Election 2023: Labour candidates Tāmati Coffey and Cushla Tangaere-Manuel hit the ground on the East Coast

Tāmati Coffey has abandoned retirement plans and is standing for the East Coast electorate. Photo / Andrew Warner

By Te Ao Māori News

Former Waiariki MP Tāmati Coffey says he is ready to fight for the East Coast.

“It’s going to be a short, sharp campaign. I’m ready for it,” he told Te Ao Māori News after flying into Gisborne on Thursday.

He and fellow Labour Party candidate, Ikaroa-Rāwhiti hopeful Cushla Tangaere-Manuel, are traversing State Highway 35 seeking votes from locals hit hard by the wild weather throughout this year.

Tangaere-Manuel, a proud Ngāti Porou uri, said the journey was about seeking the “blessing” of the East Coast people and supporting each other’s campaigns.

“I te wā i tae atu au ki te Whare Paremata mō tētahi paku whakatau, i reira a Tāmati. Mai i taua wā kua tino tautoko ia i ahau.”

(When I arrived at Parliament for a little whakatau, Tāmati was there. And from that moment onwards he has been supporting me.)

Needs ‘an experienced champion’

Labour has committed $257 million towards repairing SH35 – the only link for residents to the rest of the country.

“The East Coast has been through so much this year and it needs an experienced champion in Parliament,” Coffey said.

After announcing his planned retirement earlier this year, he put his hand up to replace good friend and current East Coast MP Kiritapu Allan, who will step down at the election after recent controversies and health issues.

He has Allan’s support to campaign for the seat she won in 2020, defeating National candidate and current Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell, by more than 6000 votes.

“I asked her for her support, she gave me her support and she was there at my confirmation as well as the candidate.”

Whanau connection

He now has a little under three months to win the seat and see off the challenges of National’s Dana Kirkpatrick, Jordan Walker of the Greens, Michael Howe of Act and DemocracyNZ’s Chris Robinson.

The campaign is also a chance for Coffey to reinforce his paternal roots on the East Coast.

The pair’s first stop was at Uawa (Tolaga Bay), where his grandmother Lucy hails from. Speaking to a packed audience at the fire station, he revealed another close connection to their soon-to-be former MP.

“Kiritapu has a daughter, Hiwaiterangi. I am Hiwaiterangi’s dad.”

Despite living in Rotorua, he is determined to win the East Coast seat, which stretches from Gisborne, around the East Cape to Maketū in the west and a southern boundary that encompasses Murupara and parts of Te Urewera. Its population centres include Whakatāne, Ōpōtiki, Kawerau and Edgecumbe.

Coffey has already appeared to win over some Ngāti Porou-based East Coast voters, confirming Waiapu as the correct river referred to in the song Pōkarekare Ana – a source of contention between the East Coast tribe and those of his mother’s people of Rotorua.