Although he is about 1300 votes ahead and has been told that is a safe margin, he will wait and see before making any big decisions.
They will include whether to lease out the 283ha beef farm at Okaihau that he bought only six months ago from his father, having leased it himself for the past 10 years. He has lived on the farm most of his life.
But he says there is no way he could give his best to his new role as an MP and continue to run the farm himself.
He reckons it is “absolutely” an advantage to have people from a rural background in Parliament.
“We’ve got a mixed bag of people from all walks of life. But my electorate is a farm; it is all farming. I don’t have any cities; I only have towns in my electorate. Being from a farm is essential: it gives me the understanding, the background, the experience and the knowledge to be able to speak for the farming community,” King told Rural News.
“For me an MP really needs to know about farming… especially my patch. Five hours from end to end and it’s all pretty much farmland.”
The Northland electorate extends from Cape Reinga to Wellsford but excludes Whangarei.
National already has excellent strong rural voices in Parliament, he says. He includes Barbara Kuriger who owns two dairy farms, and Ian McElvie and primary industries spokesman Nathan Guy, both farmers.
Northland is similar to the East Coast – the “poor cousins” from a social statistics point of view, King says.
“Infrastructure is probably the biggest thing for Northland – our roading, cellular and all our networks need investment. They are getting it but we can always do with more.”
Exciting things are happening, he says. The National Government has put high speed broadband fibre cables through to all the rural schools and hospitals in New Zealand and now this will be run to the towns over the next three to four years.
Stage two of the broadband rollout started this year in which small operators can make agreements with the Government to link up high speed broadband from the schools and hospitals to small communities.
“Having people connected and in touch with the world and society, and running businesses from home... I don’t think we have even begun to explore the possibilities that will bring over time.”
King says roading is also a big deal in Northland which has Department of Conservation and Maori land, so ratepayers are paying a disproportionate amount, he says. The Government has increased the roading subsidies to local authorities but he will advocate for an even bigger subsidy.
In Northland, tourism generates $1 billion and he would like to see small towns get better infrastructure so they can participate in that.
King says he is “a cup-half-full type of guy”.
He thinks there is an element of negativity in Northland where people oppose everything and are ‘anti’ - an attitude that doesn’t work.
“I always say to people ‘we have to have the attitude that we are going ahead, we want people to come here and we want Aucklanders to come to the regions to bring their money, their businesses and investment. You do that by being upbeat and positive and encouraging people’.”
There is a 50 point economic development plan for Northland and much of the work is underway – the broadband, improving the roads and the infrastructure.
National has “stuff happening” all around the regions of New Zealand, King says.
