Peter Drew - List Candidate

I would like to introduce myself as a Party List candidate for NZ Loyal & what my role with the party entails. 
 
The role that I have taken on with NZ Loyal has been South Island Campaign Support, to help recruit strong electorate candidates in the South Island and to support them through their campaign.  Liz Gunn and NZ Loyal have recruited an exceptional group of electorate candidates, and it has been an absolute privilege to work alongside such incredible Kiwis who absolutely do not want to be politicians, but who are so committed to wanting to try to do their bit for their country and the people of NZ.  So many people in NZ can sense that the way that this country is being run is just not right.  Not just that it is the wrong party running things at the moment, but that things are fundamentally wrong, and are fundamentally not serving the people of NZ.  I have been committed to trying to help find solutions and betters ways for this country to do things.  I believe that this is exactly what NZ Loyal stands for, which is why I am supporting them. 
 
The COVID response, and the time since then, has been an exceptionally challenging time for NZ, and it has caused a huge number of New Zealanders to question a lot of things.  A positive element of this is that it has caused so many people to look and think differently about how local communities can better work together, how to empower themselves, and how to do things differently in a way that serves the people and the community in the right way.  During the mandates so many people lost their jobs and had extremely challenging personal situations.  During that time I helped local community groups to provide support structures as best as possible for those people most in need.  As part of this we created a database of mandated people in the Dunedin area who needed work and income, and a database of potential alternative work/income opportunities that we could match them up to.  We also organized new community social groups and social gatherings for those who had been ostrasized from society through the vax passports, which was essentially medical apartheid in NZ.  The hurt and the trauma that I witnessed firsthand in all those people led me to join the 2022 Wellington protest, which is the single most inspirational thing I have witnessed in my country.  For those who still believe what the media and the government told you about this event, I would strongly urge you to watch one or both of the exceptional new documentary films ‘River of Freedom’ and ‘We came here for freedom’.  All of NZ needs to know the truth of that event. 
 
The 2022 Wellington protest fundamentally changed this country for the positive.  It has led to so many new community action groups emerging all over the country to come together and do things in a different way that is aligned to what this country and the NZ people are truly about.  As part of that I took on a leadership role with a new group called the ‘Dunedin Network Assembly’.  As part of this group I have spent the last 15 months creating the ‘Southern Food Club’.  It is a new way of local farmers and the local community working together to get food directly from the farm to the local people.  This not only helps the farmers who are absolutely under assault across the country and battling just to be able to continue under current government legislation, but it also helps the local community to be able to source very cheap and very healthy food.  The ‘Southern Food Club’ now provides food directly from farmers to hundreds of people in Dunedin and the surrounding area, and this concept is now being picked up in various places all the way from Christchurch down to Invercargill.  
 
In my working life my career has been in the sports industry.  My current position is with Basketball Otago, and previous to that I had 15 years in the UK working with British Tennis, which included 8 years as Chief
Executive of Tennis Wales.
 
I look forward to continuing to do whatever I can to help my local communities and this country shift to
ways of operating that better serve the people.