'It's an inequality': Electorate size adds to Ikaroa-Rāwhiti woes

The Māori electorate Ikaroa-Rāwhiti, which ranges from isolated rural settlements to struggling urban centres, is up for grabs. Mata Reports takes a tiki tour from Matakaoa in the north to Wainuiomata in the south to speak to the people about the issues that will decide their vote.

Voters in Ikaroa-Rāwhiti are facing major challenges and former politician Marama Fox says the sheer scale of the vast Māori electorate doesn't help.

The former Te Pāti Māori co-leader says the electorate, which stretches 600km from Wharekahika/Hicks Bay in the north to Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai/Lower Hutt in the south, is too big for a single MP to have a handle on every community.

“You’re always gonna get ripped in a Māori seat for not being there, because your seat is so huge," she told Mata Reports.

"I might be in Wainuiomata one day, but something’s happening up in Gizzy [Gisborne] at the same time, and all they see is you’re not there. It doesn’t matter where you are, you’re just not there."

Fox says voters in the electorate have come to expect their MP to seem absent, given the size of the region and the difficulty in making their face familiar to voters.

"[It’s not] a small, concentrated electorate where you can drive around in one day. You are driving 14 hours.

“It’s an inequality, it’s been an inequality since the day that [the Māori electorates] were established as seats for our people."

Fox says Māori voters often feel their Government doesn't acknowledge them until a tragedy like Cyclone Gabrielle strikes. She adds there's also a level of doubt they can change that relationship.

“They don’t see the impact of central government decision-making and legislation on their lives, although it does [impact them]. [That is] until they’re hurting, and when they’re hurting they’ll rise up and they’ll change governments because they’ve had enough.

"I do believe though, on the other hand, there is this apathy of our people that they can’t make a change, so why bother? Because 200 years has shown it doesn’t matter who is sitting in the top seat, our lives are still here - still at the bottom of health statistics, on housing statistics."

Ikaroa-Rāwhiti has consistently voted for a Labour Party MP since the electorate was formed in 1999, but it has been under the microscope since its current MP crossed the floor earlier this year.

Meka Whaitiri stunned Labour when she defected to Te Pati Māori in May.

"It's my responsibility as a Māori to return back to a political movement that unashamedly is proud to be Māori," she told Breakfast at the time.

She will be replacing her cousin, Heather Te-Au Skipworth, as the Māori Party candidate for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti.

Labour has since picked Cushla Tangaere-Manuel to represent the party in the electorate, hoping that her influence as a Māori broadcaster and Ngāti Porou East Coast rugby union chief executive will help push her over the line.

The candidate who does win on October 14 will be representing an electorate facing old inequalities and a raft of new issues, post-Cyclone Gabrielle.

Locals in Tokomaru Bay are grappling with the ongoing effects of the perpetual leases of their ancestral whenua and the "peppercorn rents" they receive for them.

Rural communities like Wharekahika need better roads and preventive measures for when extreme weather leaves them isolated, while the main street of Gisborne also needs revitalisation.

Flood survivors in Esk Valley remain displaced, their homes buried in silt.

All this, plus nationwide issues such as a cost of living crisis, a housing crisis, a mental health crisis and a climate crisis presenting itself in several forms, will fall to the responsibility of a single MP.

In an electorate where 80% of voters earn less than $50,000, Ikaroa-Rāwhiti voters are humble, community-driven and hopeful.

Residents say they just want a fair chance at a good life, and someone that's present enough to make it happen.

Gisborne radio host Matai Smith told Mata Reports he wants an MP who's "on the ground".

"Certainly, Meka Whaitiri [was there] during the pandemic and also during Cyclone Gabrielle, but it's at those other times when we're kind of forgotten about, y'know?"

Land owner Tracey Taraka of Tokomaru Bay wants her MP to stand up for what's right.

"Enough is enough. Help us to get our whenua back, undo the wrongs of the past, and let us as the owners and the shareholders rebuild our community for our whānau and for our generations to come."

Rikki Reed Davis, now known locally as the Esk Valley Taniwha for his remarkable survival up a tree during the cyclone in February, wants an MP that asks the community - not a parliamentary colleague - what it needs.

"You're better off asking locals from your area than sitting in your office and asking a consultant about what we should do somewhere that that person's never been," he told Mata Reports.

One Voice founder Lynsey Abbott has been on the ground supporting Gabrielle survivors in Esk Valley and had an even stronger message for the next MP of Ikaroa-Rāwhiti.

"We need you to be our voice. We need you to stand strong and behind our people, and around our people," she says.

"We need help. Our people need help, and you can give us that help. Fight for our people."

Watch Mata Reports' journey across Ikaroa-Rāwhiti in the video above.