Heather Te Au-Skipworth, Takitimu Māori ward candidate (front right), with Heretaunga general ward candidates Tawhana Chadwick (centre) and Melanie Petrowski at the Cape Coast Community Group's Meet the Candidates event. Photo / Paul Taylor
Candidates in the Hastings District Council byelection have shared their biggest concerns and priorities as voting opens up for two seats across two wards.
A byelection was announced in February with the resignation of two sitting councillors, Heretaunga ward member Ann Redstone and Renata Nepe, one of three Takitimu members chosen in the district’s first Māori ward election in 2022.
Nepe has obtained a fulltime teaching employment in a kura kaupapa Māori (te reo Māori immersion school), and, according to a mayoral statement, he said that would impact his council responsibilities.
Redstone resigned following a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease.
Several notable locals have put themselves forward as candidates, including the founder of Napier’s annual IronMāori triathlon and former Te Pāti Māori candidate Heather Te Au-Skipworth, Destiny Church pastor Michael Ngahuka and Jason Whaitiri, brother of former Ikaroa-Rāwhiti MP Meka Whaitiri.
Distribution of voting papers to households began on May 2 and the voting period will last until midday on May 24. Official results will be declared on May 27.
Hawke’s Bay Today asked each candidate two questions:
1. “What is the biggest issue facing your ward?”
2. “What is the first action you would like to take if elected?”
Heather Te Au-Skipworth: Did not respond in time for publication, extracts from public campaign statements made through social media are below.
“Our Te Mātau ā Māui [Hawke’s Bay] people know I’m a hard worker, that I know how to be a voice for the people and I am well versed in politics and governance.”
“One great thing I would like to share about myself with you all is that I am out in our community often, listening, sharing and advocating for our people. I also try my best to attend as many kaupapa [matters for discussion] as I can, because being amongst our people keeps you connected. I know our people trust me and I love that they feel safe to share their struggles and their successes with me. I don’t just pop up during an election, I’m out here with our people all the time because that’s just who I am, my mum was a great role model.”
“I am a very confident speaker and have no problem challenging where challenge is needed. I actually love advocating for our people and I am very comfortable in doing so. I am diligent, consistent and a very hard worker.”
Michael Ngahuka: 1. “It’s a combination of things. You’ve seen what the Government is doing, they want to make changes to Māori wards. So I suppose on the face of it, that would be an issue, will they continue or not? But when I think about the people of the ward, there are many issues. You are talking about their finances, cost of living, their health, their wellbeing, their culture and their identity.”
2. “My first action would be to focus on leadership and teamwork at the council level to really voice and put the heart of the people on the table at every decision.”
Jason Whaitiri: 1. “With the new Government and some of their policies concerning Māori, which are quite important to me, especially just around Māori wards. They’ve put forward a referendum. We’ve already had a couple of meetings and people have asked us [about Māori wards] and obviously I’d like to see them stay.”
2. “What I am standing on is our Mātauranga Māori, our Māori view and knowledge, sits alongside the council in whatever they do in terms of partnership. Just having a Māori voice at the table that not only represents our community but also our hapū and our marae because we have about 20 marae that sit in Heretaunga and you would have seen during the cyclone, some of our marae really stepped up.”
Hana Montaperto-Hendry: 1. “[It’s] grossly unfair to choose one issue as the biggest in the ward. Every community has individual unique challenges. If elected I want to engage, listen and understand the community’s perspectives and concerns to address their needs effectively.”
“Unarguably, cyclone recovery and resilience, particularly the need for immediate implementation of robust monitoring and alarm systems and rates hikes, painful to many, (a ratepayer is everybody in the communities) are remarkable issues.”
2. “Listen, learn and peel back band-aids, educate myself everywhere so I wholly understand everything in council, meaning I can then be a force, question everything and contribute to empowering positive change.”
Brendan Grant: 1. “Half of our electorate would be out at Cape Coast and one of their big issues is coastal erosion, inundation and flooding. Also, in the greenbelt around Hastings like Pākōwhai and all that, there has been flooding as well so I think flooding and coastal erosion is a big one for our Heretaunga ward.”
“I think the other big one is the cost associated being passed on to the ratepayer, with a 25 per cent increase in rates.”
2. “I want to get up to speed. Listening to the people, understanding what is important to them, petition the council, understand what resources we have available and where we need to go to central government and say ‘hey, we need help here’.”
