Most of my adult life has been involved in protecting and restoring our environment - to have clean water, healthy soil and air - and fighting for social justice.
It’s for my grandchildren that I’m passionate about the environment and social justice.
I have had over three decades of experience in the governance and management of NGOs and community groups in Hawke’s Bay, as well as running an environmentally responsible commercial cleaning business.
Over the past three years I have helped the Cape Coast Community Group to secure the installation of an Ecoreef structure to protect Te Awanga Beach.
I lead the coastal protection work that we do here, working with councils to find ways to protect the coastline so that the whole community can benefit from its future.
At the moment our coastlines are under threat through climate change and through sea level rise, but there are solutions that will work. We just need to find ways to implement those.
Another priority is cleaning our water, we need to restore how land can be used so that rivers are no longer polluted.
Outside politics, I spend much of my free time paddling waka ama on Hawke’s Bay rivers - which is particularly why I’m reminded all the time about the state of those rivers.
