KELLY TAHIWI
Kelly Tahiwi is running for a seat on the District Council table for the Levin Ward.
“I have a heart and passion for our community.
“I am on the ground, I am active, I am present and engaged – I just want to see our community do good, for our community to be valued and for our community to love our place.
“I come from an education background, been on a few local governance boards and as a family, we have been operating our family businesses in the Horowhenua for over 20 years.
“I have been lucky enough to work closely with community and council on events. I want to be part of solutions, to be strategic in our direction, to be responsive and put community wellbeing at the heart of council decisions.
“The last five years have seen unprecedented changes, our growth is projected to be the largest in the country over the next 20 years.
“Growth is here, so let’s embrace it, with strategic, sensible future proofed development that will enable our place to retain its essence – mountains to the moana outlook – with all our communities thriving.
“I believe council should retain ownership of Three Waters. I support the principles of Three Waters Reform that all people deserve good drinking water. But I am hesitant to support a model that takes the decision making out of the hands of local community and adds more complexity for community to have their voice, this along with the matters around privatisation (even though their are protection measures in the legislation).
“I support the closure of the landfill. Ho¯ kio has endured the waste (solid and water) of the community for too long. However, we will still be left with the ongoing leachate and monitoring of the landfill site. I do not support the trucking of our rubbish to another district, and see this as a short term contingency.
“I support the council increasing recycling options. I would like to see the council promote and socialise recycling, cleaning and making sure we are all recycling properly.
“I am shocked our recycling efforts have been going to the landfill. I would like to see the council have dual public rubbish bins – one for general waste and one for recycling.
“I would like to see the council advocate and support initiatives for Pasifika and iwi providers to enter into the social housing market and home ownership.
“I see central government and local government working with community organisations and business and leveraging off their capacity to meet our housing needs.
‘‘The council has an advocacy role to support access to GPs and better health services for our community.
“The Community Wellbeing strategy enables the council to again work collectively with these groups, and when needed can use different community levers to make change for the wellbeing outcomes of our community.
“I am encouraged by the different services we have now and in particular the opening of a Nurse Practitioners Clinic in partnership with a local GP provider, the health shuttle and others, these are evidence of our community resilience to find solutions. ‘I support increased transport options. I believe it is the role of the council to lobby and advocate to the Regional Council for better transport options including linking our communities to our main centres. I would also like to push for more shared pathways to encourage the use of cycling and walking.
‘‘I support the expressway. It is going to be a definite game changer.
“Horowhenua will become a destination, it will remove heavy transport from our town centres and lower the number on rural areas in particular our marae and areas of high accidents. The town centre will be transformed.
‘‘Over the last three years, I think our community has done an awesome job of working together, especially during the tornado – it was truly heartening to see our community come out and contribute to the effort, with the leadership of the council. ‘‘That’s the Horowhenua we are, and that ... I want to be part of. I also want to be part of a leadership team that restores our lake, so we can truly be proud of living in Horowhenua.’’