Labour list MP Liz Craig is keen to wrestle the Invercargill electorate seat off National so she can get more resources into Southland and be a direct conduit to central Government.

The next six weeks are crucial for The Catlins lifestyle block owner and public health doctor, as she makes her third tilt for Parliament.

Dr Craig has one term of central Government service under her belt, after entering Parliament as a list MP in 2017.

Based on current polling and her party ranking of 43, Dr Craig is likely to be returned on September 19.

But as the region nervously navigates a path through a recession caused by floods, the Covid-19 lockdowns and the looming closure of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter, Dr Craig is clear she wants Invercargill's seat.

“My preference would be to become the electorate MP because of the extra resources that you get. As a list MP, you get approximately half the staffing. And so, being able to be responsive and have that resource to be able to advocate for people individually, I think there’s a lot more to be doing,” she said.

Dr Craig first stood, unsuccessfully, in the former Clutha-Southland seat in 2014.

She was second behind National MP Sarah Dowie in Invercargill in 2017 but halved the National Party’s majority vote from 8327 to 4329.

The mother of two tertiary student sons is as comfortable in her gumboots on the land as she is in Parliament,

advocating for lifting children out of poverty, better housing standards and environmental reforms. PHOTO: Supplied / Liz Craig.

At home, she enjoys “the environment side of things’’, planting trees with her horticulture-trained husband Philip Melgren on their five acre block. 

Dr Craig was raised in New Plymouth, did her medical degree in Auckland, then spent two years as house surgeon at Taranaki Base Hospital.

She completed a Diploma in Paediatrics in Canberra, taught Aboriginal health workers in Queensland, returned to New Zealand to work in public health and complete a PhD in epidemiology.

She then established the Child and Youth Epidemiology Service and monitored child and youth health services for district health boards. In 2014, she moved from Dunedin to Invercargill.

When The Southland App caught up with Dr Craig in Wellington last week, she was looking forward to beginning her campaign in Invercargill this week.

How was her first term?

“It’s been really great. Pretty much the term was divided into pre-Covid and post-Covid, because of the dynamics.”

We back track a little so she can explain her motivation for standing for Parliament.

When she established the Child Poverty Monitor, she identified many of the conditions that hospitalised children were underpinned by poverty and lack of timely access to doctors.

“When you tracked it back, a lot of it was to do with the policy choices made in the early 90s, when they had the mother of all budgets, when they cut benefits for sole parents by virtually 20%, cut rates for state houses, [made] a whole lot of changes. What happened was child poverty rates soared... We were saying basically we’ve got to fix child poverty... and we’ve got to make sure kids can get to the doctor on time,” she said.

When she voted to pass the Families Package of legislation, just before Christmas 2017, “it was really, really amazing”. 

“So much of what we had been advocating for was getting passed into law... like the Best Start payment, which is $60 a week for newborn babies. There was also separate legislation to extend paid parental leave. And there was extra legislation to put in place rental standards putting a framework around those so we could sort out poor quality rental housing.”

Liz Craig at the New River Estuary. PHOTO: Supplied / Liz Craig

Dr Craig is selling herself as an community advocate. Before the Covid-19 shutdowns in March, her work focused on getting social housing built in Invercargill, public health and environmental reform, particularly for Invercargill’s environmentally degraded New River Estuary.  

Post-Covid, she’s been reaching the ears of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Finance Minister Grant Robertson, and Energy Minister Megan Woods about projects that could assist Southland’s economic recovery.

The post-Covid world means no international tourism and no international students for an uncertain period of time, and no Tiwai Point aluminium smelter from August next year. That’s on top of extensive flood damage in February.

Dr Craig has hosted various ministers and caucus colleagues during Southland’s times of strife, including Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor and the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

She says she and her Labour colleagues will “walk beside Southland” during the recovery.

After many meetings with community groups and businesses, she has “a real sense people are really thankful” for the Government’s response to Covid-19, given Southland had one the highest rates of the disease.

Wage subsidies are now in people’s pockets, significant Government investments have been announced (such as Invercargill’s City Centre rebuild and in river stop banks around the region) and many businesses are trading normally again.

But Dr Craig is mindful of ongoing tourism and hospitality challenges, particularly in Fiordland, which straddles both the Invercargill and Southland electorates. 

