29/09/2026
We recently had our Tahunanui Meet the Candidates Meeting, for the upcoming election. We asked the candidates 4 questions before hand. Here are their responses, In Their Own Words...
Rohan O'Neill-Stevens, The Green Party
1. What will you do to make State highway 6 safer for our Tahunanui community and for accessibility for all along the waterfront?
Delivery of the Nelson Future Access Project, including the rebuilding of the SH6 sea wall and provision of a walkway and cycleway linking Tāhunanui to the city centre is common sense in ensuring the resilience of this key transport link, supporting the economic development of our city, and improving accessibility for residents. This project has been worked on for decades, has involved significant community consultation, and we are regularly seeing the impacts of failing to invest in these improvements.
I've championed this work for years, both on council and in the community, and have spoken out against the current government's slashing of investment in this important project for all Nelsonians, and will continue to do so as an MP.
2. In this time of climate change how will you provide resilience for the Tahunanui community?
Tāhunanui sits where climate change is biting hardest for Whakatū, exposed to sea-level rise and storm surge and backed by a hillside prone to slips. Providing resilience for Tāhunanui means both cutting the emissions driving climate change and preparing for the impacts we know are already locked in.
We are committed to strengthening the Zero Carbon Act so Government Budgets are actually consistent with limiting warming to 1.5 degrees, empowering the Climate Change Commission to directly set the number of pollution units allowed on the market, putting a genuine price on agricultural emissions (with support for farmers to cut on-farm pollution), and reforming the Emissions Trading Scheme so big polluters can no longer dodge paying through free unit allocations and forestry offsetting loopholes, with that money redirected into decarbonising our industries instead. This is to make sure we're doing everything we can to reduce the devastating impacts climate change is having and will have on our community.
On resilience, we are committed to developing a lasting National Adaptation Framework anchored in Te Tiriti o Waitangi, a Māori Climate Resilience Fund, and expanding the Natural Hazards Commission's role to cover climate-related weather events and help lead community-led adaptation and managed retreat. We'll also establish a dedicated fund so that central and local government can resource adaptation work, including partnerships with community organisations. Locally, that will help back Council's ongoing stormwater and slump-mitigation work in the Tāhunanui hills, while ensuring residents have a ability to decide how their own community adapts.
Community adaptation and resilience needs to be decided by the communities it affects, and we're committed to facilitating that, prioritising long-term, nature-based solutions over short-term engineering solutions, and increasing funding for hapū, iwi and community organisations to deliver these.
3. Our community hub is struggling with funding to provide food parcels and meals for many in our community due to the cost of living. What will you do to target this in our community?
The Tāhunanui Community Hub does incredible work and is playing a critical role in supporting residents to get by, but food banks and community hubs shouldn't have to be plugging gaps that decent incomes and fair prices should be covering. This election we're running on a platform determined to lower the cost of living for all of us.
Our tax system for all of us policy cuts income tax for 96% of New Zealanders, including a tax-free threshold on the first $10,000 earned, paid for by finally asking the super-rich and large corporates to pay their share instead of having working families carry the burden. This leaves more money in working people's pockets, while supporting us to invest in a fairer future for our country.
On food, our affordable food for all of us policy takes on the supermarket duopoly directly. We would establish KiwiMart, a publicly owned supermarket chain (operated similarly to Kiwibank), ban price gouging, require transparency on pricing and price accuracy, and properly resource the Commerce Commission to enforce these measures. Alongside this, we'll restore and expand the Ka Ora, Ka Ako school lunch programme, so that 150,000 extra children enjoy a nutritious lunch, delivered locally. And for hubs like Tāhunanui, we'll put $150 million a year into community-led food security initiatives and triple funding for food banks.
Together, this will lower grocery bills, put more money in people's pockets, and provide direct backing for the community organisations already helping Nelsonians.
4. Many people are struggling to pay power bills, and not turning on their heating in winter, due to the affordability crisis. What are your thoughts on Ultra Low Emission Wood burners as an alternative form of home heating?
Nobody should have to choose between an unaffordable power bill and breathing smoky winter air. Our community knows that trade-off well, given our own airsheds (Tāhunanui included) have struggled with air pollution in the past, and we have successfully turned that around through practical regulation.
Ultra-low emission burners are an improvement on old and ageing wood burners, and are a much healthier option than what they're replacing. But I don't see them as the strongest answer to the affordability crisis and they can still contribute to worsening air quality.
Our focus is on warm, efficient, electrified and affordable homes. Through our power for all of us policy, we will expand the Warmer Kiwi Homes programme, helping low-income people make their homes warm, dry and energy efficient, introduce zero-interest loans for solar and batteries, and Kiwipower, a new publicly owned Crown entity designed to bring bills down by investing in renewable energy and taking on the four big power companies that currently control around 85% of the market, while raking in excess profits.
These changes will lower power bills for New Zealanders, while making their homes more energy efficient, and building much needed resilience and community ownership in our energy system, and make zero-emission heating the obvious and affordable choice.
