Arbuckle is in his fifth term as a Marlborough councillor. Photo: Supplied / Stuff
Jamie Arbuckle is a five-term Marlborough councillor, but he has never had an office before, nor any staff.
That's all about to change for the New Zealand First list MP.
"They're telling me that I'm going to have staff members and an office, and I'm making them laugh, because I'm like, 'well, you know, I've always just done my own stuff'," Arbuckle said from Wellington on Tuesday.
"I knew it was going to happen, but then all of a sudden, it's a reality."
Arbuckle plans to continue as a councillor until at least a year out from the local elections to avoid a by-election, while also doing his new role in Parliament.
Arbuckle had one beer on Saturday night, and went on to win six golds at the South Island Masters Games on Sunday. Photo: Supplied / Stuff
On Saturday night, Arbuckle was out celebrating the election results. The third time really was the charm for the NZ First candidate - after Arbuckle failed to get into Parliament in 2017 and 2020.
NZ First gained more than 6 percent of the vote on election night, gaining Arbuckle a spot in Parliament as he was number six on the party list. Special votes were still to be counted.
Saturday was a "late night", although he said he only had "the one beer", because he had to compete in the South Island Masters Games the next day.
"I'd had too much fizzy," Arbuckle said.
"I had the masters booked in about four or five months ago. It was terrible timing, at 10am I was running the 3000m.
"I like doing my athletics. I'm not particularly good at it."
Not only did he win that race, he also landed on top of the podium five more times that day, in the 800m, 1500m, high jump, long jump and discus.
On Monday, he was on the plane to Wellington and straight into an induction, where he toured the NZ First offices and the wider Beehive.
By Tuesday morning, he was Zooming into a council Economic, Finance and Community committee meeting from Wellington.
Normally he would be sitting in the chairperson's seat, but this time, he had to sit back and let deputy Brian Dawson step up for him.
Just as Dawson acknowledged his attendance, the power cut out. It was met with a laugh by the committee.
The power had cut out after a power switch's "fiery explosion" in central Blenheim, but the council's generator kicked in almost immediately, and Arbuckle was able to attend the whole meeting, and contribute too.
"I know that as we go down the track, that's going to be less and less," he said.
"All of a sudden, I know I'm in a different playing field. But I still wish them well, and I will be trying to help as much as I can."
Jamie Arbuckle in 2017 during his first crack at Parliament. Photo: Supplied / Stuff
He said he intended to continue as a councillor until at least a year out from the local election, due to be held in 2025, which meant the council did not have to hold a by-election.
If it did, that person likely would not start until the New Year anyway, when the council would be working on its long-term plan for 2024-34.
"I guess the mayor wants to pull a lot of my [long-term plan] knowledge as well, because we've got a lot of the work done," he said.
"I still think I can contribute a lot [up] to Christmas and into the New Year, and then after that I will just return my remuneration.
"At the moment, I'm home all of next week, and there are going to be weeks when I'll be around all the time.
"It depends. I don't want the council to work around my schedule, but if they wanted to work around a Monday and Friday meeting schedule, I'd be around, because Parliament sits on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
"There will be clashes though. So I'll just see how we go, and if I'm not getting paid I don't think it will worry me too much."
Arbuckle has stood for New Zealand First three times. Photo: Supplied / Stuff
He described the week so far as "overwhelming".
"You can't prepare yourself for what I did yesterday [Monday]," he said.
"It's amazing to be here. It's been great to have the experience at local government level, but I can already tell this is a totally different playing field.
"Even down to getting your bearings about where everything is ... the amount of people that work in the building, the whole thing is just huge.
"I'm really excited, they say it takes a couple of months to get your bearings. You've got to throw in all the other work that's going to come in quite quickly."
He said it was yet to sink in that he was there.
"You could probably ask me that in a year's time and I still won't believe that I'm here."
Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
