Melanie Petrowski has again put her name in the hat for Tukituki. Photo / Warren Buckland
Melanie Petrowski has again put her name in the hat for Tukituki. Photo / Warren Buckland
Hastings anti-vaccination protester Melanie Petrowski has again put her name in the hat as a candidate for the Tukituki electorate.
She has unsuccessfully run for local and central Government elections in the past, including most recently as a candidate for Hastings District Council in 2022, where she received 3221 votes (about 1500 short of becoming a councillor).
She will run as an independent for the Tukituki electorate at the upcoming October 14 general election.
The Labour Party’s Anna Lorck is the incumbent and is facing stiff competition from National’s Catherine Wedd.
Petrowski has not let the challenging task of getting elected stop her from running again, after collecting 175 votes at the 2020 general election.
Melanie Petrowski protesting outside Hawke's Bay Today's Hastings office in 2021. As of 2023, the Ministry of Health has announced four deaths in NZ that are possibly linked to the vaccine, with a coroner yet to rule on three of them. Photo / Warren Buckland
She said doing more to address climate change was one of her main goals if elected, as Tukituki recovers from the cyclone.
“We are literally being left in the dark in regards to knowledge around climate change and extreme weather events, and the potential for earthquakes, and if elected I will ask serious questions that need to be asked.”
Petrowski, who works as a bus driver, claimed she lost two jobs due to the Covid mandates, and her past protests against the Covid vaccine and mandates saw her take to street corners around Hastings.
The Flaxmere resident, who has previously spent six months doing voluntary work in Uganda, also wants to repeal Labour’s abortion laws of 2020, see the name Jesus Christ placed back in parliamentary prayers, and stop “over-sexualisation” in some school material.
Petrowski is a supporter of some conspiracy theories and said she was “concerned with the WHO, UN and WEF’s influence over us”.
