NZ First has accepted Jami-Lee Ross’s request to cast a proxy vote so that the people of his electorate, Botany, are represented, Tracey Martin has said.
Mrs Martin said the NZ First caucus had voted to allow Mr Ross to cast his proxy vote in the way that the National Party voted.
“This a mess on their side of the House and did we want to be associated with their chaos?” Mrs Martin said of the discussion during an appearance on TVNZ's Breakfast show today.
“But what it came back down to was while we believe Jami-Lee needs to go back and get a mandate and a byelection.”
“Right now, the people of Botany have nobody to represent them, they elected a National Party MP based off a National Party campaign, we believe they have the right to be represented so we’re going to do that for them.”
She didn’t know why Mr Ross had come to NZ First with the request, adding that it wasn’t really a power play against
“It’s going to be a little interesting for us to stand up and actually vote the way the Opposition does, but we believe the people of Botany deserve representation.”
Mrs Martin said there had been no discussion in caucus of putting up a NZ First candidate in Botany in the 2020 election after not having one last year.
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