Former Green Party MP Elizabeth Kerekere says she is excited at the potential opportunity to bring her government experience to a local level.
Kerekere is campaigning to become a Māori ward district councillor in Gisborne’s upcoming local elections.
She said she could offer a “bridge to government”, which no other candidate could bring, and wanted to “hear the voices of different people” that might not always get heard.
Kerekere was elected to Parliament for the Green Party in 2020 but resigned to become an independent MP in 2023 after allegations of bullying.
Speaking to Local Democracy Reporting, Kerekere said she refuted all of the claims.
“Most people don’t believe it because it wasn’t true.
“It is not an unusual thing for an MP to get kicked out of their party because of petty power struggles inside that party.
“So that happened to me. I get on with life. I’ve got better things to do. And for me, running for council is one of those.”
Kerekere said her first experience with central governance was at age 19 on a government advisory group while studying at teachers’ college in Dunedin.
“Governance is something I have been in for decades.”
She wants to use this experience to help clarify the council’s responsibilities to the public.
“Here’s the person in Parliament you need to speak to about this … this infrastructure … that’s us,” she said.
“Council is not responsible for everything, but it definitely gets blamed for everything.”
After finishing her parliamentary term in October 2023, Kerekere reflected on what she wanted to do next.
“What is the best way I can help my whānau? It’s my tribal home. It’s where I was born.”
Kerekere said she had always worked on a national scale, which meant domestic and global travel. However, she wanted to be more local.
“My preference would have been to be local for most of the time, but that’s where my work took me and my income was.”
As part of Ngāti Oneone, Kerekere had been doing overnight shifts with her wife at the hapū protest movement, called “a reclamation of whenua”.
Kerekere is an LGBTIQ activist and scholar. Her doctoral thesis (2017) was on takatāpui identity (Māori who identify with diverse genders and sexualities).
After finishing her parliamentary term, she took a role as an adjunct professor for the School of Health at Victoria University, which allows her to live in Gisborne and fly to Wellington most months to lecture and conduct research.
“Health has been my background for a very long time, particularly in violence [and] suicide prevention, [with a] focus on young people and takatāpui. Of course, Māori all the way across.”
Kerekere is also a sole trader for a business she set up almost 20 years ago, she said.
“I’m an organiser, a project manager, a co-ordinator and a strategist, so people bring me in when they are trying to achieve something.”
When asked why electorates should support her, she said: “If people want the status quo, don’t bring me in. But if you want things to change, bring me in.”
She is the founder/chairwoman of Tīwhanawhana Trust (2001), chairwoman of Kawe Mahara Queer Archives Aotearoa, and on the boards of Mana Tipua and ILGA Oceania – both LGBTIQ organisations.
Understanding the difference between governance, management and operations was essential to a councillor’s role, she said.
“It’s a particular skill set that means you’ve got to make those top decisions and then let it go and let other people put it in place, and sometimes that is difficult for people to do,” Kerekere said.
When asked if she was bringing a Green voice to the council, she said she would be a Māori voice, which is “inherently green in the sense of protecting Papatūānuku [the earth mother]”.
“So, in terms of council, then … what’s our wastewater? That’s not sexy, but it directly feeds into the quality of our rivers and our beach.”
Kerekere said connecting the council with services that looked after young people and ensuring youths had a place to go, such as drop-in centres, would be a focus for her.
“We’ve got incredible agencies here that work with young people in different ways, particularly for our rangatahi [and] takatāpui/rainbow … places where kids can just go because sometimes home is not the safest place.”
She also wants to help bring back a form of youth council, designed by youth themselves to boost youth engagement with the council.
“It shouldn’t be old people deciding what young people need. Go and ask them, ‘Is this the best way for you to have representation’?”
Kerekere said it was her youth activism and doing these kinds of roles when she was young that was the basis for her “complete confidence” in youth and “what they can achieve if they’re given the support they need”.
Kerekere was among 11 candidates standing for the five Māori ward seats.
Local Democracy Reporting is local-body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
