Te Ururoa Flavell: Athletes' message for us all

Jacque Webber (left) and Shirley Day pictured with Pauline Warbrick, competed in IronMan Copenhagen recently. Photo / File

I have followed with interest the online journey of four Maori athletes, two of whom are local.

They travelled recently to Denmark to participate in IronMan Copenhagen. The four friends - Jacque Webber, Shirley Day, Piripi Rangihaeata and Des Harris - met through participating in the IronMaori events over the past few years and then moving on to IronMan Taupo.

They decided that, as a group, they would fundraise and travel together to compete in the same event overseas.

They've put themselves way out of their comfort zone, away from the safety net of home, away from whanau support, and into a land that speaks another language, to participate in an event that tests your endurance, your determination and, of course, skill and fitness. If that's not crazy, I don't know what is!

But they did it. I guess their experience sends a message to us all, that we can strive to achieve things bigger or more amazing than we ever thought if we put the hard work into the training and fundraise hard to cover the costs.

I am also aware of a group of runners and walkers from Ngati Pikiao who are planning to enter the New York Marathon as a group in 2016. This sort of big thinking is great - it's showing our tamariki and rangatahi that there is another world out there and to mix it in with events that support our hauora. Ka wani ke koutou!

-Waiariki is a forestry region and I don't want to keep reading, hearing about or visiting sites where there has been a workplace death.

I will do what I can to support legislation that helps create a safer workplace. This is why we have put our weight behind the current reforms, which aim to create safer work places for those in industries where there are high risks.

Knowing the devastation caused by the loss of lives and the trauma caused by workplace injuries, we wanted to ensure that our two voices gave as much impact to the passing of this bill as possible.

Sure, it could have gone further - but the Government had the numbers to pass the bill already in its current form. We had the opportunity to put forward some improvements, so we have done just that.

-Te Ururoa Flavell is the Waiariki MP and Maori Party co-leader.