Tauranga residents will get to vote for a new member of parliament on June 18, after National's Simon Bridges retired from politics after 14 years as MP.
In this Local Focus interview, Labour candidate Jan Tinetti talks about the issues facing the region including the rising cost of living, youth
crime rates and the city's struggling infrastructure.
Tinetti challenges views that Tauranga should just keep building roads to fix its never-ending gridlock.
"We have an issue with climate change and we can't afford to be just building roads," she said.
"That is part of the solution but if we just build roads, we know that the research tells us that we will have more cars and eventually those roads will be clogged as well."
