Candidates have shared their views on key issues including the referenda. Photo / File
Candidates have shared their views on key issues including the referenda. Photo / File
As the 2020 general election fast approaches, candidates in the Waiariki Maori electorate were asked for their views on key issues including transport, health, the upcoming referenda, Covid-19 recovery and more. Here's what they had to say.
Why should voters vote for you or your party?
We are committed to making a start at the very basics, starting with the support and encouragement of a healthy family unit ... then the wellbeing, training, nurturing of their children to help them become responsible, hardworking citizens. This will solve a lot of major issues that need to be addressed.
What will you or your party do for the electorate if elected?
My wife and I will set an example of integrity and honour within marriage and the family unit. We foster children from around the area. As an ex-criminal with a shaky start to life, I am willing and available to sit down with troubled youth and provoke them to greatness.
Top priorities for health
Teaching and educating New Zealanders on healthier lifestyles that will benefit their health and wellbeing and prevent avoidable sicknesses. Ensure parents give consent for all medical care and procedures for children. Ensure vaccinations remain a personal or parental choice. Oppose extension of the Covid-19 Public Health Response Act 2020.
Top priorities for education
Sex education should be taught by parents, with support if needed. Parents should be notified of sex or gender programmes, and maintain the right to withdraw their children. Classrooms should be a safe environment to learn sound information with well-presented evidence. Tamariki should be given the best chance to excel.
Top priorities for transport
Did not respond.
What needs to be done to recover from the effects of Covid-19?
New Zealand has lost a major revenue source through the halt on tourism. We must retain the billions of dollars we have borrowed during the Covid-19 lockdown by supporting New Zealand businesses, stopping the sale of land, businesses, and assets offshore and taxing non-essential or high waste value imports.
How will you vote in the End of Life referendum?
New Conservative is opposed to euthanasia being decriminalised. We are committed to increasing funding, where needed, for the best palliative care possible, and to help family members care for the terminally ill. We should support doctors to search for cures, not assist suicide.
How will you vote in the cannabis referendum?
As a ex-user I know the cons far outweigh the pros. Debt, laziness, confusion, inability to work properly, very little health benefits which we can source from other means. Saying yes to the bill is another band aid and not a solution. Our nation has been crippled enough by poor law.
Why should voters vote for you or your party?
With a global pandemic threatening our whānau, Māori need strong representatives at the Government table, not just in Parliament. Splitting your vote isn't worth the risk. I will continue to ensure Labour's economic recovery plan creates local jobs, improves the wellbeing of Waiariki families, while advocating hard for local issues.
What will you or your party do for the electorate if elected?
We've announced over $2 billion for Waiariki-specific projects. Creating jobs, strengthening Maōri partnerships and improving whānau wellbeing. Given the honour by Māori voters, as re-elected Waiariki MP, I would re-commit to growing this progress. Voicing the needs of our communities, backing Māori-led solutions and improving futures for local tamariki rangatahi.
Top priorities for health
Labour delivered record investment into Whānau Ora, mental health and addictions support, cheaper GP visits, boosted funding to kaupapa Māori health providers, and grown the leadership voice of Māori within our DHBs. My priority is ensuring this momentum continues to be felt throughout the Waiariki, while reducing the Covid-19 backlog.
Top priorities for education
From funding recognising kohanga to restoring free apprenticeships, Labour has helped learners of all ages reach their potential. I am focused on continuing this mahi, getting our at-risk rangatahi re-engaged with learning and earning, addressing the digital divide in our kura and having every child's education include te reo Māori.
Top priorities for transport
From Te Ngae Rd to Tauranga's Northern Link, under Jacinda Ardern's leadership our region's transport 'wish list' is turning into fully-funded safer roads, supporting more housing options. I'm committed to working alongside iwi and council to get more Waiariki-led infrastructure partnerships underway, empowering our local recovery and creating local jobs.
What needs to be done to recover from the effects of Covid-19?
Right now, whānau Māori need certainty that they will still be able to put food on the table. Labour's proven leadership, strong community representation and economic recovery plan, are already creating jobs, protecting our families' health and preparing our communities for the future. Don't risk it now. Let's keep moving.
How will you vote in the End of Life referendum?
I will be voting in favour of this kaupapa. I believe everyone with a terminal illness should have the right to end their life with dignity, if they choose to take that option. I also note many who are against it, will not choose that option – and that is okay.
How will you vote in the cannabis referendum?
I support the tax revenue going to drug education and mental health and addictions support. I support it to free up Police time ... I support it so people who need it for medicinal use can access it. The Bill outlines strict control and I encourage people to understand it before voting.
Why should voters vote for you or your party?
I have 40 years on-the-ground experience with people. Thirty years have been in Waiariki. I have seen peoples struggle, and helplessness first hand, it is time to give a mana wahine the opportunity to forge a path forward. He karanga mana wahine tenei ki a koutou katoa, tena poti mai.
Top priorities for health
Lower the age of eligibility for breast screening from 45 to 40. Stop the wreckage from meth on our Māori whānau by providing local hapū-based support for rehabilitation. Tackle suicide by encouraging korero around internal struggles and difficulties young people experience. No shame no blame. Patua te whakama me te heitar.
