The Tukituki electorate is shaping up as an exciting race in this month's General Election. Photo File
The Tukituki electorate is shaping up as an exciting race in this month's General Election. Photo File
Tukituki candidates asked for your vote this week during the Hawke's Bay Today election livestream, produced by Indelible Creative Studio. Here are highlights from the livestream - you can also watch it again on the Hawke's Bay Today Facebook page.
Jan Daffern (Act Party)
Act Party Candidate Jan Daffern is running for Tukituki. Photo Supplied
Opening line: I believe in three things and that's freedom: freedom of speech, freedom of thought and freedom of belief.
Cannabis referendum No. I think it is too much too soon.
End of Life Choice referendum: Yes. The key word is choice.
Single biggest issue facing Napier? The key issues for the Tukituki electorate are very straight. Food and fine wine. Those are things we can actually grow and produce to grow the economy. One of the issues I have encountered is that we are heavily reliant on the overseas workers. They need us, we need them. And if I was an MP what would I do about it? One of the first things I would look at is actually giving the growers who have the knowledge, giving them the same say on the workers they want. Rather than relying on "I got on the quota". When the government has a say how many workers they have. I'd open that up to the growers, the forestry, the food growers, the fine wine producers, and say what do you need? So we can give them more freedom.
Closing words I'm asking for the party vote. I'm asking please, party vote Act. If you believe in government and state control, go for it. But I fear that it will end in a horrendous state. If you want a party that will provide checks on balances, answer the government. Because the government uses your money. So if you want a party that will keep a watchful eye on what's going on, party vote Act.
Anna Lorck (Labour Party)
Labour's Tukituki candidate Anna Lorck. Photo File
Opening line: I see this as an enormous opportunity for Hastings and our city and our district to elect a local member of parliament into the team, into government with our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Cannabis referendum No. On this one I don't believe we have had the discussion that we should have.
End of Life Choice referendum Yes. I will be supporting the bill. I believe it is a choice that individuals have the right to make.
Single biggest issue facing Tukituki? It's enabling our great region to advance and adapt through this Covid-19 world that we are living in. We have got a diverse primary sector, we are an export trading region, we grow the best and safest apples in the world, the safest fruit and vegetables in the world. We need to make sure that we harness all of that and truly use that to grow Hawke's Bay. Critical in this is having those key relationships with government and, as a local MP in government, I am already doing it now, by bringing in senior ministers to have round-the-table conversations.
Closing words Hastings and Tukituki have a clear choice to vote Anna Lorck as your local MP to represent you in the government as part of Jacinda Ardern's team. As a strong positive and proactive local MP, I will make sure the Government is investing in us and supporting us. This is our opportunity to rise to the big challenges ahead, just as Hawke's Bay always does, and we will get through and make our region stronger and lead the country forward. I am asking you to give your party vote to Labour and to vote Anna Lorck to be your local MP in the team where the decisions are made.
Nick McMinn-Collard (New Conservative)
Nick McMinn-Collard will represent the New Conservative Party for Tukituki. Photo Supplied
Opening line:
I'm Nick McMinn-Collard the New Conservative candidate. I grew up in Havelock North and completed an auto-mechanic engineering apprenticeship in Hastings, A grade.
Cannabis referendum
No. I have seen the damage it can do to our community.
End of Life choice referendum
No. We already have end of life choices and I went through it with my dad a few years ago.
The economy is the biggest issue in my opinion and needs addressing, and myself and New Conservative, we're into solving the root causes of problems, and we're strengthening families.
We have great policies for families to develop stronger families and better communities. An example of that would be our first $20,000 tax-free earnings. That's a tax policy that will help low-income earners, the same as high-income earners, and it's not a hand out from the government, it's just keeping your own money. And on top of that we would have income splitting, so a family could earn up to $40,000 tax free, if they stay together as a family. And that's a great policy and a great financial incentive to keep the family together. Unlike, we actually have policies now that give an incentive to split up families and it has. So we have a great policy that will stop splitting up families and actually fuel the economy, so that people can keep, and actually spend the money that they earn.
Closing words
Party vote New Conservative. I'll just carry on from what I said, strengthening families. We will promote trade training in Year 9. I think getting more plumbers and electricians, builders, solve the housing crisis. And we give our kids hope in all this doom and gloom. I'm 52, I can remember the 70s when economists told us we were heading for an ice age. And now they're indoctrinating the kids.
