All Northland and Te Tai Tokerau candidates (except for two) attended the Meet the Candidates event at Kaitāia RSA on Thursday, hosted by Kaitāia Business Association and Business and Professional Women (BPW) Kaitāia.
All Northland and Te Tai Tokerau candidates (except for two) attended the Meet the Candidates event at Kaitāia RSA on Thursday, hosted by Kaitāia Business Association and Business and Professional Women (BPW) Kaitāia.
Not knowing who to vote for at this year’s election appears to be the common theme for most Northland/Te Tai Tokerau voters, says a local business association chair.
The Kaitāia Business Association and Business and Professional Women (BPW) Kaitāia hosted a special Meet the Candidates event at Kaitāia RSA on Thursday, with around 100 people turning out to hear the candidates.
All Northland and Te Tai Tokerau candidates were present, except for Te Pāti Māori Te Tai Tokerau candidate Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and Act Party candidate Mark Cameron, who appeared to be on their own individual party bus tours.
“They are so undecided and I’m fearful people won’t vote at all, or that it’s going to be a minority of excited people voting their parties in, or that votes are going to go against each other and we’ll end up at a loggerheads.
“I’m hoping we as organisers get to have an understanding the election options, because we’ve got some big plans for Kaitāia, so want to make sure that whoever comes into office is going to deliver.”
BPW co-president Marie Berghan agreed many people were confused about who to vote for, but hoped the event would provide some clarity.
She said she also hoped the event would allow for more tolerance of differing views.
“Over the years we always run events to promote elections, but we’re also an organisation that represents women voting and recognise a lot of people don’t understand a lot about the electoral system,” Berghan said.
“So to have an understanding of who you are going to choose, we feel the community should have options.
“There’s been a lot more tension compared to other years, so I hope through this event, people can get to know the candidates and understand what their thoughts and feeling are about different topics.”
Unlike previous years, this year’s Meet the Candidates event did not allow questions from the crowd.
The event was hosted by BPW member and MC Jacqui Brown and opened with a karakia and whaikōrero from Te Rarawa’s Mike Te Wake.
Candidates were each given a three-minute introduction, followed by two questions from a random list of 25 questions provided by the community.
The event was then rounded off with a one-minute spiel from each candidate in their final attempt to win over voters.
Matt King (Democracy NZ Northland candidate) kicked off the speeches, who was supported by a sizeable group of supporters who cheered him on as he spoke.
Democracy NZ founder and Northland candidate Matt King has ruled out working with Te Pāti Māori, Labour and the Greens.
King explained how he had formed Democracy NZ due to the enforced mandates during the pandemic and that his party was based on freedom, family and farming.
He was presented a question on how to bolster the declining birth rate, which he said he would not promote as he believed each person had a right to decide what was best for them.
When questioned on Te Tiriti o Waitangi and how he would implement the Treaty into his policies, King acknowledged some people wouldn’t like his stance and was met with boos to his answer.
“For us at Democracy NZ, we take race out of everything, so for me, the Treaty of Waitangi is an important foundational document for our country, but I don’t believe in its relevance in the modern day,” King said.
“My strong view is to take race out of everything, it’s about addressing the need, everything we do in this country we are divided, which has been massive since the Covid era and I just think we’re all Kiwis together.
“We are also very pro-women, which doesn’t mean we’re anti-trans and believe women need safe spaces, they need to be able to compete in sports against other biological women and we need to be able to look after them.”
King also ruled out joining with Te Pāti Māori, Labour and the Greens, confirming he was open to a coalition with National and Act.
Next up was National’s Grant McCallum, who spoke to some of his party’s key policies around cost of living and tax, crime and “wasteful spending” which he believed was driving inflation.
When asked the community questions around improving health outcomes and resources in Northland as well as how National would improve roading, McCallum said both were topics that regularly came up amongst residents, particularly in the Far North.
“One of the most fundamental things we need to do in terms of health, is to train more medical specialists, more doctors and nurses because we are short on professional people in the health system,” McCallum said.
“We are building a new medical school at the Waikato University and the people who train there will be focused on moving into the regions of New Zealand.
“Obviously the people up here are concerned with the state of the roads and we need to spend more money up here actually fixing our roads.
“That’s why we’ve got a $500 million pothole fund which is on top of what the current government is already spending on roads.”
Greens Party Te Tai Tokerau candidate Hūhana Lyndon was next cab off the rank, who spoke to her former leadership roles at Northtec, Ngati Hine Forestry Trust and Ngati Wai Trust Board, which she believed had given her a solid understanding of business, education and workforce development, as well as balancing economic needs with environmental sustainability.
When questioned about economic opportunities in Northland as well as improving education in the region, she said the two essentially went hand in hand.
“In terms of rural schooling and difficulty attracting and retaining our talent, we have to grow from our own,” Lyndon said.
“There is currently no relevant training up here and we need that here in Kaitāia so people don’t have to travel to Whangārei or Auckland.
“When I think about Kaitāia and the way we have our town centre, we need connected services, we need to connect in our workforce, so the big question is, what are the skills and training required?
“Business needs to work hand in hand with the eductional opportunities that are needed right now and for tomorrow.”
Minister for Youth, Conservation and Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, Statistics, and Health, Northland’s MP Willow-Jean Prime said as the first woman to ever hold the seat of Northland, it had been a privilege to represent the region where she was born and raised.
