Piri'anga Alofa Pacific and Community Services Senior Lead Lealamanua Aiga Caroline Mareko spoke at an Action Station hui over Kings birthday weekend about motivating communities to enrol and to vote.

The hui, Haumi Ē : Together for the Vote brought together around 200 people representing organisations nationwide that are involved in promoting democracy, including Whānau Manaaki.

The message from Caroline who spoke as a Pacific community leader was that Pacific people can have a big impact on the country and its policies if they make use of their vote.

Caroline is from Porirua which has one of the highest concentrations of Pacific people. She says relationships are the key to getting people to recognise the value of their vote – using the phrase “trusted people, trusted places”.

She urged people to use their connections to encourage under=represented groups to make use of their vote.

In the next weeks and months, we will feature more information about how we can encourage our communities to take part in the election, and to understand how policies affect children and families.