“They will come up and tell me what is annoying them, or ask questions.
“I want to know. I want to hear people's thoughts so I can take it back to the council meetings.”
Debbie was The Gisborne Herald's chief reporter for about eight years.
“I loved the problem-solving side of it. Hopefully for everyone who contacted us, we could give them an answer or help.”
Every morning from 7am, standing at her desk, it was a high-pressure job to get five local pages of news out with a team of around nine reporters.
“Then there was the daily miracle when the press starts up,” she laughs.
The relief at that sound quickly followed by starting again for the next day's paper.
She misses the people, the banter and laughter from the newsroom.
The police scanner too.
She bought one about 10 years ago. It went everywhere Debbie went.
“You could say I was a fire engine chaser. If I heard the sirens, I was off.
“My kids absolutely hated it.”
Plus, there were several times Debbie heard things she would rather not have.
So, the scanner days have ended as well.
But Debbie is always picking up new things. Last year she completed level 1 and 2 Te Reo Maori with Te Wananga o Aotearoa (Whirikoka campus), and this year has enrolled in levels 3 and 4.
Becoming a district councillor has been a big change.
Gone are the early morning starts. Although Debbie is an early riser anyway, and an active relaxer who walks and runs as often as she can. Her latest thing is audio books, so she listens to novels while exercising, gardening or cooking at home.
She describes her partner in life, Frank Parker, as an amazing support — especially during her campaign.
“I honestly don't think I would have done it without his support. He really gave me strength.
“And he fixed my billboards when they got smashed.”
Debbie was elected on October 12 last year.
But a great sadness to Debbie, and all her family, was that her mum Rita died the month before after a long illness.
She knows her mum would have loved that she made it on to the council.
“The last thing she ever said to me was, ‘Don't worry Debbie, you'll be fine'. And I was.”
There were a few signs Debbie would become a councillor.
Her nana Frances Gregory was Gisborne's first woman councillor.
Debbie's Nana was her lifeline.
As the youngest of six children to Sefton and Rita Gregory growing up at Wainui Beach, Debbie says she spent a lot of time with her Nana who lived down the road.
“She was my mentor, my idol, my everything.
“She was always supportive of my life. There was a standard you had to reach with her. You had to pass, do well, no slacking. Her motto was ‘always do your homework' — she would get cross when people were not properly prepared.”
Nana would help young Debbie with her speeches and debates at school.
“And I won a quite a few with her being so damn rigorous with it.
“She was an amazing woman.”
An exciting thing about to happen next in Debbie's life is that she is about to become a nana too.
Debbie has four children between the ages of 31 and 22. Sam Harrison, Jacob Harrison and Matt Kain all live in Gisborne and Emma Harrison in Wellington.
A quick bit of maths and Debbie was 22 when she had Sam. She loved being a young mum and growing up with her kids. She also felt very fortunate she could stay home and raise them for 16 years.
During the 1990s and early 2000s Debbie lived on a lifestyle block at Makauri and ran a market garden.
She was always in amongst it, weeding, harvesting and selling the produce at the Flea Market, then later at the Farmers' Market as one of the founding stalls.
During this time, when she was 30, she was asked to stand for council as a Grey Power representative but because her children were still young, decided not to.
By 2004 Debbie had tired of the hard graft and long hours in the market garden, so went to see Herald editor Jeremy Muir.
As luck would have it long-time rural reporter Barbara Scott was leaving and Debbie got the job. She had trained as a journalist under the cadetship scheme in the 1980s under the legend journalist John Jones — another huge mentor in her life.
“I loved that farm reporter job. I got to see so much of this beautiful place, meet salt-of-the-earth people, out all the time, it was fabulous.”
That was life for seven and a half years before taking the deputy chief role, then in 2011 Debbie took over as chief reporter from Marianne Gillingham.
It took her a while to adapt, she says — being on the edge of news, multi-tasking — but she lived and breathed news, even making it into a book about journalism used to train new ones.
“The last few years at The Herald I was becoming frustrated and knew it was time to move on.”
About six months out from the election, without knowing what was next, Debbie handed in her resignation.
“Sometimes you have to close a door before opening another one.”
Within a day of telling people she had resigned, a few people suggested she should stand for council.
“Which really sparked a fire inside me. This was something I could do using my huge knowledge, many contacts, common sense and deep love of this region.
“From then I was driven towards that goal.”
She keeps a meticulous diary in her phone, inputting every meeting, coffee and appointment. She also works part time as a contract writer for EIT Tairawhiti.
“I do have some fame,” Debbie drops into the conversation.
“I won the giant pumpkin competition once and got on the front page of The Gisborne Herald.”
And there is another one growing in her garden right now for this year's competition — although it's nowhere near as big as her winning pumpkin.
