Naylor retries after one term

Stuff reports:

Former Palmerston North mayor Jono Naylor is quitting Parliament after one term, saying he cannot see himself doing politics for another 16 years.

Naylor announced on Thursday he would not stand for the National Party in next year’s election.

He served on the Palmerston North City Council for six years, before being elected mayor of the city in 2007.

He made the step into national politics in 2014, standing as National’s candidate for the Palmerston North seat.

Pundits gave Naylor a good shot at taking the seat off Labour Party incumbent Iain-Lees Galloway, but he lost by 2212 votes.

He still got into Parliament, though, on the back of National’s massive win, ranked as number 51 on the party’s list.

Naylor acknowledged it was unusual for an MP to stand down after one term.

“I have just been reflecting on about 16 years standing for election every three years, or slightly more often on average, and just realised it is not necessarily what I wanted for the next 10 to 15 years of my life,” he said.

Mark Blumsky also retired after just one term. Part of this might be the challenge in going from an executive role to a non-executive one.

Most MPs would like to become a Minister. But timing has a lot to do with this. The best time to enter Parliament is when your party is in opposition, as you are likely to have enough experience to be a Minister once you enter Government.

But if you enter Parliament in your party’s third term of Government, you are unlikely to become a Minister during that Government, and then may have six to nine years of opposition also before you get a chance so could be 12 – 15 year wait.