secure the candidacy, which was confirmed tonight at a meeting of the party’s Nelson branch.

A second term councillor and well-known Nelson writer and broadcaster, Lawrey said he was honoured to represent the party and was excited about the campaign.

“It’s time for the smart, bold ideas that are coming out of the Green Party; ideas for unleashing innovation, saving our environment and tackling poverty,” he said.

“We’re talking about policies that all Kiwis can relate to. Policies like charging tourists more at the border to fund a predator-free New Zealand and to pay for tourism infrastructure, building up coastal shipping and rail to reduce the amount of trucks on the road, speeding up our transition to electric cars, setting schools up as community hubs, making sure the kids at those schools aren’t going hungry, reducing the number of plastic bags going into landfill, and finally taking the steps necessary to ensure all our rivers are swimmable again.”

Lawrey said his goal was to grow the Greens’ party vote but he was also looking forward to campaigning against Nelson’s National MP Nick Smith.

“This year Nick Smith will have been an MP for 27 years. There’s no question that 27 years is a good run but we need to start thinking about the future, and the feedback I’m getting is that it’s time for a change.”

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