Cunliffe, Peters hit Eastern Bay streets

ELECTION TIME: Labour leader David Cunliffe (centre) and East Coast Labour candidate Moana Mackey (right) mingle at Baxter's Cafe in Whakatane yesterday. PHOTO/PAUL MITCHELL 090814CUNLIFFE

Electioneering in the Eastern Bay of Plenty ramped up yesterday with both Labour leader David Cunliffe and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters visiting businesses and meeting local voters.

Mr Cunliffe met Tuhoe executive and community members and local mayors before joining local Labour supporters for lunch at Baxter's Cafe, making a quick stop in at Garaway St Kindergarten on the way.

Meanwhile, Mr Peters made an afternoon visit to the Mountain View rest home in Kawerau to speak to those who would have difficulty getting to the Grey Power public meeting he hosted in the Kawerau Concert Chambers.

He also spent time in Whakatane.

Both leaders were keen to tell how their party policies would benefit the region.

Mr Cunliffe told the Rotorua Daily Post Labour was looking to work closely with regional councils and community groups on issues of concern to specific regions. He called it "a new kind of politics - politics with, not politics for."

He aimed to have a government that respected the knowledge of "people on the ground", saying, "There are different things that central government can do at different levels, but we specialise in the national and work down."

Mr Cunliffe believed councils and iwi, like Tuhoe, had the expertise at a regional level "so partnerships make sense".

Labour was looking to deal with issues such as crime, domestic and sexual abuse, and poverty nationally and locally in partnership with iwi and regional councils through supporting programmes like the Opotiki harbour development, which would bring 300 jobs to the region.

Mr Cunliffe said the Government should be addressing the root causes of those issues, raising the minimum wage, getting youth "learning or earning", and creating more jobs.

"The current government is missing something ... [Gangs are] a kind of collective of people who are otherwise alienated from society. Of course, we need to be tough on crime, particularly organised crime, but we also need to be intelligent about how we work with communities so the need for gangs is reduced. If people have positive things to do the problem with gangs gradually subsides," he said.

Mr Peters told the Rotorua Daily Post he agreed with that approach to gangs, saying New Zealand First was "going to get them a job, and get them off crime, and we're going to do it in that order".

Mr Peters told the Mountain View rest home residents how New Zealand First would change the Reserve Bank Act "to reflect that we are an export-dependent country".