Editorial: We hope election debates provide us with answers

Andrew Austin, Editor of Hawke's Bay Today.

I am looking forward to moderating a very lively debate in the first of our meet the candidate meetings in Hastings tomorrow night.

We plan to run three debates before the general elections on September 23 as we believe it is part of our role to keep the community informed.

We have devoted plenty of space to the election race and will continue to do so in the build-up to the polls. This Saturday we will have another big spread in the paper with candidates answering a number of questions our journalists have put to them.

The public meetings, which we hope to livestream on our Facebook page as well, are a chance for readers to hear directly from the candidates who are hoping to represent them.

The first debate is between the Tukituki candidates and will be held at Karamu High School in Hastings from 6pm-8pm on Thursday. Next week we will hold debates between the Napier and Ikaroa Rawhiti candidates respectively.

Tomorrow night's debate will feature Labour's Anna Lorck, National Party candidate Lawrence Yule, Chris Perley of the Green Party, Joe Kairau (NZ First), Dick Ryan of the Democrats for Social Credit and Allister Tosh of the Future Youth Party. Conservative candidate Roger Larkins will not be taking part in the debate because he is in Australia.

We have asked readers to send in questions for me to ask at the meeting and I must say I am impressed with the response. All the issues that matter to Hawke's Bay residents are there and there are also some personal questions for the candidates.

If you would still like to send me a question, please email me at editor@hbtoday.co.nz.

Let's hope we get some good answers.