Born and bred in the East Coast, Meredith Akuhata-Brown is also currently serving as a Gisborne district councillor.
She is a strong believer in looking after the environment and helping to create stronger communities but says the size of the East Coast electorate has its challenges.
"I do find this electorate quite big and I feel it could perhaps be one of the concerns that you're expected to represent a big land mass area," Brown said.
