Seniors Minister Tracey Martin addresses Grey Power Rotorua members

Seniors Minister Tracey Martin speaks to Grey Power members in Rotorua. Photo / Andrew Warner

Despite calls for the Seniors Minister to "do something" about the Rotorua Lakes Council, Tracey Martin has reaffirmed the best way to tackle all issues facing older people is for the Government to set up a Commissioner for Seniors.

Seniors Ministers Tracey Martin, a New Zealand First MP, talked with about 50 Rotorua Grey Power members at Linton Party Community Centre yesterday as part of a visit to the region.

Among the "pet peeves" and issues facing seniors that were mentioned, increasing rates and the rates rebate system were among them.

One Grey Power member at the meeting asked Martin what she could do as the Seniors Minister to support older people with issues of rising rates, on the back of what he believed was too much "empire-building and fighting among themselves" by the council.

In response, Martin said: "They are yours, you voted for them, they won a majority and they have got the vote. I can't wander in as the Minister for Seniors and say sorry fellas you are all out."

However, she said any such issues - including others raised by those at the meeting including the phasing out of cheques, the digital revolution, health and disability and affordable housing - could all be driven better if there was a Commissioner for Seniors who had the same power as the Commissioner for Children.

She said it was something she strongly advocated for and it would allow the Commissioner to hold the Government to account.

Seniors Minister Tracey Martin speaks to Grey Power members in Rotorua. Photo / Andrew Warner

She said she had one team of six staff with a budget of just over $1 million to deal with seniors' issues, which was out of whack considering by 2034 seniors would make up more than 1 million people and would account for more than a fifth of the country's population.

"You will outnumber under 16-year-olds and it should have a much bigger budget. It should be its own ministry."

She said if New Zealand First was back in Government after the election, she would be pushing for a Commissioner for Seniors.

She said seniors were often given a raw deal, evident during lockdown when director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield kept referring to them as "vulnerable seniors".

She said she asked him to address the messages as not all seniors were vulnerable.

She said as a result of older people being asked to stay home two weeks earlier than the rest of the country, some seniors who were fit and healthy copped flack from people for being out getting their groceries, including hearing from one person who had a neighbour threaten to slash the woman's tyres if she went to the supermarket again.

"That is elder abuse."

Martin was running 15 minutes late for the meeting, so to fill in the time Rotorua Grey Power president Miriam Ruberl - who also noted the biscuits for the afternoon tea were also running late - asked those present to outline their "pet peeves".

Those from the floor responded by saying loneliness, rates rises, podiatry issues, the way seniors are treated in the health system, and the digital age.

One woman said: "I object to all the arty farty things going on around town, we need to look at our sewerage going into our lake. This council has sold off the basics, the rubbish tip, the parking, the gardens. We need to get back to the basics. Most of the rates I feel we are paying for the tourist."

Martin is also the Associate Education Minister and earlier in the day she visited Tarawera High School in Kawerau to launch new learning support for students with extra learning needs.

The high school is among the first schools in the country to have access to the Te Rito learning support register.

Te Rito has national learner data that helps the safe and secure transfer of information between schools.

Twenty education providers in the Pūtauaki ki Rangitaiki Kāhui Ako [Community of Learning] cluster, from the Kawerau, Edgecumbe, Murupara, Te Teko and Matatā areas, helped the Ministry of Education develop the register.

"I wanted to meet with the Kāhui Ako today to hear how the register will help them, their schools, kura and early childhood education centres, plan for and support the unique needs of children and young people in their community," Martin said in a press release.

"I also wanted to thank them for supporting the delivery of [the register] in this early stage deployment. They are providing invaluable feedback based on their experiences, to help to shape the further deployment of [the register] across New Zealand."