In the lead-up to the election, Newshub is featuring profiles of some of the main candidates running in some of the most contested electorate seats around the country.
This week we are looking at Tāmaki in East Auckland.
It is shaping up to be a fight on the right, a seat that has been a National stronghold has ACT vying to swoop in and take the crown.
For 63 years straight National has held the Tāmaki electorate, 12 of those years under incumbent Simon O'Connor who is well established in the electorate.
But newcomer Brooke van Velden, deputy of the ACT Party, has quickly made her mark in Parliament and has her eyes set on bringing a new voice and change to the electorate.
National has held the seat in Tāmaki since 1960, with O'Connor winning the seat with a margin of roughly 8000 votes last election. Meanwhile, ACT's previous candidate Carmel Claridge secured just 5.3 percent of the vote in 2020.
However, this election van Velden has taken over and is running a strong campaign to expand the party's influence in East Auckland.
ACT has held the seat in the neighbouring suburb of Epsom - currently held by its leader David Seymour - since 2005.
Labour's candidate for Tāmaki is Fesaitu Solomone, who is taking over from Shirin Brown who came in second last election with 32.9 percent of the vote.
If elected, Solomone hopes to create a more tolerant and accepting community in Tāmaki.
Infrastructure seems to be a hot topic among the candidates. O'Connor wants to ensure new housing is developed that is "sympathetic" to Tāmaki's existing communities, support schools to get new rooms and facilities, and improve transport options.
As Tāmaki's MP, he has advocated for local causes such as successfully lobbying to have the policy changed around housing density and pushing back on Auckland Transport's idea to remove 25 percent of parking in the Eastern Bays.
However, van Velden said it has taken too long to deliver infrastructure in the electorate. If elected, she wants to deliver infrastructure quicker by getting rid of the new Natural and Built Environments Act and replacing it with legislation based on property rights as well as sharing GST from new housing with councils so they can afford to build more infrastructure. "Out of control" crime is also a big issue van Velden pledges to focus on.
Solomone also wants to work to address housing and crime in Tāmaki as well as health and education.
Here's what Tāmaki's candidates have to say:
Q: Why have you chosen to run for Tāmaki?
Simon O'Connor: "Tāmaki is my home and has been for years. I am married and have five step kids, and this is where we have chosen to live as a family. It is a vibrant, encouraging, and beautiful place to live. It is also the place I have proudly served as MP for twelve years. In that time, I have advocated for many local causes and helped thousands of locals. I found the funds to start the Glen Innes to Tamaki Drive shared pathway and more recently, I heard locals’ concerns around housing density and successfully lobbied to have that policy changed, with National announcing new and positive housing ideas for the likes of Auckland."
Brooke van Velden: "I grew up in Auckland, it’s where I call home. I'm running in Tāmaki because people kept asking me to. They were fed up with being poorly represented in parliament and wanted a fresh choice. They wanted an MP who works night and day for them, just as David Seymour does in Epsom. That’s my commitment to the people of Tamaki.
I want to give the people of Tāmaki a stronger voice in Wellington and a change for the better.
But first, I want to listen, and that's what I've been doing and dozens of street-corner meetings and while out door knocking in the electorate since I first announced I was standing."
Fesaitu Solomone: "Tāmaki electorate needs someone like me who is willing to serve ALL from the ground up and understands people regardless of status, background, ethnicity, rich or poor and advocate in key areas of health, crime, housing and education. Use that knowledge and understanding to advocate in Parliament to create better policies that will have meaningful impact for the electorate. It is also an opportunity to change and shift perception of certain groups of people within the electorate to create a more tolerant and accepting community."
Q: What is the first thing you will do for your electorate if voted in?
Brooke van Velden: "Tāmaki is an awesome place to live with great communities, but it faces some real challenges. It takes too long to deliver infrastructure, we have to contend with raw sewage on our beaches. And crime is out-of-control. Crime will be one of the issues we will want to focus on immediately, we'll get rid of the new Natural and Built Environments Act and replace it with an Act based on property rights that makes it easier to get things done, and we'll share GST from new housing with Councils so they can afford to build the infrastructure a growing population needs."