“We need to be challenging costs, we need to get rid of all discretionary spending, just like the National coalition is at the moment. They are really slashing costs. We’re in an economic environment where there is no room for luxuries, so that is where my focus is. The other thing is my background in asset management, looking at risks and prioritising spending is what I do, so I am keen to use those skills around the board table.”
Melanie Petrowski: 1. “From what we gathered at the Te Awanga candidates meeting, it was the protection of their homes and the coast. But also, I believe it is the cyclone recovery. I have friends who are still digging up silt, even now, well after a year. Those people need financial support, the people who have been affected need emotional support and more funding needs to go into supporting them or even just access to charities, which the council can help with somehow, even just by establishing a registered charity for them to access.”
2. “Access funds for cyclone-affected people. I’m against fluoridation, but they had a council meeting where they just handed it off to the protestors to petition the directors of health, which I think was disappointing. I don’t think that was acceptable, but that would be a good thing to bring to the table again, but I am not sure what the protocol is around, if they have made a decision they might not revisit it. There is no harm in pushing.”
Geoff Downer: 1. “Probably at the moment, debt and cyclone recovery. The cyclone is my bugbear. I think the failure of Civil Defence is abominable really. I don’t think we have time to wait until the next cyclone to see whether there are any improvements, it needs to happen now and it needs to have personnel that are fit for purpose.”
2. “One of the first things I would do is ensure that Civil Defence is dismantled as quickly as possible and rebuilt. [I would] also look at spending. A lot of the spending has already probably been committed, but if spending can be reduced as quickly as possible, then that is another major issue.”
Tāwhana Chadwick: Did not respond in time for publication, extracts from public campaign statements made through social media are below.
“I am standing for the people of Heretaunga. I’m here to take the issues from the whenua to the council chambers.”
“Te Tiriti o Waitangi paths the way forward for our diverse community to thrive together on a thriving whenua.”
Chadwick is a co-director of Kūwaha (meaning “entrance” or “gateway”), which provides professional development in te reo Māori for organisations.
“A good amount of my mahi with Kūwaha has been sharing Te Tiriti o Waitangi with people from all over Aotearoa. This is something I am passionate about and I will continue to share how, if we honour Te Tiriti, we will see our diverse communities thriving together in a thriving environment.”
Chadwick has publicly expressed strong opposition to the National-led Government coalition’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill.
“This bill is about removing all of the people’s ability to make decisions over our own spaces and handing it over to government and big business.”
Shona Brewer: 1. “The huge rates increase. I have dug deep into the available data for the last three years and the coming three years. The rates hike does not need to be this high. Huge amounts of council funds, which are our dollars and cents, have been spent or will be spent on things that are not essential. As we continue to recover from Cyclone Gabrielle, we need to direct funds into land recovery and support our local networks already working in that space.”
2. “We need basic services and infrastructure to be consistent and sustainable. Our investments need to be focused on bread-and-butter issues. I will be looking at how we are achieving value for money.”
“We also need to protect our local businesses. Making council-funded bollards available to vulnerable shop owners, without huge amounts of red tape, is in my top five priorities.”
Sarah Greening-Smith: 1. “There are two [issues], I’d say they go hand in hand. Cyclone Gabrielle shone a light on how we don’t have any safety systems in our community really. The problems that we faced were not problems that we couldn’t plan for, but we didn’t because we thought they wouldn’t happen and with the amount paid to consultants over the years, maybe we should have thought about that. That goes hand in hand with the fact that Hastings District Council rates and regional council rates have had to be raised to offset the fact that we hadn’t planned for such a devastating thing as Cyclone Gabrielle.”
2. “We can make an annual plan, we can plan for roading costs, we can plan for upgrades on our recreational areas and parks, but weather is something we need to look at now. We are just coming out of responding to another event and we may not be ready for another event. An event like that affects everybody, it doesn’t matter who you are.”
“The first thing I want to do is have a look at what comms systems are being worked on right now, and what percentage of community input there is into those systems at the moment.”
James Pocock joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2021 and writes breaking news and features, with a focus on environment, local government and post-cyclone issues in the region. He has a keen interest in finding the bigger picture in research and making it more accessible to audiences. He lives in Napier. james.pocock@nzme.co.nz.
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