A day on the campaign trail with Arena Williams

“Whatever party is in power, we need to always focus on designing an economy which works for people at the bottom.” 

Arena Williams, the young MP for the Manurewa electorate, is no stranger to campaigns, having started her political involvement as a door knocker for the New Zealand Labour party at the age of 17 and eventually winning her electorate in 2014 at the age of 24. In this second part of the election series, we spent a day with Arena to see what campaigning is like for her in the lead up to the elections. Growing up in South Auckland, she understands the needs of her people, the grassroots level campaign needed to reach them and the need to bring more young people into Parliament. 

“I think we really need to think carefully about making decisions for young people when those young people’s voices are not around the decision making table.” 

This election Ohinga spent a day on the campaign with Māori candidates from National, Labour, the Green Party and Te Pati Māori (we’re still waiting to hear back from ACT and NZ First) to learn about what motivates the candidates.

This is part of our reo Māori series, Ohinga, created by Mahi Tahi Media, with funding from Te Māngai Pāho. Stay tuned for the rest of the special Election series in the lead up to October 14 General Election.

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