Elliot Ikilei says the only place to change the rules that shape families and neighbourhoods is Wellington
NZ First’s Elliot Ikilei is contesting Takanini for the second time in six years, having stood there in 2020 for the New Conservatives, a party he went on to lead.
The 48-year-old was announced as an NZ First candidate on 2 June and named for the seat when the party released its slate on 19 July.
He was born in Palmerston North in 1977, raised in Auckland, and is of Niuean, Tongan, Maori and English descent.
“After a rough patch in my youth I became a Christian at 25 and spent more than two decades working personally then professionally in East, West and South Auckland, working with young people facing family violence, self-harm, abuse and the pull of the streets,” he told the Howick & Eastern Post.
He now works in industrial health and safety training, and says he is a qualified workplace trainer in rescue techniques, behaviour modification and resilience.
“Combined with twenty years supporting at-risk youth and vulnerable families across Auckland I have gained a solid understanding of the issues,” he said.
His first run at Takanini, for the New Conservatives in 2020, brought him 939 candidate votes and fourth place in a field of seven.
Labour’s Dr Anae Neru Leavasa took the seat by 7,724.
Ikilei had been the New Conservatives’ deputy leader, and the party’s board installed him as leader on 19 November 2020, about a month after that election.
“I didn’t get in,” he said.
“I kept doing the work: community advocacy, training, and later speaking for Hobson’s Pledge on equal citizenship.”
“I am standing again because the problems have not gone away and because I believe the only place you can actually change the rules that shape families and neighbourhoods is Wellington.”
He joined Hobson’s Pledge in March 2024 and became a spokesman for the lobby group, which campaigns against what it calls race-based policy.
He said he stood down as spokesman when he was selected as a candidate.
On Takanini itself, his answer starts with congestion and cost.
“Growth has outrun the basics. Great South Road and Mill Road are jammed. Trains stop the traffic,” he said.
“Housing is tight, costs are high, and families are under real pressure.”
“Crime and family breakdown are still behind a lot of what we see with young people,” he said.
He also named the economy and what he called ideological intrusion into academic achievement in schools.
“The party’s mission is putting New Zealanders first,” he said of his move to NZ First.
“I have said for years that race-based policy and co-governance divide us. NZ First is prepared to say that out loud and to fight for one country and one law.”
“It is a ground campaign: doors, community groups, Pacific and other communities I already know, and a clear party-vote message for NZ First,” he said.
“My goals are to lift the NZ First vote in Takanini, to be a visible local candidate who tells the truth about families, crime and equal citizenship, and to be in a position to serve.”
The seat is held by National’s Rima Nakhle, who won it in 2023 with a majority of 8,775 over Leavasa.
NZ First took 1,267 party votes there that year.
Labour is standing business owner and Justice of the Peace Kharag Singh.
Ikilei’s doorstep message is forthright.
“I will fight to protect all of you. Not one group. Not one ethnicity. Not the loudest lobby,” he said.
“One country. One law. Equal citizenship.”
“You are judged on character and conduct, not whakapapa.”
He said he is a husband and a father who has worked on the sites and in the streets.
“I am not interested in being a DEI hire or a commentator who never leaves the studio,” he said.
“Takanini needs someone who already knows the area and is prepared to say what a lot of people think but are told they cannot say.”
