Good humour to the fore in final debate

Hone Harawira says he wants to get back to Parliament through his Mana Party. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Te Tai Tokerau byelection candidates had their last hitout last night at a Whangarei debate - and just like the campaign, it proved a rollicking affair.

Any ill-feeling which might have been evident was put aside by candidates Hone Harawira, for Mana, the Maori Party's Solomon Tipene, and Labour's Kelvin Davis in front of a largely youthful audience.

Each candidate had a support team. Mr Tipene had Ngapuhi runanga chairman Sonny Tau, for the Maori Party. Mr Tau could not resist good-heartedly running down Labour and Mana for the Maori Party.

He reminded the crowd Labour was responsible for the controversial foreshore and seabed legislation - except for Shane Jones: "When they looked for him he was in his locked room with a sign on the door saying 'do not disturb' [a reference to the scandal over porn on his ministerial credit card]."

Mr Jones, who was there with fellow MP Nanaia Mahuta on Team Davis, had to laugh, but he shifted the debate to his relation Mr Harawira.

"Remember this: Mana is spelled M.a.n.a. The first three letters are Man. Hone, it's not just about the man."

Perhaps the most popular person of the night was Ngahuia Harawira, who was on her father's team.

Her dad joked that because the young lawyer was now living in Shane Jones' household in Wellington, he had to pull her home every now and again so she didn't get poisoned by Labour. Mr Jones is her uncle.

Speaking eloquently, Ms Harawira drew a smile from her father when she said: "I think a primo leader ... would be someone who wasn't fighting all the time. We have a lot of rangatira [leaders] right here behind me, so if you could like each other, that would be choice."

But there was no doubt whom she was there to speak for. "With Mana, people can dream about what can be possible. With Mana, people do not have to accept things have to be the way things are and should remain that way."

In the end the candidates made their pleas.

Mr Harawira said he was desperate to return to Parliament.

"I'm not a rangatira, I'm not a chief ... At the moment I'm not even a member of Parliament, but I want to go back."

Mr Davis hammered home his vision for "successful Maori futures" through education.

Mr Tipene said he had been a supporter of his party since Tariana Turia left Labour on principle in 2004.

He wanted to be part of a Maori Party which would work with those in power.

"We don't want to be spectators on the sideline or standing in the grandstand - we want to make a difference in the House."