Auckland: Tama Potaka of The National Party won by a 2285 vote majority over Labour’s Georgie Dansey.
With 100 percent of the vote counted, Potaka led the way with 6629, well ahead of Dansey’s 4344.
Act’s James McDowall came in third with 1462, while former Hamilton West MP Gaurav Sharma, whose resignation triggered the byelection, finished fourth with 1156 votes.
Potaka said: “I am pretty happy. I am pretty happy to be given the opportunity by the hardworking people of Hamilton West.
“I will be a strong voice for them in Parliament.”
Tama William Potaka (born 1976) is a New Zealand politician and Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives representing the Hamilton West electorate. He is a member of the National Party and chief executive of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki.
Potaka was born in Raetihi in 1976. He attended Huntley School and Te Aute College, where he was classmates with Billy Weepu and Karl Te Nana and became dux in 1993. He received a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws from Victoria University of Wellington in 1999, and with a scholarship earned a Master of Laws from Columbia University.[1] He passed the bar exam and became an attorney at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
National leader Christopher Luxon arrived shortly after and told reporters it was a “fantastic result”.
What a great result for the people of Hamilton West, and for National, in the Hamilton West by-election yesterday.
National’s candidate, Tama Potaka, overturned Labour’s 6,267 majority that Gaurav Sharma held from the 2020 election, so Tama will enter Parliament as National’s newest MP, bringing our caucus to 34 members.
Results from election night put Tama on 6629 votes – 2285 ahead of Labour’s Georgie Dansey.
Apart from Tama’s personal credentials and National’s strong campaign focussing on the things that matter to the people of Hamilton and New Zealand at large, the result shows New Zealanders want to send a message to Labour.
Labour is out of touch. It’s busy in Parliament with ideological pet projects like Three Waters, the TVNZ/RNZ merger, health bureaucracy and hate speech. Meanwhile, out in the streets and farms of real New Zealand, people are talking about the cost of groceries, fear of crime, and how long it takes to see a doctor.
I visited Hamilton West with Tama a few times. People I talked to were deeply concerned by the cost-of-living crisis which is affecting their households and families. They were worried by the Labour Government’s soft-on-crime approach which has emboldened young offenders and gangs. National has a plan to ease the cost-of living crisis and it’s National that has plans to tackle gangs and combat youth offending. New Zealanders will do better under National.
Thank you to the people of Hamilton West for putting your faith in Tama and in National. We won’t let you down. Thank you to all of you who contributed in some way to the campaign. It involved a huge amount of planning, organisation and sheer hard work. Every phone call to voters, every sign erected, every door knocked on and every leaflet in a letterbox contributed to Tama’s success. It was good practice for next year!
| Posted by Sameer Khan | 