Prime was heckled during her speech by a member of the public, who proceeded to cough loudly as she spoke about the more than $900 million invested in health infrastructure in Northland.
Northland MP Willow-Jean Prime, who was heckled by a member of the public during her speech.
“When I was elected to this role we literally had sewage running down the walls of the Whangārei Hospital.
“We have since committed to building a new hospital in Whangārei, two upgrades to BOI Hospital and a $10 million refurbishment to the Kaitāia Hospital.”
Prime also spoke to the importance of climate change infrastructure and believed the next natural disaster was not a matter of if, but when.
She said her own community of Waikare had modelled resilience in the face of climate change by having a community civil defence plan, which she wanted for all communities.
Northland Party Northland candidate and former Northland Regional councillor Mike Finlayson also believed the region needed to get serious about climate change, which should be done by consuming less and slowing down economic growth.
He said economic settings was dependent on endless growth, which went against nature.
“With our economy, we think its somehow different and we can keep growing it,” Finlayson said.
“I hear debates in Parliament about how it’s only 2 per cent, but at 3 per cent in 24 years we would have doubled our energy and material input.
Northland Party Northland candidate Mike Finlayson.
“We’re already using up the ecosystem services of 3.4 planets in New Zealand and we cannot continue like that, so the only answer is something like degrowth.”
When posed questions about education, Finlayson said while it wasn’t his forte, he believed bringing the power back to local communities was essential to getting the balance right.
Next up was Legalise Cannabis Party Te Tai Tokerau candidate Maki Herbert, who spoke to the benefits of the hemp industry on the country’s economy, particularly with regards to housing and using products such as hempcrete.
“Investing in the hemp industry is a good solution for this country,” Herbert said.
Legalise Cannabis Party Te Tai Tokerau candidate Maki Herbert.
“Let’s get rid of most of the pine trees because they take 25 years to harvest, they poison our whenua and cost us lots of money.
“Hemp doesn’t cost us anything, it gives us our wellness back and when we build our homes out of hempcrete, it takes a 120 days to harvest a patch of hemp, so two acres in farmland will grow you a three bedroom home at a third of the cost.”
When asked about the lack of regular maintenance roads, she said as a resident of Mangamuka, she now only came to Kaitāia once per week.
She believed having enough money in the funding bucket was essential and when someone in the crowd shouted they could use “pot” to fill the potholes, she agreed it wasn’t a bad idea.
Lawyer Reina Tuai Penney is standing in Northland for the Greens and also lives in Mangamuka.
She said as a young girl she was told by her guidance counsellor she would never amount to anything, so used that as motivation to prove them wrong.
Penney said as a result she now advocated on behalf of people who couldn’t advocate for themselves and was worried if a party like National were to get into power.
“Thinking about what the National Party talks about in their tax package, that only applies if you’re on $120k,” Penney said.
“I don’t know many people in Kaitāia who are on $120k, but I know it’s not a lot.
“So as opposed to other party policies, our policies - like our dental policy - makes sure everybody has access to free dental care.
“The way to make that possible is through fair taxes, fair income and better houses which means better health.”
Penney said she also believed in a flourishing Te Tiriti relationship, and believed the current narratives were what was causing division, not tangata whenua and non-Māori working together.
Te Tai Tokerau MP and Minister for Corrections, Children and Associate Minister for Education Kelvin Davis added to the conversation around Te Tiriti, saying there was a lot more to be done in that space.
He also spoke to Northland roads and said the reason for their poor state was not due to a lack of investment, but rather because of extreme weather events due to climate change.
He said there was also a responsibility of the local councils, who funded 40 per cent of the roading costs.
“Councils like central government politicians have to make decisions that will not necessarily make them popular, but are important in terms of funding and raising local funds to get our council roads fixed,” Davis said.
Te Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis.
Davis also touched on housing, which he said his Government was building more houses than any other government since the 1950s, in particular public housing, where 15,000 houses had been built, with another 5000 under construction.
He said while he wasn’t usually one to brag, he had also been instrumental in brokering the complex situation of land ownership at Kaitāia Airport and believed he had successfully navigated that precarious situation for the benefit of the region.
Finally, it was former Minister for Regional Economic Development and NZ First Northland candidate Shane Jones’ turn, who has been recently growing his popularity through the use of social media platform Tik Tok.
Jones said people now had a chance to redeem themselves after NZ First was voted out in 2017 and that they should back NZ First who had a track record of delivery and to back Shane Jones, the “delivery man”.
“I’m seeking to be your candidate to continue the work NZ First did in delivering for Northland during the period of 2017-2020, where we managed to deliver over $680 million into Northland,” Jones said.
Former Minister for Regional Economic Development and NZ First Northland candidate Shane Jones.
“Three things I hope to do is to improve the energy grid system up here so that those in our community or outsiders who want to invest in solar and wind power can attract manufacturing to have a first-class energy distribution system.
“Secondly, I will carry on the good work that we initiated during the time I was minister.
“And thirdly, I will support the extension of a four-lane highway, but build a road over the Brynderwyns over the next three years.”
Kapa-Kingi is on the Te Pāti Māori’s Tai Tokerau Truck Tour which is currently visiting communities around the Northland region.
Cameron is said to be taking part in the Act Party’s Road to Real Change bus tour, which is travelling from the Bay of Islands to Invercargill.
Myjanne Jensen is a part-time reporter for the Northern Advocate. She was previously the editor of the Northland Age joining NZME in 2021 after moving to the region from Australia.
