Meet the candidates: Harete Hipango hoping for second term in Whanganui

Harete Hipango says she's "laid the foundations" over the past three years to continue in her role as MP for Whanganui. Photo / Bevan Conley

Harete Hipango says she is confident the work that's been done in the electorate over the past three years will be enough to convince voters to send her back to Parliament.

The first-term National Party MP is running for a second term after winning her way into Parliament in 2017 by 1706 votes over Labour's Steph Lewis when both were new candidates.

Hipango said election issues had remained the same in "the nearly six decades" of her life, but the impact of Covid-19 had "heightened them" in 2020.

"Even today, six months later, we are still getting daily reports about the number of Covid cases," Hipango said.

"What are we getting in terms of those who have had heart conditions, cancer conditions, elective surgeries, all of which went into total lockdown for that four weeks?

"Hospitals were shut down here in Whanganui and many of our people have seen their comorbidities compromised by the fact that they couldn't get access to hospital secondary healthcare. None of that was reported. It's dire, and it concerns me."

Hipango said that while all political parties talked about the economy and what the best path was to recovery from the impact of Covid-19, her primary focus was how it would affect people "on the ground".

"I always bring it back to the grassroots, where I'm from, and how something like Covid-19 will impact people's abilities to feed their families.

"That links into jobs, that links into businesses being able to sustain and retain staff, and the important thing is to make sure we still have opportunities for employment moving forward."

The southern and northern ends of the Whanganui electorate were "very different", Hipango said, and some people didn't realise "the scale and the scope" of the work it took to "cover everything" as MP.

Hipango said she had "laid the foundation" as MP for the past three years, and the work she had done hadn't necessarily been strictly National Party business.

"The advocacy and negotiations I did to help secure the $25.5 million funding for the Sarjeant Gallery is an example of that.

"People will say that it isn't addressing our social issues, and no it's not, but it's an opportunity to open up bigger pathways for our tourism and regional economic growth."

Hipango said she was backing her "lifelong relationships and connections" in the electorate, along with "cross-party associations" in Parliament.

"I was talking to two older ladies while I was campaigning the other day, one of whom I recognised as a nurse in the paediatric department. She was surprised, because that was going back around 30 years, but I said it was because I remember our people.

"I happen to be an MP for the National Party, but Whanganui always comes first."