Meka Whaitiri never in any doubt

Labour MP Meka Whaitiri takes a selfie with her sons Wirangi Parata (left), 16, and Nohorua Parata, 18, at the Ikaroa-Rawhiti election night party. Photo / Duncan Brown

One of the foregone conclusions of the general election was that former Ngati Kahungunu iwi chief executive Meka Whaitiri would be re-elected to the Maori seat of Ikaroa Rawhiti's MP.

The point was made yesterday by iwi chairman Ngahiwi Tomoana, who was a Maori Party list and Hastings-based Tukituki electorate candidate in 2005, and who knows Ms Whaitiri is a particularly good organiser about to hit her straps after a 16-month apprenticeship since first winning the seat in a by-election last year.

"She had the best team on the ground," Mr Tomoana said. "She had three teams, in Gisborne, in Hastings, and in the Hutt Valley, and they went door-knocking into every community, on every day. It was the result of the sheer hard work."

Just as much, though, Ms Whaitiri had history on her side in spades, particularly in the Kahungunu part of an electoral rohe which stretches across six general electorates from East Coast to Hutt South.

The Hawke's Bay-Wairarapa iwi's people have a Maori MP for 79 of the last 82 years, and if to be threatened in 2014, then internet Mana machinations and crossfire with the Maori Party played into Ms Whaitiri's hands, Mr Tomoana believes.

"The name-calling and the mud-slinging," he said. "The people weren't comfortable with that, so they went back to the mothership."

Aged 49 and raised around Whakatu and Hastings, Ms Whaitiri had an election-night majority of 4279, more than three times that of her by-election win in June last year after the death of East Coaster and former boss Parekura Horomia, who had been MP for 14 years.

Mana Movement candidate Te Hamua Nikora, based in Gisborne but with some particularly active campaigning in Hawke's Bay, had to settle for second place, as he did last year in what was also his first bid for a place in Parliament.

But he wasn't about to raise the white flag, telling followers: "In three years, that's us again."

It came with consoling words for Mana leader Hone Harawira whose defeat in Te Tai Tokerau exited the party from Parliament.

"In my eyes, and the eyes of The Movement, Hone Harawira is still the man!" he wrote on Facebook, with the experience now of two campaigns and seemingly another shot in 2017. "This fella looked after me as I learnt the ropes of electioneering and politics. He made sure I felt safe and was never in over my head."

He told Hawke's Bay Today he pledges his support for Ms Whaitiri and all the other Maori who have been elected, particularly with National Party having shown interest in doing-away-with the Maori seats.

"I'm the sort of guy who's in a race to win," he said of the election result. "It was clear Meka was in front, but I didn't really concede till about 99.9 per cent of the votes were in."

He expects to carry-on with foodbank and clothing bank roles of his Kaiti headquarters in Gisborne, but knows of wishes for him to keep going.

"I'm blown away by the support down there in Hawke's Bay," he said. "Hawke's Bay just jumped onboard with the kaupapa and ran with it."

Votes in Ikaroa Rawhiti totalled 18,820, well up on the low by-election vote and about 600 more than cast in the 2011 general election in the electorate.

Ms Whaitiri polled 8614, Mr Nikora 4335, and Wairarapa-based Maori Party candidate and prospective second Maori Party list MP Marama Fox 3315. Dannevirke-based Green Party representative Henare Kani was delighted to poll fourth with 1840, while independent candidate Cathryn Eden, of Napier, received 196 votes, and Australia-based The Expats representative Vicky Rose 76.

Ikaroa Rawhiti was established in 1999, covering the area of six general electorates from East Coast to Hutt South, and the tribal regions of Ngati Porou -- Potikirua ki Te Toka-a-Taiau, Te Aitangi-a-Mahaki, Rongowhakaata, Ngai Tamanuhiri and Hawke's Bay-Wairarapa iwi Ngati Kahungunu.

In previous years, the Maori electorate including Hawke's Bay was Southern Maori, which included the South Island.

Ms Whaitiri, while helping Labour restore its former major place in Parliament, will have a significant Ngati Kahungunu-tie with Mrs Fox; Ron Mark returning as a New Zealand First MP; new Te Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis, whanau-linked to Ruahapia Marae near Hastings; Te Tai Tonga MP Rino Tirakatene and Green Party list MP Metiria Turei all linked to the iwi.