{"id":431902,"date":"2026-05-17T11:05:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T11:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/431902\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T11:05:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T11:05:19","slug":"election-2026-national-whangarei-candidate-lloyd-budd-outlines-top-priorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/431902\/","title":{"rendered":"Election 2026: National Whang\u0101rei candidate Lloyd Budd outlines top priorities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Budd said he wanted to be a strong voice for Whang\u0101rei and part of a \u201cgreat growth story\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like us to be known for something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Budd described growing up in a region with thriving dairy and marine industries and a strong primary sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seemed to have lost that kind of number eight wire innovation edge in Whang\u0101rei,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, I understand we can\u2019t just turn all those taps on \u2026 but can we find that catalyst?\u201d<\/p>\n

Budd said growth meant seeing major projects through, including the four-lane highway<\/a> between Auckland and Whang\u0101rei and the Whang\u0101rei Hospital redevelopment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are good things for Whang\u0101rei that we want to see through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Housing and education were two of his top priorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe currently have 580 people on an MSD A priority waiting list for a home, and that\u2019s not good enough for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He supports greater partnerships with community housing providers and wants to help more young families into affordable homes so \u201cWhang\u0101rei is a place to call home\u201d.<\/p>\n

He believed key steps were planning, as in unlocking more land, and ensuring good public infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Budd acknowledged outgoing Whang\u0101rei MP Dr Shane Reti, who announced his retirement<\/a> in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really respectful of Shane and what he\u2019s done not only for Whang\u0101rei but for the party,\u201d Budd said.<\/p>\n

However, he said he would bring his own style to the role if elected and would also have the luxury of being able to focus solely on Whang\u0101rei unlike Reti who had portfolios to manage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 20 years younger than Shane, so I\u2019m going to do things probably my own way in a sense of hopefully engaging that younger vote and hopefully engaging a new audience like people who have been overseas and come back into politics,\u201d Budd said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to be out and listen to the amazing stories of our local community, learn from our community leaders and hopefully be a strong voice for Whang\u0101rei come November. That\u2019s my that\u2019s my goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Politics piqued Budd\u2019s interest in 2007 when he saw then National leader John Key at Forum North. He remembered being struck by Key\u2019s energy at the time.<\/p>\n

The former Prime Minister said this month that the sooner Lloyd Budd gets to Parliament, the better<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cLloyd brings a real-world experience and a load of energy,\u201d Key said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Budd said he wanted to be a strong voice for Whang\u0101rei and part of a \u201cgreat growth story\u201d.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2246,219488,19956,7557,5903,42678,6637,6281,172523,5969,3556,71084,111,43,139,69,6452,75546,48426,121795,312,1361,3010,1869],"class_list":["post-431902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-2246","tag-budd","tag-candidate","tag-district","tag-election","tag-electorate","tag-gave","tag-homecoming","tag-lloyd","tag-much","tag-national","tag-nationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-opportunity","tag-outlines","tag-priorities","tag-repay","tag-says","tag-that","tag-top","tag-whangrei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431902","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=431902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}