Member of Parliament
| Parliament of New Zealand | ||||
| Years | Term | Electorate | List | Party |
| 2005–2008 | 48th | Tauranga | 49 | National |
In the 2005 election, Clarkson was recruited as the National candidate for the Tauranga seat. He challenged Winston Peters, leader of the New Zealand First party, who held the seat for twenty-one years. The contest was of national significance as party must have 5% of the vote or an electorate seat to qualify for proportional representation in parliament. A loss by Peters would have deprived New Zealand First of its electorate seat, leaving it vulnerable to a decline in its vote.
Clarkson won the seat by 730 votes, a 2.02% majority over Winston Peters.
As a member of parliament, Clarkson was the National Party's associate spokesperson for Building and Construction and Housing.
Read more about this topic: Bob Clarkson
Famous quotes containing the words member of, member and/or parliament:
“If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Deuteronomy 15:7,8.
“He was a tough, burly thick-headed gentleman, with a loud voice, a pompous manner, a tolerable command of sentences with no meaning in them, and, in short, every requisite for a very good member indeed.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“At the ramparts on the cliff near the old Parliament House I counted twenty-four thirty-two-pounders in a row, pointed over the harbor, with their balls piled pyramid-wise between them,—there are said to be in all about one hundred and eighty guns mounted at Quebec,—all which were faithfully kept dusted by officials, in accordance with the motto, “In time of peace prepare for war”; but I saw no preparations for peace: she was plainly an uninvited guest.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)