NZ First MP Jamie Arbuckle has officially stepped back from his council role, recalling highlights but also the darkest day of his career during his valedictory speech.
The councillor-turned-MP leaves behind a career at the Marlborough District Council that started in 2010, when he opened his mouth in his first meeting and made himself “unpopular from the beginning”.
“I remember saying we should all be paid the same,” he said, at a full council meeting on Thursday, his last day at the table.
“You could imagine on the day, first council meeting, talking about the remuneration and [having] no respect for chairs and understanding the work they did.
“Obviously I have a different view of that today.”
His “darkest day” followed in 2011, when he claimed council staff tampered with tender documents. A report from an Auckland lawyer found nothing to support the claims.
But Arbuckle said the report helped to clear a cloud of suspicion over the council.
“What I did say that day, and I got shouted down, and this isn’t an attack on that council, [but] I said I was proud that I stood up.
“Because I brought issues that needed to be resolved.
“If you’re going to remember me for anything, what I want to say is I was proud that I stood up for my constituents … I will no longer be a councillor, but looking back I can always say that I stood up for issues that I believed in, and we got results.”
He had always been vocal about closed-to-public workshops, once choosing to boycott them in protest. He also resigned as deputy chairperson of a council committee in 2015 over issues with “how things were debated”, he said.
But through this, he was never unpopular with voters, always polling at the top of the Blenheim ward.
There were plenty of lighter moments during his council career too.
Like the time he showed up to council after being given a “golden shower” from a horse.
New horse, Jane, had urinated on him right before a council meeting, he said.
“When I first came to council I was really involved in harness racing.
“I used to go to Waterlea Racecourse in the morning. What I used to do was take all my good clothing with me … you almost come off the track and would have to get dressed and drive straight to council.
“There’s no facilities, like, you know, showers or anything. I will always remember sitting in here [chambers] with that happening.”
Achievements he was proud of included watching the small townships programme grow, the Renwick dog park opening, introducing a public forum and that he had “stayed loyal to himself” through it all.
“I believe that I was doing the right thing and raising the right issues,” he said.
As promised, his council salary since becoming MP had been donated to charities such as Marlborough Foodbank, the Salvation Army, REAP Marlborough, Marlborough Four Paws, the Flaxbourne Heritage Centre, Alzheimers Marlborough and Barnardos.
“Obviously around the last year there was the hoo-ha about doing both roles,” he said.
“I wanted to be able to do that, to be able to say to my constituents who voted for me in 2023 that I was still here to do their job.”
He thanked his wife Sally, also a district councillor, for her support.
“We all know we wouldn’t get here if not for the people around us,” Arbuckle said.
“My children have basically all left home now. They’ve gone through the last 14 years of myself as a councillor and having to also deal with all their friends knowing who you are.
“Politics is one part of your life, and I know one day the politics will be finished … horticulture and being out in the orchard is where I’m truly happy.”
Marlborough mayor Nadine Taylor told Arbuckle he made his mark as soon as he started as a councillor.
“But I wasn’t particularly familiar with that history and I very much like to take people as I find them,” she said.
“I have to say that Jamie was exceptionally supportive.
“I think he recognised what it was like to come into council as a new councillor and to perhaps sometimes feel isolated as a new councillor.
“I recall him giving me gentle guidance and he was actually pretty politically savvy.”
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
