Bay of Plenty and Tauranga candidates shared their stance on key issues facing the community in a 'speed dating' type scenario in Welcome Bay tonight.
A couple of dozen people attended the Meet the Candidates evening at the Welcome Bay Community Centre to hear from Labour's Angela Warren-Clark, Maori Party's Raewyn Bennett, Democrats for Social Credit's Jason Jobsis and Lester Gray from New Zealand First.
Condolences were offered to National's Todd Muller, who was absent from the meeting after a family bereavement.
Candidates were given two minutes to answer questions before face-to-face chats at each table with tea and biscuits in what organisers called "candidating".
The first question was how to engage youth so that they can access the support available to them.
Angie Warren-Clarke said Labour was looking at giving the first year of university study for free and more financial support by raising the accommodation supplement.
"A child's first 1000 days are about making sure we have fully-qualified education providers," she said.
The Maori Party's Raewyn Bennett said the party's main thrust in education was to provide free pre-school education and to provide job training for better employment skills.
"Whanau Ora is the basis of all of our programmes," she said.
NZ First candidate Lester Gray said the party wanted to engage with young people at an earlier age by offering a free education policy provided a person lived and worked in NZ.
"If you want to be a builder, builders do not want to be at uni for years," he said.
Green Party's Emma-Leigh Hodge said 212,000 children were living below the poverty line.
"Our policy would see income support increased by 20 per cent," she said.
Ms Hodge also said Labour's policies also included pay parity for all teachers and covering school operational costs.
Democrats for Social Credit's Jason Jobsis said there was a significant drop off of students after high school.
"Under our government, university does not cost to anyone," he said.
"What we propose is programmes where it involves the community to help younger people that are missing out on growing up."
A National Party representative said National had the most generous education policies including interest-free loans and finance for students living away from home.
"They are given access, but they still have to work hard for it," he said.
Questions were also asked about carbon reduction, population ageing and water quality issues.