When new National MP James Meager delivered his maiden speech to Parliament last week he received a standing ovation.
The Rangitata MP's speech spoke of his challenging upbringing in Timaru and prompted many to suggest he was a future leader.
Newshub caught up with Meager in south Timaru to find out more about the 35-year-old.
Meager's maiden speech thrust him into an unfamiliar spotlight.
"Mr Speaker perhaps to some I am a walking contradiction," he said in Parliament.
"[I'm a] part-Māori boy raised in a state house by a single mum on the benefit, now a proud National MP."
Growing up in south Timaru, education was a focus.
"There is no doubt in my mind that I would not be here if it weren't for my education," he told Parliament.
"He certainly had outstanding ability," said former Timaru South School principal Eddie Foster.
"One of those pupils that you're really happy to have in the school."
The upward trajectory continued at high school.
"James had an aura about him that not only teachers but obviously the boys gravitated towards him," said his former teacher Grant McFarlane.
"He had a bit of charisma, energy that people wanted to be around, it was just what path he was going to take and where he would end up."
Despite early aspirations to be Mr Whippy, Parliament would be the chosen path.
"If he's not going to be Prime Minister he'll be damn close to it," McFarlane said.
But peppered throughout the praise has been criticism.
"People are saying things like I am a race traitor or a class traitor or an Uncle Tom without even listening to the speech," Meager told Newshub.
He said that was the point of it.
"I think that was the point of the speech, you can't take for granted just because someone has a certain background or upbringing it's what happened in my life that's shaped me," he told Newshub.
As he said in Parliament: "My family has never sought the limelight. This entrance into public life won't come easy for us, we are simple straightforward people from a simple straightforward part of the world."
A part of the world he's now proudly representing.
