Tāmaki Makaurau by-election candidate Peeni Henare: I stand by my record
Tuesday, 15 July 2025
This video is part of The Hui’s interview with Peeni Henare. The full interview is at the bottom of this article. The reporting was produced by The Hui and has been published by Stuff with permission. For more great stories and videos from The Hui, click here.
Labour’s Peeni Henare is confident his previous stint as the MP for Tāmaki Makaurau will stand him in good stead with voters.
“I stand by my record,” Henare told Julian Wilcox on The Hui. “As we go around Tāmaki Makaurau I’ve seen the work that I’ve done as part of a strong Labour party and a strong Labour Government.
“Right now is a chance to build on some of the good work we did while we were in power. I drove through Māngere recently, saw the houses that we had built, and all that’s come to a stop. I think if you’re going to embody the kōrero of my tupuna ‘we’ve come too far not to go further’.”
The former Defence Minister was the MP for Tāmaki Makaurau until Te Pati Māori’s Takutai Tarsh Kemp won the seat at the last election by just 42 votes. Kemp’s sudden death from kidney disease prompted the September 6 by-election.
“I think the race in 2023 was so close it does demand and warrant going back to the people to seek the mandate,” Henare said.
He will be up against Te Pati Maori’s Oriini Kaipara and Vision NZ’s Hannah Tamaki.
Te Pati Māori has argued that voters already have the services of Henare as a list MP, so instead should give their votes to Kaipara.
Henare said they make the same argument every election, and if he regains the seat, voters will still get two for one.
“If I should be, God willing, lucky enough to win, the next person on the list is he wahine Māori.”
That wahine Māori is Georgina Dansey, from Ngāti Tūwharetoa. Her great-great-grandfather Roger Dansey was a captain in the Māori (Pioneer) Battalion in World War I, while her great-uncle Harry Dansey was the country’s first Race Relations Commissioner. She has worked as a community organiser and has stood unsuccessfully for Labour in both Hamilton East and Hamilton West.
Henare said that while Labour is still in the policy development stage ahead of the 2026 general election, his by-election campaign would focus on core issues such as the cost of living and the shortage of housing.
“We know that the only way out of a housing crisis is to build your way out of it. We had a strong building programme here in Tāmaki Makaurau which saw hundreds and thousands of homes being built here for the public to utilise. That way we could drive down house prices so people could start affording houses; we could start to drive down the rent, but also build at scale.
“What we’ve seen from this Government is a decision to stop the work that Kāinga Ora was doing. Now, where work once was happening, you can drive down Rockfield Road in Onehunga, you can drive through Māngere Bridge and you’ll see now those lots are vacant and we’re asking ourselves where are the houses? We need these houses.”
Henare is in favour of housing intensity but conscious of the kōrero around the issue. Ngāti Te Ata, in the south of the electorate, want people to stop building houses on kai-growing land; Ngāti Whatua have focused on housing density “building up, building communities,” said Henare. “I think there’s a smarter way to do housing here.”
Made with the support of Te Māngai Pāho and New Zealand On Air.
Watch the Hui’s full interview with Peeni Henare in this week’s show: