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Te Tai Tokerau voters face a changed political line-up this year, with sitting MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi seeking re-election under her newly established Te Tai Tokerau Party.
Announced candidates for the country’s northernmost Māori electorate include Kapa-Kingi, current Labour list MP Willow-Jean Prime, Green list MP Hūhana Lyndon, Te Pāti Māori newcomer Aperahama Edwards and Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party candidate Maki Herbert.
Kapa-Kingi won the seat in the last election, defeating Labour’s Kelvin Davis by 517 votes.
Kapa-Kingi launched the Te Tai Tokerau Party in May this year after a dispute with Te Pāti Māori’s leadership over parliamentary funding and public criticism of the party. She had been expelled last November, but the High Court overturned that decision in March, finding the party had failed to follow its own constitution and tikanga. She subsequently chose to leave.
If re-elected, Kapa-Kingi says her priorities would include securing funding and resources for the electorate, strengthening Māori-led healthcare and establishing Te Ture Mokopuna, legislation that would require the Government and public bodies to consider the wellbeing of current and future generations when making major decisions.
She also advocates developing a local hemp-based building industry to train rangatahi and provide warmer, healthier homes.
“I’m standing to ensure Te Tai Tokerau has a voice at the table and the mandate to shape our own future,” she says.
Prime, who grew up in Moerewa and is of Ngāpuhi descent, is standing after Davis’s retirement from politics in February 2024.
A former Far North district councillor, she entered Parliament in 2017 and held the Northland seat from 2020 to 2023. Her priorities include the cost of living, employment, health and housing.
She says Labour’s proposed free doctor’s visits and expanded Apprenticeship Boost would help whānau access healthcare and create pathways into work.
“I want to use that experience and influence to open doors and get results for Te Tai Tokerau,” she says.
Hūhana Lyndon is once again standing for the Greens, while Te Pāti Māori has selected Ngātiwai leader Aperahama Edwards to contest the seat. Edwards chaired the Ngātiwai Trust Board while Lyndon was its chief executive, and his work spans Māori rights advocacy, iwi and hapū development, te reo Māori revitalisation and ocean conservation.