Fesaitu Solomone: "Set up an office and base accessible to everyone and work to address areas of crime, health, education, housing and continue to support the policies that will create a more successful Tāmaki."
Simon O'Connor: "I will continue to tirelessly serve our community as I have since first being elected. Every day I am meeting with locals, listening to their needs, taking their concerns to Parliament, and helping sort locals’ issues from housing to health, immigration to council requests, and everything else in-between. Over my twelve years of being MP here, I have successfully taken local ideas back to parliament as well as working with our local council to see improvements completed along Tamaki Drive, in our parks, and waterways. It was my public meeting a few years back that saw 600+ locals turn out to successfully push back on crazy parking ideas by AT in the Eastern Bays, including plans to remove over 25 percent of all carparks."
Q: What is your long-term goal for the electorate?
Fesaitu Solomone:
• Advocating for policies to enable first home buyers and ownership pathway for everyone
• Have providers working and based on-site within the electorate to address areas of mental health, education support, social issues, rainbow, elderly support etc
• Partner with local board, funders, govt to build a bigger fale for all communities including Māori, Pacific and other minority communities, rainbow, migrants, refugees, youth can utilise for their programs and gatherings to strengthen community ties.
• Create targeted youth programs led by young people in collaboration with churches, local board, iwis, maraes, pacific community groups and organisations to support and increase young people participation in sports, leadership and volunteering redirecting them from lives of crime and activities that can create harm for our communities.
Simon O'Connor: "To see the aspects of our community – that make it so popular and desirable to live in - remain. This includes ensuring we develop new housing that is sympathetic to our existing communities; supporting our schools get new rooms and facilities; improve our transport options; and continuing to support and celebrate our locals groups such as our Community Patrol (which I assisted set-up), sports clubs, and many others. I am also keen to ensure we address the health of the Hauraki Gulf and protect our existing green spaces."
Brooke van Velden: "I want Tāmaki to be a safe, thriving community where everyone has an equal chance to get ahead and make a decent life for themselves and their family. I want the people of Tāmaki to have access to top quality health and education services, where it's easy to see a GP when you need one and your kids get taught the skills they need to thrive in our modern world - things like science, maths and English. And I want the people of Tāmaki to have an MP they can come to any time and who will work hard to represent them in Wellington."
Q: What did you do before politics?
Simon O'Connor: "I worked for Southern Cross Health Society, negotiating often multi-million dollar contracts with doctors, specialists, and hospitals. This was to assist reducing insurance premiums for policy holders. Prior to that I was very involved in the community and voluntary sector, having done everything from prison chaplaincy to counselling, working in homeless shelters to spending two years running a vocational training centre in Fiji, amongst many other things – too long a list to write here!"
Brooke van Velden: "My first job was on the factory floor making light fittings (what your light bulb screws into). I made them from start to finish – measuring and cutting wires, drilling the metal extrusions, assembling, quality testing, and ending the day boxing them up for delivery. It was pretty blokey (I was the only woman) but I was one of the team.
I studied economics and international trade at the University of Auckland. This is when I became an ACT supporter. Economics opened up my mind to alternative solutions to the big issues we face today, such as poverty and the environment. After university I worked as a corporate affairs consultant for Government relations company Exceltium. I then spent three years in Wellington writing, negotiating and passing the End of Life Choice Act through Parliament with David Seymour. I worked on this law because I believe in choice, dignity and respect for all people at all stages of their lives, including for people suffering terribly from a terminal illness."
Fesaitu Solomone:
• Community Volunteer
• Business Owner/Consultant (bgd in Media)
• Rotuman Language Educator/Translator
• Emerging Writer/Poet
• Governance member
Watch the candidates full debate on Newshub Nation in the video above.
