Tracey McLellan climbs the Labour ladder as Kelvin Davis resigns

Friday, 15 December 2023

Labour list MP Kelvin Davis will be walking out of Parliament on Waitangi Day next year, making room for Tracey McLellan.

Labour list MP Kelvin Davis has announced his resignation for Waitangi Day 2024 meaning Banks Peninsula’s Tracey McLellan will be going to Parliament.

Davis, an MP since 2008, said it was “time to move on to other opportunities” but acknowledged Labour’s immense progress over the last term.

“Although that progress is currently under threat with this new government, I leave knowing that our strong Labour team will hold the Coalition Government to account,” Davis said.

McLellan, who missed out on the Bank’s Peninsula seat in a neck-and-neck race with National’s Vanessa Weenink, said she would help her party keep the government in check.

Labour’s Tracey McLellan will be the fourth Banks Peninsula MP in Parliament.

“Its pretty clear by the looks of the past couple of weeks that this Government is hell-bent on getting rid of a lot of things I care quite deeply about,” McLellan said.

In particular she criticised the Coalition’s “backward” decisions to scrap smokefree laws and the Fair Pay Agreement.

She was also concerned about funding being cut to environmental groups like the Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust as the coalition tried “to find money under every nook and cranny”.

Once funding was cut to groups which maintained pest control all of their progress went out the window, she said.

McLellan said “it is a privilege” to return to parliament, but expressed her gratitude to Davis as “such a good buddy and great friend” who was an integral part of the Labour caucus.

The Banks Peninsula region now has four MPs in Parliament: National’s Weenink representing the region with the Green’s Lan Pham, ACT’s Laura Trask, and Labour’s McLellan on their respective party’s lists.