September 11, 2017
People and environment frame election climate
Tangata and taiao are what the Maori Party’s Hauraki Waikato candidate Rahui Papa is hearing about on the election campaign.
The former Waikato Tainui executive chair is trailing incumbent Nanaia Mahuta by 56 points, according to a Reid Research Maori Television poll taken a week ago, but he’s not letting that put him off his stride.
He says the issues he’s hearing about most are homelessness and poverty among Maori.
"They are also concerned about the environment. We were in Thames the other night talking about a 50 percent rise in sea level that is going to have detrimental effect on Coromandel and Hauraki. It is also going to have a wicked effect on the west coast, on the Kawhia coast as well. So it's tangata and it's taiao that are on the lips of the people," Mr Papa says.
He says New Zealand First’s rejection of consideration of a Maori interest in any future water management regime opens the door for the Maori Party of be considered in Labour need partners to form a Government.
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