One term MP Blumsky calls it quits

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Wellington's former mayor, Mark Blumsky, served one term as an MP and decided it wasn't the life for him.

"People think that leaving now, I must be mad," the National Party list MP said in his valedictory speech tonight.

"But national politics doesn't suit everyone and that includes me.

"I don't dislike enough to be an effective MP."

Mr Blumsky said he had been proud to be mayor of Wellington but had struggled to have the same pride in being an MP.

"People have such negative views of MPs and to an extent we're our own worst enemies," he said.

"As a House, we spend an extraordinary amount of time talking to no effect.

"The `them and us' feeling is stronger than I had suspected...neither of us can be exactly right and I think we sometimes miss out on the real solutions."

Mr Blumsky stood in Wellington Central in the 2005 election and lost to Labour's Marian Hobbs.

He said he then took "second prize" and became a list MP.

Mr Blumsky praised the work Ms Hobbs had done for the electorate, said Wellington was a great city and talked about "when I go back into local government, if my wife lets me."

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- NZPA