We were told in 2008 that the ice caps would be completely gone in five years. And they're still there. I've actually posted a whole lot of these articles on my candidate page, going back with all the doom and gloom, and the kids are indoctrinated, where it takes away some of their hope, and life gets tough, and the government's got now, looking into the suicide and full-term abortion. We're a pro-life party. We support life, family, kids. Party vote New Conservative.
Chris Perley is the Green Party's candidate for Tukituki. Photo File
Opening line
I think this election with Covid-19 and what's happening in the US is a transformation moment.
Cannabis referendum
Yes. I'm pro-reform for practical reasons.
End of Life Choice referendum No. I'm worried that if euthanasia is a choice and someone is going through a tough time that is a temporary blip, that they will think they've lost their potential and their lives.
Single biggest issue facing Tukituki? We've become a low-wage economy, and so that means the small-medium enterprises don't do well.
Hawke's Bay is absolutely set up for diversity and high value, long value chains, local ownership, things like that. And yet if you look at mass policies of the past 30 years, it's been about privatisations and corporate, commoditisation of people, land, what have you, and the blood sucking of wealth and opportunity out of that region.
I think the Green Party is the only party I have seen that differentiates small-medium from large, and says "we actually want to sit there and encourage this life force which is the small medium enterprise".
Closing words The Green Party is a progressive party, and it actually looks to the future. It looks at the root cause and tries to understand issues. And it accepts challenges and challenges paradigms that are there. And that's what we need, because there's been many decades where we have been heading towards icebergs and not really been aware of what is going on. I also think, because we think differently, it's actually not about the environment, it's not about an either-or; it's about understanding that a healthy environment and healthy community leads to a healthy overall economy. And to differentiate the types of businesses we have.
What we do not want is a situation where, as a civilisation, we eat our planet and eat ourselves. There isn't a future in that, and we have been following that lead, and I think people realise that. They realise that when they see Trump, and when they see the messages that came out during covid. We cannot go back to business as usual. We have to essentially shift the direction of the Titanic to something else and that gives us a better life. And that, I must point out, is not about either-or. It's about having a better environment, a better community, and a local economy.
Carl Peterson (Advance NZ)
Carl Peterson of Advance NZ is running for Tukituki. Photo Supplied
Opening line: Some of you may know me as the inventor of the Peterson portable sawmill, which appeared on Made in New Zealand a number of years ago. I have had a few good ideas in my life, but this election I bring another idea and I think I bring something that no other party, no other candidate, no other politician has addressed.
Cannabis referendum: My view on cannabis is it's destroying our society not because of the substance but because of the laws that are forcing young people who just want to have fun and relax right into the grips of those who are peddling the more dangerous drugs. By breaking the link between cannabis and the other hard drugs, we will do society a huge benefit.
End of Life Choice referendum: I think it is a huge gift that would be wonderful, for everyone to be able to choose the moment of their death.
Single biggest issue facing Tukituki? For me, there's really only one issue and it's not just about Tukituki, or Hastings or Napier, it's a nationwide thing, almost a worldwide thing and this is the huge debt that individuals in the western world especially, are being labelled with by the banking cabal. This is taking away all our freedoms, it is defunding governments, so governments can't do what we are asking them to do. Simply because there's $40-$50 billion of interest leaving this country to foreign bankers each year. That should be the national dividend which is available to be distributed throughout NZ and if it was, that would fund a national dividend of $200 a week to every man, woman and child in NZ . . . So it's the debt we have to deal with, that then creates the funding base for government to do all the things it can't do now.
Closing words: You've got one choice to put my voice into Parliament and that is to vote Carl Peterson on the electoral candidates' roll. This is so important because if we do not actually change the tax regime we will be going deeper into debt and our children and our children's children will be forever indebted with unrepayable debt. That's all coming down to the tax system. It's very easy simply to illuminate the inflationary taxes as I have identified and just modify the GST a bit so it will take out the inflationary bits of GST and we are home free. Suddenly we can create our own currency without borrowing from the banks; suddenly we can pay off the bank debt private and public. Suddenly our government can be a government for the people not for government itself. So I leave it to you, the voice is in your hands. This election may be the most important we have ever had in this country because we are about to lose all of our freedoms, all of our nation's sovereignties to the international banking cabal.
Melanie Petrowski (One Party)
Melanie Petrowski, One Party's first 2020 election candidate in Tukituki. Photo Supplied
Opening line: One Party are a new party, a Christian party, but we are more than a Christian party we are a movement. The four principals of One Party are truth, righteousness, justice and freedom.
