John Hayes has enjoyed a highly varied life during which he has been a successful agricultural economist, diplomat, orchardist, businessman and now Member of Parliament.

He was elected at the 2005 general election as constituency MP for the Wairarapa electorate. A large rural seat, the Wairarapa electorate comprises the communities of Featherston, Greytown and Masterton and the southern Hawke’s Bay towns of Woodville, Pahiatua, and Dannevirke. A change to the northern boundary saw Waipawa and Waipukurau included from 2007. John has been very active in representing the interests of the electorate to whom he is responsible, on issues like dog microchipping, the establishment of a Martinborough Cuisine school, and leading the charge to save Makoura College in Masterton from being unnecessarily closed.

At the 2008 General Election John increased his majority from 2,752 or 42.71% of the electoral votes to 6,758, receiving just over 50% of all the electoral votes cast.

John is the Chair of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Select Committee.

After a period working as an agricultural economist John joined the New Zealand Foreign Service. He represented New Zealand in Singapore, India, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia (as Charge d'Affaires); Papua New Guinea (as High Commissioner); Iran and Pakistan (as Ambassador).

He has worked on many of the important issues which have confronted New Zealand. He has been an advisor to Prime Ministers and senior Ministers and has long experience of the political process having been Principal Private Secretary to Rt. Hon. Mike Moore when he was Minister of Overseas Trade.

John gained prominence contributing to the successful resolution of the Bougainville conflict, over a period of ten years. He was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in recognition of that work.

The government of Chile bestowed a Bernard O’Higgins award for John’s services to that country.

He was educated at Rongotai College, Wellington, and holds a BAgrSci degree from Lincoln College. He was active in student politics as President of the Lincoln College Students Association and the New Zealand University Students Association. He was inaugural chair of the Wellington’s Chartwell School Board under the “Tomorrow’s Schools” reforms.

John is a Trustee of the “We The Peoples Foundation” and the “Bridget Nicholls Trust”. His interests include yachting, fishing and family. He is married to Helen and they live in Greytown. Their two children are working as lawyers.

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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