Kei te wera haere te pakanga mō te rohe pōti Māori o Waiariki i muri i te tautohe nui i whakaritea e Whakaata Māori.
Tokowhā ngā kaitono kua tuhi i ō rātou ingoa, ā, ko Te Wehi Preston o Te Arawa me Ngāi Tūhoe tētehi o ngā kaipōti, neke atu i te 60 tekau i tae atu ki te whakarongo ki ngā kōrero me ngā kaupapa here.
“Kua waimaria mātou o te Waiariki. Tokowhā ngā kaitono. Ka mutu wēnei kaitono kōunga pai,” hei tā Te Wehi Preston.
“Ko tā mātou e hiahia ana kia rongo ai mai i ngā kaitono nei kaha rātou ki te whawhai i tohe mō te pōharatanga, mō te aupēhitanga mō Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Wēra tūmomo āhuatanga katoa,” hei tāna anō
“Pai te whakautu rā ki ngā kōrero katoa i tēnei pō. Ka mutu, ki au nei i reka tonu ngā kōrero a Rawiri ki ahau.”
More Waiariki voters share mixed reactions and key priorities following debate
Along with Te Wehi Preston other Waiariki voters have expressed a wide range of opinions following the Whakaata Māori debate, raising key concerns around the local economy, protecting te taiao, rangatahi mental health, and Māori identity.
Highlighting economic priorities, one local voter shared, “A way to improve the economy for our locals without destroying our taiao or selling it would probably be my main thing as a person that doesn’t know all the background workings.”
Another voter raised issues concerning youth mental health, asking, “If you were in Government, what law would you change to support rangatahi with mental health issues?”
Audience reactions were mixed, with one supporter declaring, “Tania Waikato, āe. She has my vote! Āe!” while another noted, “They were all champions because they embodied that spirit. Furthermore, what I really wanted was to truly hear the strategy. I haven’t yet quite heard the strategy and the schools [of thought] in the main considerations.”
Waiariki candidates reflect on the debate and key issues
All four candidates reflected on the debate and shared their perspectives on the election fight ahead in Waiariki.
Toni Boynton (Labour) remarked, “It’s all part of a raffle prize. Each of our raffle has a prize. I might be the fine wine, Rawiri might be the whakamaara. Tania might be the bonus prize with a bikini, and Papa may be the basket that holds it together. But at the end of the day, we’ve gotta draw the raffle first” and later added, “We all want the same thing and that is to make sure this government is out.”
Tania Waikato (Green Party) stated, “I think that tonight it was a really great opportunity for us to get our messages out there and I feel like we got that done,” adding, “One of the things that we pride ourselves on here in the Waiariki is making sure that even though we’re ‘competing’ against each other we are all whanaunga and everything that we do is together and it’s respectful.”
Pāpā Wharewera (TOP) said, “I think if we’re using words like kotahitanga and whanaungatanga I think it’s better to reflect that in action as opposed to just words. So, if we’re actually enacting that then we get to see the morals of our candidates’ values coming through strongly,” and further added, “We’re here to work together and it’s probably a good example of how we can actually work together to find solutions moving forward.”
Rawiri Waititi (Te Pāti Māori) emphasised that the real battle is in Wellington and not here among the four candidates in the Waiariki, “Ko te pakanga kei Pōneke kaare i te pakanga i kōnei kei waenganui i a mātou tokowhā nei. Ko te pakanga kei Pōneke, nō reira koinā hoki tō mātou mea nei. Me aro ki te kaupapa ki Poneke.”