Public health doctor Alex Hedley has been named as the Labour Party candidate for Napier next year’s general election.

A former Napier Boys’ High School student of Ngāti Porou descent and with strong Wairoa links, Hedley’s selection was announced by the party on Monday.

“Napier is my home,” he said in a statement issued by the party. “I went to Napier Boys’ and through a combination of excellent education and the support of my family, I became the first in my family to attend university.”

After completing training in medicine, he returned to Hawke’s Bay and worked at the Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital in Hastings as a junior doctor, advocating for patients while working in the public health system in both Hawke’s Bay and in Northland.

“Life is getting tougher for people because of the choices this Government is making,” Hedley said. “In Napier, it’s difficult to find GP practices taking new patient enrolments and in Wairoa, there is no permanent dentist or aged-care facility.”

In 2014, he led a campaign to restore student loan funding so medical students could complete their training.

“It took three years of constant work, but eventually Steven Joyce, then Minister for Tertiary Education, changed his student loans policy to avoid disrupting the medical training pipeline,” Hedley said.

He says choices made by the current Government are making life harder for people in Hawke’s Bay.

Hedley cites unemployment increasing faster in Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti than anywhere else in the country and an increasing homeless population, while social housing projects have been axed and the cost of living is “forcing” some whānau to choose between putting food on the table or heating their homes.

“It doesn’t need to be this way,” he said. “I am running for Labour because I believe we can provide a stable alternative to the chaotic leadership we are currently experiencing, that cares about people and makes change for the better.”

The last Labour MP for Napier was Stuart Nash, who, after three terms as electorate MP, did not seek re-election in 2023, when new Labour candidate Mark Hutchinson was beaten by National’s Katie Nimon.