Top priorities for education
Bring back Charter Schooling to support parental choice.
Top priorities for transport
Continue to prioritise solutions for better public transport, getting people out of cars. Encourage the use of Electric bikes
What needs to be done to recover from the effects of Covid-19?
Close the borders and shut immigration down for 12 months. Set up centres of learning to inspire and encourage those who have never had a home to learn to budget. Set up Waiariki as a pilot for Māori self-governance; economic and social autonomy, put power back into the hands of the people.
How will you vote in the End of Life referendum?
No. I believe life is life and every person has the right to live to the full extent of the years, months, days, hours afforded to them. I believe this bill robs family/whānau of the opportunity to grieve together, comfort and share a person's precious last moments.
How will you vote in the cannabis referendum?
Did not respond.
Why should voters vote for you or your party?
Waiariki deserves a strong Māori voice who will not be silenced by a Pākeha agenda. I will be that voice. We will dismantle the system that continues to oppress and restore the negative narrative dominating our lives to a narrative that sees our people thriving in health, economy and cultural identity.
What will you or your party do for the electorate if elected?
Our Whānau First Policy will make sure 25 per cent of any government contract, project or initiative post-Covid goes directly to Māori contractors, businesses, organisations, hapū and iwi to design and lead. A quarter of the workforce for these projects must be Māori. For Waiariki this means more jobs, contracts and opportunities.
Top priorities for health
Establishing a Maori Health Funding Authority which will oversee the purchasing, distribution and operational delivery of our per capita budget health entitlement to the value of $5 billion. We will invest $500 million per annum into our own Māori mental health solutions. Delivered by Māori, for Māori.
Top priorities for education
Ensure all Māori medium education is funded equal to its Pākeha equivalents and establish a $200m fund to drive whānau, hapū and iwi education and training initiatives. Require a minimum of 25 per cent of the education budget be directed to Māori models of delivery and pastoral care.
Top priorities for transport
Waiariki is one of the worst served regions with regard to public transport. My priority is to significantly increase public transport in the main centres, including railway services and invest significantly into improvements of roading in the regions.
What needs to be done to recover from the effects of Covid-19?
The Māori response to Covid-19 was exemplary – it happened organically, autonomously and without government permission. We demand the opportunity to do this again, with equal resource, for ourselves, outside of the context of a pandemic, in the name of our future. Devolution of power and resource is what needs to be done.
How will you vote in the End of Life referendum?
No. The Māori Party does not have the luxury of indulging in a conversation about integrity in death when Māori are not yet afforded integrity in life. Mā wai rā e hara mai ki te tiki i tō moko, e kore e riro i a tāua, me waiho ake mā Hinenuitepō.
How will you vote in the cannabis referendum?
I am voting YES because I support the decriminalisation of cannabis. I believe cannabis should be treated as a health issue which will require heavy investment into the mental health and addictions sector. Māori must also be central in designing the regulatory model for cannabis in the future.
Why should voters vote for you or your party?
By casting your party vote to Advance NZ | NZ Public Party and Ema Williams for Waiariki this will harken in true freedom, sovereignty, independency, transparency, accountability and restoration towards the original spirit and intent of our nation's founding documents – He Whakaputunga & Te Tiriti.
What will you or your party do for the electorate if elected?
Activate our Covid-19 Response Policy and revive the domestic tourism industry with priority, combat P-Demics by funding and using local, whānau and hapū initiatives, detain the silent killer of suicide by funding, again using local whānau and hapā initiatives, immediately ban 1080, eliminate homelessness.
Top priorities for health
Activating our Covid-19 Response Policy – no to further or potential mandatory medical examinations, masks or isolation withstanding a risk-based approach. We must also with urgency reduce public waiting lists for specialists & hospital surgery and combat the P-Demics ravaging our communities, and the silent killer of suicide within Waiariki.
Top priorities for education
Raise urgently and give priority to basic literacy levels being achieved – reading, writing & maths, reduce teachers' class sizes and paperwork to increase teaching hours, increase teachers' salaries, and the number of Māori and male teachers, implement mandatory New Zealand history, budgeting and finance subjects.
Top priorities for transport
Relief for families and students for costs of using public transport to kohanga, child care, preschools, schools and tertiary organisations, reducing the usage of cars around central shopping districts by incentivising cycling and walkways and programmes, repairing of Waiariki roads and highways in local and rural areas.
What needs to be done to recover from the effects of Covid-19?
We will use quantitative easing to reduce the foreign borrowing of the Covid-19 costs and rebuild infrastructure and businesses hurt from the closures. We will open trade and tourist routes to Pacific Island countries unaffected by Covid-19 yet remain closed (such as the Cook Islands).
How will you vote in the End of Life referendum?
I will be voting no in the end of life referendum because of my faith.
How will you vote in the cannabis referendum?
I will be voting yes in the cannabis referendum to free up police for more serious crimes and to improve access for medicinal purposes.
Waiariki candidates Rawiri Te Kowhai of the NZ Outdoors Party and Hannah Tamaki of the Vision Party did not respond.
The wishing tree appeal is in its 31st year and the need for it 'has never been greater'.