Labour candidate Toni Boynton is back on the campaign trail in Waiariki, taking on incumbent MP and Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi as the battle for one of Aotearoa’s seven Māori electorates enters its final month.
There is plenty of whanaungatanga in the contest. Boynton and Waititi are whanaunga, and the Waiariki candidates have emphasised respectful debate despite their political differences. Waititi has represented the electorate since 2020, while Boynton is campaigning to return the seat to Labour.
But beyond the personalities — and Waititi’s well-known kapa haka credentials — the campaign is confronting some serious issues for whānau.
Boynton says the cost of living, unemployment, homelessness and pressure on the health system are among the concerns she is hearing across Waiariki. She has argued that jobs, affordable housing and accessible healthcare need to be central to Labour’s response.
Those concerns are shared across the contest, with candidates identifying housing and the cost of living among the major pressures facing an electorate stretching from Tauranga and Whakatāne through Rotorua and Taupō.
The electoral challenge for Labour is significant. Waititi won Waiariki in 2023 with 21,500 votes, and a Whakaata Māori-Curia poll released on October 7 has Waititi on 42 percent, Boynton on 14 percent, Green candidate Tania Waikato on 16 percent and Opportunity Party candidate Pāpā Wharewera on 3 percent. Eighteen percent of respondents remained undecided, meaning the poll remains a snapshot rather than an election result.
Boynton joined Ata Tū to kōrero about what she is hearing on the hustings, why she believes Labour still has a case to make to Waiariki voters, and what whānau are telling her they want from whoever represents them after Election 2026.
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