Currently, I am the youngest MP in the South Island. I came in as number 56 of 58 MPs, at the time the last on National's list – well someone had to be last in! I was also the luckiest new member having got in during 2008 by less than 40 party votes from throughout the whole country, a mantle that technically changed to my colleague Cam Calder in 2009. I stood in the Christchurch East seat, gaining over 12,000 votes, a record for National for the area. I am a Member of the Regulations Review, and Finance and Expenditure select committees. I hold a Masters Degree with honours in Economics with 10 years’ experience in various corporate and government roles. Prior to Parliament I was working for multinational General Cable Corporation running new ventures across Asia. During my time there the share price of the company went from $9 to $95! Named after the great Elvis Aaron Presley, my family is an amalgam of Irish, Scottish, Danish and a little bit Maori but I am 100 per cent Kiwi. Born and raised in Eastern Christchurch I have two primary school aged children, Blake and Evelyn. I suffer from a rare eye condition called keratoconus, I can do most things fine but it does influence many things I like to do – mainly it prevents me surfing! My favourite food is lamb and mashed spuds and when time permits I enjoy cricket, and mountain biking or just supporting my kids in whatever they do. About 25 years ago I sat in the living room of our family state house in Corhampton St, Aranui. It was early August and freezing cold as that night we didn't have enough money to put into the meter for electricity. We had some light from large candles on the table and my grandmother and I were having Weetbix for dinner. The next morning we couldn't afford breakfast and I went hungry till a teacher bought me lunch. This experience jolted me into action to want to better myself and better New Zealand. I didn’t want to live like that. Coming from a working class background, experiences like that has influenced heavily on me the importance of family, a good education and that anyone can achieve success if they really want to.

Top 5 Issues

1. Building a stronger economy
   • Balance the books sooner.
   • Borrow less so we can have lower interest rates for longer.
   • Keep personal taxes lower to encourage hard work.
   • Make New Zealand more competitive so our exporters can sell more overseas and create more real jobs.
   • Encourage savings and investments.
   • Use the mixed-Ownership model to fund infrastructure to help us grow faster.
   • Invest in skills training and tertiary education that gets results.
   
2. Building world-class infrastructure
   • Ultra-fast broadband for greater innovation.
   • More, and better, roads to ease congestion.
   • Investing in more rail and public transport.
   
3. Building a safer New Zealand
   • Staying strong on crime – tougher sentencing, stronger bail laws, and a focus on victims.
   • Keep working to lower the crime rate further so our families are safer.
   • Making our roads safer, so we can keep the road toll lower.
   
4. Rebuilding Christchurch
   • $5.5 billion recovery fund
   • Re-establishing essential infrastructure
   • More construction-related training
   
5. Building better public services
   • Better Schools – identifying and helping children falling behind, school reports in plain English.
   • World-class healthcare –more doctors and nurses, more operations, shorter waiting times.
   • Effective welfare- more people back into work, more incentives to work, payment cards for teens on benefits.
   

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