Election 2023: New Zealand First candidate for Tauranga Erika Harvey on Local Focus Candidate Camera | T-10 NEWS

Erika Harvey is back as NZ First’s candidate in the Tauranga electorate. Since the last election, she has had a second baby and helped form a WhatsApp group to combat crime in Bethlehem and Otūmoetai, which she says has been very effective.

“The crime here has drastically reduced,” she said. “We’ve started to catch some of the people breaking in, and we’ve figured out how they’re doing it.”

Other big issues for Harvey are making sure Tauranga City Council elections happen as soon as possible and solving transport woes.

Like the Labour Party, NZ First has a policy to remove GST from food. But there will be no coalition with Labour.

“We’re not going to partner with anyone who has racist or separatist policies,” Harvey said, citing the new Māori Health Authority, Te Aka Whai Ora, as an example. Harvey does not believe it is a solution to fixing decades of poor Māori health outcomes. Instead, she favours giving Māori a “hand up, not a hand out”.

Harvey said NZ First does not see co-governance as a core element of the Treaty of Waitangi. She prefers to see it as saying that “we are all one people”.

Watch the Local Focus video to see all of Erika Harvey’s answers on a range of important subjects.