The next phase is to look at creating jobs out of “shovel ready” projects. But it appears the investment phase is not yet over.

“There is a lot of regional development investment that needs to happen and there’s a lot of advocacy we need to have happening, and liaison with central Government on where we go as a region.”

Liz Craig stands behind Finance Minister Grant Robertson as he speaks at a media conference in Invercargill. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is centre, with Energy Minister Megan Woods and Te Tai Tonga MP Rino Tirakatene (left). PHOTO: Lucy Henry

Does she think the electorate is finally willing to give Labour a go?

“I think, certainly, when I am out in the community, whether that is talking to people on the phone, or door knocking or engaging with community groups I meet with on a regular basis. My sense is that people are incredibly appreciative of the decisive health response during Covid and they are also incredibly appreciative of the wage subsidies and the approach that the current Government, and particularly [Prime Minister] Jacinda Ardern and [Finance Minister] Grant Robertson, have taken to the economic recovery... So, my sense is that there is growing support [for Labour Government] and wanting it to continue,” she said.

The Southland Mayoral Forum and other Southland leaders have asked for top level Government meetings to press the case for a longer transition period for the Tiwai Point closure.

Is Dr Craig confident a five- to eight-year transition is possible?

That was ultimately up to smelter owner Rio Tinto to decide, she said.

“I have been part of those discussions... [and] we need to think about how to diversify, how we move forward. But 14 months' [notice] was quite sudden and ideally what we would have is five years," she said.

A longer transition would give Southland time to work on its natural advantages and potential for new industries. Dr Craig says the Southern leaders' issues are "on the radar'' and she is keen to progress high level conversations about them.

“What Jacinda and Grant have said is: 'We will be there beside the people of Southland, providing that support through transition'. The next few weeks and months will be critical in terms of that,” Dr Craig said. 

Penny Simmonds, the National Party candidate for Invercargill, last week told The Southland App she believed Labour did not truly understand the primary sector until Covid-19 happened. 

Dr Craig disagrees. She sits on the Environment Select Committee, has been working on zero carbon and emissions trading issues, and says there is “a real agreement’’ from the rural sector to work together.

“[They are] not just clipping the ticket with stock that gets processed at the meat works... instead [they are] saying “I am on-farm and prepared to plant riparian strips wider for carbon capture” [or] “I am happy to retire some of my farm and put into wood. That should be accounted [for]”. That is where Government has been listening and saying: “This is he waka eke noa [we got this]... let’s work together”. 

Dr Craig says there are many other examples of good primary sector partnership, including with water issues. Thriving Southland’s farmer-led catchment groups was just one example. And there is a strong rural caucus, particularly in Labour’s backbench, she said.

Dr Craig’s affinity with the rural sector stems from family experience. Her mother grew up on a farm, family holidays included visits to farming uncles and after joining the workforce, Dr Craig has enjoyed owning land and planting trees.

She feels at home in Invercargill, a similar-sized city to New Plymouth, both surrounded by a rural hinterland supporting primary industries.

Liz Craig does not support cuts to benefits, health services and social housing support to repay debt.

Another of Ms Simmonds’s concerns was that the Labour Government did not appear to have a clear plan to repay debt incurred during the Covid-19 response.

Dr Craig says the Government is saving and creating jobs, protecting family welfare and building infrastructure, such as new Dunedin Hospital and investing in the Invercargill City Centre rebuild. 

After the legacy of the 1990s, it would not be right to make cuts, she said.

“I think the issue there is we entered this downturn with very low debt levels compared to other countries, so we have got some capacity to take on debt. 

“I think, looking back at the legacy of what happened [in the 1990s] versus what we are doing at the moment, what has been key is we have had that capacity to borrow... So, the first thing is making sure we are putting that money, the wage subsidy, into people’s pockets, so they can stay in connection with their employers and stay connected to the workforce," she said.

Next term Dr Craig simply wants to continue advocating for her constituents.

“Where do we want to go as a region, what resources do we need to get us there and then how can Government assist? I think that is the conversation we need to be having now and in the next few months as well,” she said.

Dr Craig will be attending various Meet the Candidates functions and events.She meets the National Council of Women Southland branch at the Pacific Island Advisory and Cultural Trust, 135 Bowmont Street, Invercargill, at 7.30pm today (Tuesday August 11).