Lawrence was elected to Napier City Council last year – after a first unsuccessful run in 2022 – and holds the multicultural communities portfolio.<\/p>\n
She previously held roles in administration, architecture and marketing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always been about connecting people and maintaining relationships,\u201d Lawrence told The Gisborne Herald.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always like to try to make a difference in my own little way if I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a 2022 interview<\/a>, she said she would run with Labour or Act if she were to run for Parliament. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m definitely from a working class family, from quite humble beginnings,\u201d Lawrence said. <\/p>\n \u201cI like to bat for the working person, the everyday Joe Bloggs\u201d. <\/p>\n She joined NZ First as a 2023 election volunteer after seeing videos of party leader Winston Peters speaking.<\/p>\n \u201cI liked what he was saying; he was saying some things that I\u2019d been feeling for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n She aligned with the party\u2019s approach on \u201csustainable and smart\u201d immigration and a focus on regional communities. She\u2019s been an outreach adviser covering Tair\u0101whiti, Hawke\u2019s Bay, Manawatu-Whanganui and Taranaki for the party since 2024.<\/p>\n Transport connectivity within the region and infrastructure are the main issues the region is facing, Lawrence said. <\/p>\n She\u2019s keen on the possibility of another future fund <\/a>– \u201ca bigger, better, amped-up version of the Provincial Growth Fund\u201d – to help boost the regions. <\/p>\n Lawrence believes family is \u201ccore to all of our communities, and what brings us together\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what I want to champion, as well as regional development and our provinces\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI know that the [East Cape] community is very, very resilient, more than they should have to be,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201c…New Zealand First has always believed that our priorities and regions matter, and we believe in backing New Zealand, supporting infrastructure investment and ensuring communities outside the main centres have a strong voice, and I believe I can be that person.\u201d<\/p>\n East Cape candidates announced to date:<\/p>\n Incumbent MP Dana Kirkpatrick<\/a> (National), Jo Luxton<\/a> (Labour), Jordan Walker<\/a> (Green), Te Kira Lawrence (NZ First) and Cail Smith<\/a> (Opportunity).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lawrence was elected to Napier City Council last year – after a first unsuccessful run in 2022 –…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2246,696,1558,19956,13651,2199,38290,3806,5903,42678,1888,4760,2082,52206,23997,10136,3607,117,111,43,139,69,8690,80],"class_list":["post-527200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-2246","tag-announced","tag-been","tag-candidate","tag-cape","tag-city","tag-councillor","tag-east","tag-election","tag-electorate","tag-first","tag-firsts","tag-for","tag-kira","tag-lawrence","tag-named","tag-napier","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-te","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527200","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=527200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}