Cannabis referendum: Myself and One Party believe that cannabis is a health issue not a criminal issue. We support it being decriminalised but we don't want people going to jail for smoking pot.
End of Life Choice referendum: No . We are a party that values life. Who are we to play God? We believe in palliative care and we have good palliative care in this country.
Single biggest issue facing Tukituki? We have a debt mentality. We have the lowest income in the whole nation in Hawke's Bay. With the high cost of living it is a double-edged sword. We are finding a lot of people don't want to work because there's jobs that are there, but the responsibilities are so high for minimum wages, it is just too much for them. A lot of people in this region don't want to work in orchards, wineries or vineyards because it's backbreaking, they might get bullied, it's minimum wage and there's no income and conditions balance. So I would say low income is the main issue, which creates debt because you have high cost of living. I would push for higher income. We work in a low-income economy, why not work in a high income economy?
Closing words: People's lives are at a turning point this year. This is the most important and pivotal election of our time, I believe. Are you going to vote for death or life, for evil or good, hate or love? So One Party stands for life and life more abundant as Jesus says in the Bible. We value all lives from the pre-born to the elderly. You don't have to vote right or left, you can vote up. Maybe pray to God who to vote for. What we are saying is wake up, rise up, stand up, vote up, vote One Party.
Allister Tosh (Future Youth Party)
Allister Tosh will contest Tukituki representing Future Youth. Photo File
Opening line: My name is Allister Tosh. I am 50 years old and I have three lovely children, a great fiancee who I commend for all the work she has put into Future Youth Party and my late mother who passed 12 years ago who did a lot for youth throughout her life and also got the funding for a marae in Flaxmere.
Cannabis referendum: I am opposed to legalisation of cannabis because I am a true advocate of decriminalisation.
End of Life Choice referendum: I am opposing the end of life bill as I believe that the parliamentarians have pushed it through too quick.
Single biggest issue facing Tukituki? I believe it is the environment, our land, we need to do everything we can do to protect the Heretaunga Plains as it is our fertile soils that we use to grow produce to export to the rest of the world. The rest of the world, they've got what we want. So we must look at raising our dollar and standing up for ourselves. I know we have to be competitive in the market but we've got the produce everyone in the world wants, so we better start standing up there and showing what we are made of.
We should be putting money into our youth to get jobs and the environmental sector of recycling so we can start building roads out of recycled products and stand up in that area as well. We have to start protecting what we have. We need to get our environment secure.
Closing words: I would like to say please give your vote to Future Youth Party so I can become an MP and be an independent voice in parliament and bring about a party into parliament that does have the answers, maybe not all but some of the most defining answers we need in parliament at the moment, to try and sort out the issues of our youth. Our youth suicide rate is starting to get out of control again.
Our gang issues are just immense. Our policing issues have got huge issues, our education system is failing, and our health system is failing.
These are all policies I have written since I have first was interested in politics from when I was 5 years of age and I used to go and sit on my mother's knee when I suffered from sickness and she would tell me about world news.
National's Lawrence Yule is hoping to retain his Tukituki seat. Photo File
Opening line: It's a huge privilege and honour to be an MP and I don't take any of that privilege and honour for granted and I have worked incredibly hard for the constituents of Tukituki and the people of New Zealand in my role as an MP.
Cannabis referendum: No. I do not think this bill, or question we are being asked, will help NZ.
End of Life Choice No. My position is no, but only just. As a Christian I have struggled with this.
Single biggest issue facing Tukituki? The biggest single biggest issue facing Tukituki and Hawke's Bay is in the health field. And it's my biggest concern, actually, since I have been an MP. Out of everything else I have dealt with, and we've helped probably hundreds, thousands of people, I am now getting more and more people coming to us, who can't get hips and knees, who are expressing concern about their level of service, and I've used this graph to explain, people have seen it before, but this is the DHB's financial level of performance.
Closing words Well you do have a clear choice, I love being your MP. I work incredibly hard to work for you and to help you. When you go to Wellington, there have been quite a few conversations about whether it's best to be in Government, or in opposition. Can I say this - if you are in Government as a back bench MP, you have no say. I now have three years in parliament, I am halfway up the party list, I am respected by my colleagues, both in my own party and across the parliament, I can get things done. It's no surprise really that I had $500 million for the hospital (rebuild), it took a lot of hard work. With your support I can continue that. It's a huge honour to be your MP, I don't take your vote for granted. So at this election, can you please "two ticks blue" - one for National Party and please tick Lawrence Yule, for a proven local MP.
