The campaign for votes in Gisborne for the upcoming election is heating up, with six Māori MPs making the trip to the region.
Today’s debate kicked off at the press conference and it was Claudette Hauiti who found herself on the receiving end regarding oil exploration permits threatening the Maui dolphins.
In New Zealand, the national unemployment rate sits at 7.1%. In Gisborne, it's 9.3%, while for the Māori population here it's 16.1%.
Mayor Meng Foon says small towns like Gisborne don't receive the same amount of Government funding as bigger towns.
“They don't allocate to us enough funds to fix our roads or the rail line for our trains from Napier to Gisborne.”
Another topic of the debate was whether the Māori parliamentary seats should be entrenched in legislation.
The General Election is heating up and there is no doubt these candidates are hungry.