By Rebecca Wright
Mana Party leader Hone Harawira delivered what he called his state of the nation speech in Auckland today, and it seemed a timely moment to take a look at the state of his own political fiefdom, Te Tai Tokerau.
A local food bank – around the corner from Mr Harawira’s office – is struggling badly, and organisers say MPs need to “come back home to the basic needs of people and see what they can do”.
However, Mr Harawira says he’s “not embarrassed” about the state of the food bank.
“What do you want me to do, run around and talk to every single food bank just to prove that the food banks are there?”
It’s not just the food bank in crisis – the region’s biggest problem is unemployment, and during the by-election Mr Harawira promised his constituents full employment by next year.
Next year is now six weeks away, so 3 News asked how his by-election commitment was coming along, something he says is “kind of a bloody ridiculous question”.
Mr Harawira says he has created around 200 jobs in the electorate – it’s not full employment, but nor is it full failure.
His opponent, Labour candidate Kelvin Davis, disagrees. He says Mr Harawira’s decision “to stand up in the by-election and say it would be easy to create full employment by Christmas, when nothing had been created in the five and a half years previously - it's wrong”.
Mr Davis wants a $100 million seed fund to grow jobs in the area, and says because Te Tai Tokerau is at “the very worst end of the statistics”.
“We need, actually, a catalyst to actually get us out of the mire that we're in,” he says.
Former actor Waihoroi Shortland is currently last in line, looking to win the seat back for the Maori party.
3 News asked what he would bring to the electorate that Mr Harawira hasn’t.
He says if he was being cynical, “anything is going to be an improvement”.
3 News