Election 2020: Waiariki Maori Party candidate Rawiri Waititi fighting for a voice

Rawiri Waititi is the Māori Party candidate for Waiariki. Photo / Supplied

"I think for Māori, we operate better in a chaotic world," says Rawiri Waititi, who knows better than most just what that means right now.

Waititi, the Māori Party's Waiariki electorate candidate, has been campaigning hard and on latest polling is snapping at the heels of Labour Party candidate Tāmati Coffey.

The party is fighting to get back into Parliament and Waititi says it's important for there to be Māori voices that are not part of mainstream parties. He believes that the current political system does not work and an unapologetic Māori voice in Parliament is a necessity.

'We've got to make sure our voice is heard, whether it's one voice or more. We're always told: if you have something to say, take to your feet and say it."

Waititi says transformational change for a new Aotearoa that puts Māori voices at the forefront of decision-making should not be threatening to New Zealanders of other ethnicities.

"For those who have been on a marae and experienced manaakitanga they realise that's how we operate.

"We look after people with absolute respect, we make sure that they are hosted and looked after by us and that's how Māori would look after all people, not just Māori."

"We have a lot of Pākehā supporters who also know that where we are wanting to head is to move our people off welfare and into wellbeing and in order to do that, we must have some targeted policies to do that with the most marginalised and disenfrancised people that are Māori.

"There are smart, clever people out there that understand that, and also understand that a whole lot of the policies, for example around housing, are vitally important for moving us forward as a country."

Rawiri affiliates to Te-Whānau-a-Apanui and is based at Whangaparoa, near Cape Runaway. He acknowledges that having him running for Parliament is hard on the whānau but his wife is the daughter of Māori Party co-leader John Tamihere and the family has always been politically minded.

"I want to see a better Aotearoa for my tamariki and mokopuna, to effect some systemic change in Parliament.

"We need to do things differently and this is what I bring. I'm grassroots. I'm a hunter, I'm a fisherman, I'm a diver, I play rugby, I work on my marae, do dishes, clean toilets, do whaikorero, I'm bilingual. These are the skills and the tools that I bring to this particular role and if people are attracted to that then so be it."

Asked to name a change, Waititi says reforming the electoral system, which allows people to jump from the general roll to the Māori roll and back, would be a start. The Waiariki electorate is massive and the amount of work to be done is vast - and it's not even the largest Māori electorate.

"We need to have a system that ensures that the indigenous voice is not lost."

Waititi says issues in Waiariki include housing, although homelessness is nothing to do with housing and a lot to do with mental health. He wants to see a move to Māori models of care. Employment, Treaty grievances and the long delays for justice are others.