Meet Bianca O’Keefe for Waitakere
An Independent Voice for Waitakere
My Waitakere Heritage
I am the fourth generation of my family to grow up in this region. My family were here when our region was orchards and farms, a collection of small communities beginning to form an identity
I am unashamedly shaped by the beaches, the ranges, climbing gym, schools and strong communities of the Waitakere region.
I can't stand how our region is constantly overlooked, under invested in, and disregarded.
I believe together we can make the country stand up and take notice of who we are and what we stand for.
What made me stand up
I look at what we have gotten from our elected officials and I just can't see what our region has got out of our support and loyalty for them.
Right now, I see that politics often lacks real direction. Many people simply pick the option they dislike the least, instead of a vision they truly support. That lack of a real vision for us, is not acceptable
Politics has become Bi-Partisan, we no longer evaluate, the fringes attack the person and ignore the idea on the basis of who is talking, grand standing politicians override ideas and concepts.
I began looking for someone to bring Balance to politics, to bring practical solutions, and there was nothing...
So in my own style I went, Enough is Enough, if nobody is doing what I think is needed, well I will step up and do it myself
I am here asking for your support because frankly, there was no one I would vote for myself, there was no one who I believed would make a difference.
Journey
My journey in politics...
I never had any plans to be here, I didn't have ambitions to be a politician, I never saw myself that way. I am standing up because there was no vision or options I believed in.
It all really started with me doing presentations to the Waitakere Ranges local board as part of my local climbing club.
I looked around and realised people were talking for and trying to set outcomes for youth, without having any real youth engagement, so I stepped up in an attempt to give youth a voice in the last local elections.
As a result of that process I have become more engaged in what's happening around me, what politics is giving us, understanding the importance of our own vote and decision making.
I asked questions and talked to people, I got a feeling for what people thought.
As a result I don't feel we are getting what we want or deserve as a community. So, I am here in front of you, asking for your support and trust, as I can't sit on the sidelines and do nothing.
I realized, that our current electorate officials aren't actually focused on us, that they are tied to their party voice, objectives and priorities, that the electorate is taken for granted and forgotten.
That our local board and councilors don't have any real power, so locally our needs and voice gets lost.
Simply put I am here because if no one else is going to give people an option for balance, a local voice driving our communities priorities and needs, well then,
I will...
What makes me who I am
I am from a close family, where four generations of my family lived, loved, and grew up in this region, I have aunties, uncles and cousins all living within West Auckland.
My great grandparents, moved to Glen Eden, built a house when this region was farms and orchards, raised a family. That house still stands, and I am lucky enough to live in it, as part of our family legacy. Waitakere is in our blood.
So I get this region, I get what makes it special... I grew up surfing at Piha, learning Netball on the local courts, building a climbing club in the local gym, camping in the local facilities, walking the tracks, being apart of this community.
I get if someone is asking you to believe in them...You need to know who they are:
I have had to learn to be resilient, how to build the ability to adapt, evolve and become mentally strong. I have had to find my own internal strength and motivation to succeed.
I have scoliosis, an issue with the curve of the spine that creates pain points in your spine. Some days I am eating Panadol just to keep control of the pain. It would be easy to let that be an excuse to crawl into bed and let the world pass me by, but I am determined not to let it control me, I fight through, I compete, I continue to engage, it may limit somethings, but it will not control me.
I have dyslexia, that means I learn differently, my brain simply processes information in its own unique way. I have had to adapt, change the way I learn and work. I have had to become self driven, to believe that hard work equals success, I have had to be regimented and goal orientated to ensure dyslexia isn't how I am defined.
I don't generally tell people these things, I have become comfortable with them, so that I don't think much about it anymore, they are just apart of me and the aspects I need to adapt to. I tell you this so you know, that when I put my mind to something, that when things get tough, I won't stop, I won't allow the obstacles to define the outcome. I am not here to participate I am here to win...
Like most people in New Zealand I grew up playing sport. I found a love for climbing, this taught me more than anything, the need for adaptive thinking, every problem has multiple ways of looking at it, and sometimes you fall, but the important thing is getting back up and going again, some days you win, some days you don't, but importantly you never give up. So that's me, the attitude and resilience to get back up, the willingness to look at problems in a variety of ways, the willingness to try something different, to always take that one more step, to look forward.
Climbing did something else for me, we created a youth club, we (youth) set the priorities, the focus and the direction of the club. I learnt something about community, the importance of working with people for a greater goal. The joy and value you get out of achieving something for others. It taught me the importance of my voice and my ability to make a difference. I saw first hand the diversity and needs of people right here in our local community.
I saw and learnt what genuine leadership looked like. Those who have a vision and are willing to do the hard yards to take that vision and make it reality. Leaders who understand that decisions have consequences and make a difference to an individual. Leaders who understand that leadership is a responsibility and comes with hard work and willingness to put others first. That's what you get from me, a leader prepared to put our community first.
I look at what we get from our electorate officials, and my belief is they have forgotten that their first priority is to the people who voted them in. We now have electorate representatives who are mouth pieces for their party, they have no individual identity, no voice of their own, no way of creating change at a local level, Party comes first and the electorate a distant second.
I am over this seesaw politics, where you have the left on one side the right on the other, nationalist and centralist in the middle as the pivot, but fundamentally philosophies that mean as one goes up, the others go down. I am over that logic, there is a better way. believe Politicians have one duty, to make the lives of people they serve better, that means growing the economy the social and the government elements together, not at the expenses of each.
For me we need to grow, build, and evolve this country into something we are proud of, that means it doesn't matter where good ideas come from, what matters is we take this country forward.
Why Trust Me
Fundamentally the first thing that makes me different to every other option you have to vote for as a candidate, is that my priority is our community... I am independent, I am not relying on a party or list position. You know exactly what I stand for, there is no team of strategists, no polling, nobody to define what I can say or not. I don't have some else dictating my voice, and my vote.
This is not the politically polished approach, set up by marketers, PR gurus, or copy writers. This is me
Those ideas and thoughts, have come from engaging with people, learning what we are struggling with and coming up with practical solutions, some my own, some taken from the ideas generated in discussions with people, some good ideas unashamedly taken from others.
The rest of this site gives you an idea of what I think, lets you know where my mind is at, that's all me, no one else.
I have ONE primary goal: to get as much money spent in our region to benefit our community. That's it, that's the non negotiable for me
No one else can give you that commitment