Local body politics is losing over 30 years of experience with the resignation of Manurewa Local Board member Anne Candy.
Candy, 80, was elected to the Manukau City Council in 1995, serving as deputy mayor from 1998 to 2007, chairing its environmental hearings committee, and then going on to become a local board member.
Despite that workload, she still found time to serve on the Counties Manukau District Health Board from 2008 to 2010, on a maternity care review in 2012, and to serve the Anglican Church as Bishop’s Commissary to Te Pihopa o Te Tai Tokerau from 2002 to 2023.
Her service to Māori and local government was recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours this year when she was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, an award that comes on top of her earlier Queen’s Service Order.
Board chair Matt Winiata says it will be difficult to replace her experience.
“No one gives the length of service she has without a passion for people. The community that first elected her all those years ago is different to the one today, but she was returned election after election, proof that she could span generations, cultures and political divides.”
The humble grandmother who is affectionately known to her mokopuna and many others as Nanny Annie, hails from the Faulkner whānau of Ngāiterangi, with ties through her mother to Ngāti Mahanga, Ngāti Wairere and Ngāti Whāwhākia of Waikato-Tainui.
Manurewa-Papakura Ward Councillor Daniel Newman says he will miss his friend. “There are not many of us who haven’t benefitted from her gentle manner, when she would look at you and smile and say, ‘is that what you think’, or ‘you could look at it this way’.
“She has this way that even when correcting you, you walk away feeling you’ve accomplished things rather than been admonished, and I certainly hope I have her energy and passion at her age.”
Candy’s demeanour hid a steely streak, and she has been a tireless advocate for Māori in education, health, housing, te reo, cultural heritage and the wellbeing of tamariki.
Working with friend, the late Rose Whaiapu, she set up the Taonga Education Centre Charitable Trust in 2005 to ensure young women did not have to quit school if they had babies.
“Manurewa has the highest population of young Māori in the country. They don’t want an 80-year-old making decisions for them,” she told Te Ao Māori News earlier this year.
Despite that, she says offering care and educational opportunities to young mums has been her most rewarding work and says many people have helped throughout her career.
“I never walked alone. I had special role models and mentors from many wonderful ethnicities, and they all remain in my karakia today.”
Candy’s resignation falls within 12 months of the next election, so the board must decide at its November meeting to either appoint a new member or not to fill the vacancy.
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