Mobile office for West Coast M.P.

Press, 25 June 1983, Page 2

Mobile office for West Coast M.P.

Parliamentary reporter The member of Parliament for the West Coast, Mr T. K. Burke, has bought himself a mobile office. The Labour member said yesterday that the narrow and long electorate could be serviced properly only by travelling to the scattered small settlements and “setting up shop” for a while. He sold his 1982 car to buy the mobile office, a red commercial! Hi-top van. “It’s a lot less comfortable than a car, but it will function as an office,” he said. Mr Burke plans to set it up with twin seats and chairs, a table, a filing cabinet and coffee-making facilities. 1 Bold lettering on the exterior will say: “Kerry Burke, M.P., Mobile Office,” and give Greymouth and

Wellington telephone numbers. Mr Burke bought the van at his own expense, and had not planned to use it as a campervan for vacational use, he said. The West Coast electorate had one of the highest numbers of polling booths of any of the 92 seats, showing how scattered its settlements were, Mr Burke said. The electorate extended more than half the length of the South Island, with more than 640 km between the northern and southern-most settlements. Mr Burke plans a week touring the coast in the van soon. “When people see the van it should jog their memory about something they want to get off their chests,” Mr Burke said.