November 09, 2022
Family connections draw Potaka to National
National’s Hamilton West by-election candidate says he’s out knocking on doors and trying to win the trust of the electorate.
Speaking to Radio Waatea as he stood outside a petrol station on Te Rapa Rd waving a campaign sign, Tama Potaka said Labour won the seat by 6000 votes in 2020, and he’s not taking its candidate Georgie Dansey for granted.
Mr Potaka had a previous association with the city from his time with Tainui Group Holdings, and he’s currently chief executive of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki.
He says the National Party’s values are aligned with his own.
“Loyalty to the country, recognition of the Treaty of Waitangi as the founding document, personal responsibility, doing the work – getting the rewards, limited government, all of those things align with my values and aspirations. My parents and others before them growing up in a rural Maori environment very strong supporters of National and my wife’s great grandfather, Pei Te Hurinui Jones, was a key figure in the National Party in the 1940s, 50s and 60s,”Mr Potaka says.
He says National has been a contributor to Māori development over many generations and has settled more treaty claims than any other party.