Elections 2020: Can the Māori Party reclaim Te Tai Hauāuru or will it remain Labour's?
Wednesday, 7 October 2020
Don’t ask for whom the polls toll in Te Tai Hauāuru – it could be for anybody.
Te Tai Hauāuru has been seen as potentially the strongest chance for the Māori party to win its way back into Parliament.
Speaking to Stuff, Adrian Rurawhe, Labour incumbent, is not getting too excited by the results of a rare Māori electorate poll putting him ahead in a rohe (territory) running from Tirau to urban Porirua.
Rurawhe narrowly won the electorate over Māori Party candidate Howie Tamati in the 2017 election - 9791 to 8752.
This year he comes up against Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, Māori Party co-leader.
**READ MORE:
* Election 2020: Poll of Te Tai Hauāuru brings bad news for Māori Party
* Election 2020: Te Tai Hauauru electorate debate
* Election 2020: Te Tai Hauāuru hopeful quietly confident in a race to watch
**
The latest poll, of 496 voters in Te Tai Hauāuru, showed 38 per cent intended to vote for Rurawhe and 20 per cent for Ngarewa-Packer. However, some 30 per cent of voters were undecided.
Rurawhe said he was “well-behind” in the last election’s Māori Television polling before eventually winning the seat.
Getting a clear read on Māori voting preferences was “hugely problematic” with the biggest problem getting access to the people.
He said the most common issue his campaign had found in the electorate was employment. “People are worried about their jobs being safe, and carrying on. They’re worried about jobs for their children in the future.”
He said the same story was being told across the electorate. Labour, he said, was not taking the Māori seats for granted after sweeping the set in 2017.
Rurawhe was keen to boost Māori voting – and would be pushing whānau to check in and make sure other were getting registered to vote.
Ngarewa-Packer said in the post-Covid-19 environment it was even more important that Māori faces were seen and heard. She said things should not return to the way things were pre-Covid.
Small to medium-sized businesses were more important to the Māori economy for creating employment, rather than the big corporates, and overarching iwi.
Like all the seven Māori electorates, the sheer size of the region poses difficulties in helping such a wide range of people and places.
Porirua at the southern end is a city with vast contrasts of its own between wealthy and low-income suburbs. It is completely different to its immediate northern neighbour, the Kāpiti Coast, let alone the patchwork of districts that run through heartland provincial New Zealand all the way up to Waikato.
Whoever takes the electorate will face the usual tough task of trying to satisfy the locals of a very broad constituency.
Here are the candidates for Te Tai Hauāuru
Noeline Apiata
Advance NZ
Noeline Apiata, Advance NZ’s candidate for the Te Tai Hauāuru electorate, lives in Ngāruawāhia where she was raised. She believes in truth, facts, transparency, freedom of choice, and is passionate about holistic wellbeing, reducing poverty, violence and homelessness.
Apiata has worked for various iwi, government agencies and community organisations in New Zealand and Australia for the last 32 years. Her focus has been on youth, communities, family and mental health.
She wants to be a voice for all New Zealanders and ensure the rights of the people are upheld.
Korrallie Bailey-Taurua
ONE Party
Korrallie Bailey-Taurua has worked in the community with a focus on iwi advancement and whānau hapu development, and has experience working in the education sector.
Bailey-Taurua wishes to see religious values and principles brought into Parliament and promoted across the country.
Kiri McKee
NZ Outdoors Party
Kiri McKee, a mother and grandmother, wants to make New Zealand the best place it can be in a world of unknowns.
McKee grew up in Stratford and was happy waking up each morning to see Mount Taranaki.
Joshua Morgan
New Conservative
Joshua Morgan, a father-of-five, grew up on a farm near Te Awamutu. He has experience working in the dairy industry and for the last two years has been working in the wastewater and storm water industry. He sees his skills learned from these trades as transferrable to other jobs and industries.
Morgan believes New Zealanders need a conservative government that is accountable and transparent and will represent conservative voters.
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer
Māori Party
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer from Ngāti Ruanui, Ngāruahine and Ngā Rauru is the Māori Party’s co-leader. She is the former deputy mayor of South Taranaki District Council.
An activist and environmental campaigner, Ngarewa-Packer has experience in governance, executive management and iwi leadership. She has developed free health care services in her role as kaiarataki of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui, and has spoken on behalf of south Taranaki on many occasions nationally.
Ngarewa-Packer works as a director of Tui Ora Health Ltd, Homecare Medical LTD. She was previously a member of the Māori Economic Development Advisory Board.
Adrian Rurawhe
Labour Party
Adrian Rurawhe is the incumbent MP for the electorate. He was first elected in 2014 and has been assistant speaker with the 2017 Labour Government.
He has previously been involved with the select committees on education and science, government administration, and Māori affairs. Through Iwi and community roles he has helped improve the lives of those in his community and advocated for the region in Parliament.
Rurawhe was chairman of Ngāti Apa for 10 years and represented Iwi on issues such as health, social services, education and the treaty settlement.