Rich to retire

Have just caught up with Katherine’s decision to retire. While I’m pleased that Katherine is going to have more time with her family, I am very sad that National is losing her as an MP and future Minister.

This is a pretty major blow.  Not only was Katherine a front bencher, she was one of only two front-bench women. And she would have been an incredibly good Education Minister.

I can recall Katherine before she was an MP.  It was at the Southern Regional Conference in 1999 and someone pointed Katherine out to me, and said they were hoping she would become a candidate, and was a real star.  And I soon decided they were right. There was a small group of us who travelled to all five Regional Conferences (President, Leader, General Manager and a couple of others) and all of us were excited over the prospect of being able to get Katherine to become an MP. She stood out.

Her husband Andy is a first class guy also, and as sad as I am about us losing Katherine, I’m pleased they’ll be getting more time together. Four kids is no small task to look after.

On the political side Anne Tolley has been appointed Education Spokesperson. Anne has been very successful as Chief Whip, so it is a deserved step up. This moves Nathan Guy up to Chief Whip which is a rapid promotion as Nathan has been in Parliament for two years only. People will see more of Nathan in years to come – have no doubt.  Chris Tremain takes Nathan’s old job as Junior Whip, and he will relish the challenge.

One of the useful requirements for being a Whip is to be able to work well with MPs and Whips from the other parties as they do the work agreeing on time allocations for committee stages debates etc. Nathan and Chris are both very genial guys who will have no problems in that regard.