MAKE IT COUNT: With voting day less than two months out, Tukituki candidates are questioned. PHOTO/FILE
Anna Lorck, Labour
Why should people vote for you?
Like you, I'm local. I'm here, working hard for you. I'm offering a real point of difference with a "can-do" approach to putting people first, with positive action, new energy and fresh vision. I believe in giving people a fair go and care about your local community. I lead locally and have gone strong on the important issues facing us, I break through the regional boundaries and get our voice to the decision makers. Look at what I have achieved so far without being in office, imagine what I will do for you as your local MP.
What is the single most pressing need in your electorate?
Fresh water - for the health of our people and growing our region. We need a new secure drinking water source, water to feed our farm animals and grow our crops, swimmable rivers and we must stop giving our water away for free to export for private profit.
Housing is also a real priority, we need to build more homes for all budgets, this will benefit local residents, first home buyers, those in need of warm, secure, affordable housing and it will help Hastings attracting people to live, work, invest in business and grow more jobs here.
What's your top strength for this role?
I've earned my political reputation for focusing on the local issues that matter to you by empowering, enabling people and leading positive outcomes. My tenacious attitude, passion and drive to getting things done sets me apart. I never give up and always do my best. I will stand up strong for what I believe in, for the people I represent.
Who's your most respected New Zealand politician (living or dead) and why?
Annette King, both professionally and personally. She is a great role model and fantastic mentor. I'm incredibly grateful for all her support and guidance she is giving me.
What's the biggest risk you've ever taken?
Giving birth in the car. It wasn't a risk I intended to take, but at the time I remember feeling how my new baby's life could be in real danger and what I must do, if we couldn't reach the hospital in time. I will never forget hearing her cry for the first time when I gently blew into her little face, knowing she was perfect and safe in my arms.
Chris Perley, Greens
Why should people vote for you?
The Green Party believes in building and creating rather than exploiting and extracting. Healthy communities and economies depend upon a healthy environment. The Havelock North water crisis demonstrated that truth very clearly. We have not been building and creating for the last three decades. We have been mining our children's future for the benefit of the few and for an economy dominated by the power and the unscrupulous. People around the world are waking up. There is a better vision.
What is the single most pressing need in your electorate?
Social wellbeing is top of the pack, and relates to so many highly linked issues. We have people with potential not being realised because they struggle in a low wage and high underemployment economy, and now lack hope. That is stupid and visionless economics because on top of their lost potential and the lost local business multipliers, we face higher social and environmental costs. Returning to a fair and more equal society is good business. It just requires us shifting our political focus away from treating our land, waters and people as things to exploit and pollute for the benefit of a few, toward realising potential.
What's your top strength for this role?
I focus on issues, listen to people in order to learn, and seek to understand the root causes, and how things connect. My background across rural and regional landscapes, communities and economies is both broad and deep. I am far more interested in solving things and creating potential than petty ego.
Who's your most respected New Zealand politician (living or dead) and why?
Marilyn Wearing because of her genuine concern for social justice, depth and breadth of thinking, and for her character in standing up to power.
What's the biggest risk you've ever taken?
The biggest risk I have taken is to stand up to untruth and unethical behaviour with serious consequence to my own health, wellbeing and financial position.
Dick Ryan, Democrats for Social Credit
Why should people vote for you?
I don't rate my chances against the redoubtable Anna Lorck, who I am sure will serve us ably, but I would dearly love voters to tick my party vote to show the major parties they do not approve of our abysmal economic system.
What is the single most pressing need in your electorate?
The most important need, as it is for all NZ, is to take back from the private, and for the most part, overseas owned, banks, the creation of our money which is holding most of us to ransom. So we can slough off the neo liberal, market oriented, drive to inequality that all governments have espoused for thirty years.
What's your top strength for this role?
It is not for nought that the old codgers of Social Credit, on whose shoulders I proudly stand, wore a green key in their lapels. They knew that without monetary reform we would never rise out of the debt quagmire we flounder in today. I discovered this truth after three years directing the Commission for the Future.
Who's your most respected New Zealand politician (living or dead) and why?
The monetary reformer Bryan Gould, who, had he won the UK leadership contest against Tony Blair, would have altered for the better, the desperate middle east crises. He is a Kiwi but if being in the political milieu abroad doesn't count, then John A Lee who influenced the first Labour government to use social credit to emerge first and best dressed from the Great Depression. Funding state housing we can only envy today, the milk marketing board which never looked back and a welfare state the envy of the whole world.
What's the biggest risk you've ever taken?
After 25 years of active service in the Fleet Air Arm, the only risk I take today is cycling in traffic.
Lawrence Yule, National
Why should people vote for you?
I am passionate about serving the people of Tukituki as I have been doing for 15 years as mayor. I am experienced, hardworking and would be a proven voice within a highly successful political party. The New Zealand economy is in the best shape it has been for decades thanks to strong financial management by Bill English and the National led government. Due to the Government's prudent financial measures we are in a strong position to address people's concern around the environment, health, education and housing.
What is the single most pressing need in your electorate?
A way forward to address all things water; ensuring we have safe drinking water, providing water storage solutions for our primary industries and protecting our most precious resource for future generations.
What's your top strength for this role?
I have a real passion to help people and am dedicated to the Hawke's Bay region. Having spent the last nine years interacting with Parliament and ministers as president of Local Government New Zealand I am well placed to advocate on behalf of the people in Tukituki. This was demonstrated last year when we advocated for more police which resulted in 67 new positions in the Eastern region.
Who's your most respected New Zealand politician (living or dead) and why?
Sir John Key was one those rare individuals who was very popular, intelligent, talented and down to earth in one package. He was determined to do the best for New Zealand and most would say he succeeded.
What's the biggest risk you've ever taken?
There have been many but; I believe if you don't take the occasional risk, you may never reach your full potential.
'The pain was out of this world. I’d rather give birth.'