Ngāti Ruanui recruits rangatahi to close voter gap

Ngāti Ruanui has enlisted a team of rangatahi to boost numbers of younger voters.

The South Taranaki iwi says campaigners in their late teens and early twenties can reach young would-be voters in ways older recruiters can’t.

Fewer than half of 18-24 year old Māori are enrolled on the general or Māori roll in the Whanganui electorate area, which includes most of Ngāti Ruanui’s rohe.

It leaves 1265 eligible local rangatahi missing from the Whanganui or Te Tai Hauāuru rolls.

Hohepa Ngaheu, Teiia Bryers, Zharnia Rio-King and Jaxson Rae are part of the rangatahi voting team

Young recruiter Zharnia Rio-King said her generation should have a say in decisions shaping their future – and need to know enrolment is simple.

“I'm assuming people think it's hard, but it actually is really easy.”

Latest figures had 79 percent of Māori voters already enrolled across the Whanganui electorate area, almost double the 18-24 sign-up rate of 44 percent.

Rio-King said she was only just learning about politics herself, so could connect naturally with others her age not thinking about voting.

“It's less about young people not caring and more about them not feeling their voting actually connects to their everyday lives.”

The team of six has made social media videos and said TikTok, Instagram and YouTube were key.

They’re also canvasing at public events, such as a recent whānau day at Te Hāwera and the upcoming Ruanui festival Te Rā o Ruapūtahanga on October 9-11.

Sports events were seen as fertile ground to find potential voters.

Ninety percent of Māori aged 35-39 and 55-59, and all kaumātua over 65, were enrolled on the general or Māori roll in latest estimates of the Whanganui electorate area.

Jaxson Rae said older people gained advantages from voting, so rangatahi should push for the same.

“I'm definitely going to vote and convince more people to vote, especially in our age group, so that maybe we could get something like the Gold Card.”

He said coordinating staff at Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui had taken the young team’s advice on best approaches.

“I asked for my script to be changed a few times – it was a bit cringe for me.”

Pou whakahaere Rachel Arnott said Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui picked taiohi interested in the kaupapa from Stratford, Pātea and Te Hāwera.

“Our kaimahi had a discussion about shoulder-tapping some of our whānau.”

Neighbouring iwi Ngaa Rauru Kiitahi also has an enrolment campaign and said Electoral Commission funding meant it was strictly politically neutral.

Arnott said by funding the rangatahi effort itself Ngāti Ruanui was able to bring a political perspective to the kōrero.

“We are careful in not telling people who to vote for, but we are very clear that this current government has done nothing good for Māori.

“It's also teaching them the rangatahi actually hold the cards.

“The population for our rangatahi is huge, it's going to outgrow us.

“They are the future, they can make the decisions now.”

At the last election in Te Tai Hauāuru 69 percent of enrolled voters turned out, meaning 12,525 did not vote.

Turnout of enrolled Māori voters was identical in Whanganui electorate, leaving 4,179 who didn’t cast a vote.

The non-Māori voter turnout in Whanganui was 80 percent.

nā Craig Ashworth craig@tekorimako.co.nz

LDR is local body journalism hosted by Te Korimako o Taranaki and funded by Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa and Irirangi te Motu