Lawrence Arden Yule (born 1963)[1] is a New Zealand politician. He was Mayor of Hastings from 2001 to 2017, and a Member of Parliament representing the Tukituki electorate for the National Party from 2017 to 2020.
Political career
Mayor of Hastings
Yule became mayor of Hastings in 2001.[2] In this role he presided over the Hastings District Council. When elected he was the youngest person to become mayor of Hastings.[3]
In 2016, the Hastings district was hit by an outbreak of campylobacter in drinking water which affected thousands of people.[4][5]
In the last mayoral election he stood in, in 2016, Yule received more than 3,000 more votes than his closest rival.[6][7] Yule announced that his sixth term, starting in 2016, would be his last as mayor.[6]
After National MP Craig Foss announced his retirement from politics in December 2016.[2] Yule announced his intention to be selected as the National Party candidate for the electorate of Tukituki and in February 2017, he was selected to contest the 2017 general election.[8][2] Yule defeated the Labour Party's Anna Lorck, who Yule had previously hired as a public relations consultant for local election campaigns.[2] Yule resigned as Hastings Mayor, resulting in a by-election held in November 2017.[9]
In the 2020 New Zealand general election, Yule stood again for Tukituki, again against Anna Lorck. Yule lost the electorate to Lorck by 1,590 votes,[10] in an election that saw National lose 18 of its 41 electorate seats.[11][12] The day after the election, Yule admitted defeat and said he had no plans for his future yet.[13]
