Tainui Live’s Patara Berryman and Waikato-Tainui executive Glenda Taituha-Toka joined Aukaha News Executive Producer Roihana Nuri to analyse the poll and have a discussion, following the Whakatau 2026 Hauraki-Waikato Debate last week.
“I wasn’t surprised with the electorate poll. You know that was coming off the back of the three years. What I was surprised about though was the party vote. That one surprised me,” Berryman says.
“I think they pushed exactly what they wanted, the messages they wanted to push out there tonight but I agree with Glenda. You can see it in the polls as well, there’s been a shift to the Greens, there been a shift from big major parties to smaller parties and that’s reflected in exactly what she said, the parties really haven’t hit the nail on the head yet in terms of answering those inequities,” he said.
In the Hauraki-Waikato electorate, the Whakaata Māori-Curia party-vote poll showed Te Pāti Māori at 22%, narrowly edging out Labour at 21%, with the Green Party close behind at 16%.
This despite Te Pāti Māori launching a candidate only strategy in the Māori electorates. Taituha-Toka addressed the inequities gap as something she is looking for within Hauraki-Waikato within policies. Berryman agreed with Taituha-Toka, highlighting the polls showing there has been a shift from big major parties to smaller parties.
“I don’t think any party has hit the nail on the head yet but I think the inequities gap is still something that I’m looking for in policy that I don’t think any party has identified,” says Waikato-Tainui executive Glenda Taituha-Toka.
“I mean it’s awesome that we’re going to you know we’re going to tuku all these new resources or old resources that were taken away and reinstate those resources,” Taituha-Toka says.
“I think it’s just too early you know, especially for iwi Māori. I mean we’ve still got 20,000 rangatahi in Hauraki-Waikato that aren’t enrolled to vote and they could swing either way,” says Taituha-Toka.
More than 500 whānau within the Hauraki-Waikato Electorate were surveyed by Whakaata Māori for the Candidate Vote with a poll showing on the night of the debate Māori Party’s Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke leading the poll at 45%. Following Maipi-Clarke is Labour’s Kingi Kiriona at 26%, while 13% remaining were either undecided or wanted someone else.
Both commentators, Taituha-Toka and Berryman highlighted their reactions to the poll with Taituha underlining there are still over 20,000 rangatahi within the Hauraki-Waikato Electorate who aren’t enrolled to vote and Berryman noting he wasn’t surprised with the result of the poll.