{"id":343870,"date":"2026-03-23T15:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T15:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/343870\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T15:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T15:46:09","slug":"election-2026-whos-in-whos-out-and-whos-circling-northland-seats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/343870\/","title":{"rendered":"Election 2026: Who\u2019s in, who\u2019s out and who\u2019s circling Northland seats"},"content":{"rendered":"

McCallum offered National some stability in the north, after Whang\u0101rei MP Dr Shane Reti this month announced his retirement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reti held the Whang\u0101rei seat from 2014 to 2020, losing it to Labour\u2019s Emily Henderson before winning it back in 2023.<\/p>\n

He entered Cabinet in 2023 initially as Health Minister \u2013 a portfolio he controversially lost in a Cabinet reshuffle in 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reti is now Minister of Pacific Peoples<\/a>, Statistics, Universities, and Science, Innovation and Technology, plus will remain Whang\u0101rei MP until the election.<\/p>\n

National opened nominations for the Whang\u0101rei candidacy, with electorate chairman Paul Dunning expecting selection by the end of April.<\/p>\n

\"NorthlandNorthland MP Grant McCallum is contesting his seat again for the National Party. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

One nominee is former Bayleys Auckland chief executive Lloyd Budd<\/a>, who was born and raised in Whang\u0101rei.<\/p>\n

With the Labour Party, Northland-based list MP Willow-Jean Prime<\/a> will stand in the Te Tai Tokerau M\u0101ori seat this year, having won voters\u2019 favour in the blue Northland seat in 2020 before losing it in 2023.<\/p>\n

Prime said she was approached to stand in the seat shortly after the resignation of long-serving Labour MP Kelvin Davis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She thought the cost of living and lack of jobs would be key issues for the area this election, with high rangatahi unemployment driving youth to Australia.<\/p>\n

Labour would undergo a candidate selection process for the Northland candidacy.<\/p>\n

\"Labour'sLabour’s Northland-based list MP Willow-Jean Prime will contest Te Tai Tokerau this election. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

The party\u2019s Whang\u0101rei candidate has already been already confirmed as outspoken Whang\u0101rei emergency department clinician Dr Gary Payinda<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Payinda said he wanted to stand against the coalition Government\u2019s moves to privatise the likes of healthcare<\/a> and education, with his candidacy in November one of the first to be confirmed by Labour.<\/p>\n

Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori controversy remains<\/p>\n

Te Tai Tokerau MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi said she had not yet confirmed her plans for the election and was still to discuss it with Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kapa-Kingi won her seat for Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori in 2023.<\/p>\n

\"MariamenoMariameno Kapa-Kingi won Te Tai Tokerau for Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori in 2023 but is still deciding if she will stand as an independent this year. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

However, she was controversially ejected from the party in late 2025, accused of overspending $133,000 in her office<\/a>. Allegations were also levelled at her high-profile activist son, Eru Kapa-Kingi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This month, the High Court found her dismissal was unlawful and ruled she should be reinstated as a member of Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori. It also cleared her of any wrongdoing and said statements about her son were not factual.<\/p>\n

However, Kapa-Kingi was unsuccessful in trying to argue that party president John Tamihere was not elected fairly.<\/p>\n

Since the ruling, Kapa-Kingi has questioned whether her rohe can trust Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori<\/a>. Her options include running as an independent in November.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Northland-based Green MP H\u016bhana Lyndon has confirmed she will stand again in the Te Tai Tokerau seat<\/a>, saying she has her party\u2019s full backing.<\/p>\n

\"GreenGreen list MP H\u016bhana Lyndon says she has been active across Te Tai Tokerau this term, including here MC’ing Ng\u0101ti Hine Forestry Trust’s kiwifruit harvest karakia. Photo \/ Susan Botting Local Democracy Reporting<\/p>\n

Lyndon unsuccessfully stood in the seat in 2023, entering Parliament as a Green list MP instead.<\/p>\n

This month, she was promoted in the rankings from No 10 to No 6.<\/p>\n

Lyndon believed the promotion reflected the hard work she had done this term, including being seen throughout the area<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Green Party upheld Te Tiriti o Waitangi and listened deeply to M\u0101ori concerns, she said.<\/p>\n

It would put the stop on fast-track consents relating to sand mining<\/a>, hard rock mining and coal mining, plus it wanted 35,000 more public houses<\/a>, Lyndon said.<\/p>\n

\"WorkingWorking together is key for Northland-based MPs. Here, Green MP H\u016bhana Lyndon (left) and Northland MP Grant McCallum (right) join Ng\u0101ti Hine Forestry Trust’s Pita Tipene and Waihoroi Shortland at the trust\u2019s pre-kiwifruit harvest karakia this month. Photo \/ Susan Botting Local Democracy Reporting<\/p>\n

Another Northland-based MP, NZ First\u2019s Shane Jones, said his party would finalise candidates shortly after the weekend\u2019s State of the Nation speech by leader Winston Peters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whang\u0101rei-born Peters is the only NZ First member to have held the Northland seat, after winning a byelection in 2015<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since 2020, the seat has been unsuccessfully contested for NZ First by Shane Jones, who re-entered Parliament in 2023 as a list MP<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jones is the current Minister for Regional Development, Resources, Oceans and Fisheries, plus Associate Minister of Finance and Energy.<\/p>\n

Peters, Deputy Prime Minister for the first part of this parliamentary term, is the Minister of Foreign Affairs<\/a>, Racing and Rail.<\/p>\n

\"NZNZ First Northland-based MP Shane Jones says his party will announce candidacies shortly. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

New parties emerge in Northland<\/p>\n

With the election still more than nine months away, candidates continue to be announced, with nominations formally closing on October 8.<\/p>\n

One candidate is Kerikeri conservation worker and business owner Richard McIntosh, who said he would run in the Northland seat for his new party, Build the Nation.<\/p>\n

He said the party was based on ending privatisation and was vying for the centre vote, kicking off with a public meeting in Kerikeri on April 19.<\/p>\n

Denise Piper is a news reporter<\/a> for the Northern Advocate, focusing on health and business. She has more than 20 years in journalism and is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McCallum offered National some stability in the north, after Whang\u0101rei MP Dr Shane Reti this month announced his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2246,13038,95,137508,5903,2294,78,13607,663,17318,111,43,139,7977,1067,183378,12885,69,3111,2171,56638,165,57590,1869,17217,102],"class_list":["post-343870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-2246","tag-advocate","tag-and","tag-circling","tag-election","tag-general","tag-in","tag-intentions","tag-looks","tag-mps","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-northern","tag-northland","tag-northlandbased","tag-november","tag-nz","tag-out","tag-plans","tag-seats","tag-their","tag-tokerau","tag-whangrei","tag-whos","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}