20 August 2025

By Paora Moyle, Lead Researcher, Hauraki Māori Weathering Cyclone Gabrielle

Thames Coromandel mayoral candidate Denise Messiter has been wrongly overlooked in recent commentary on climate leadership. Paora Moyle, lead researcher on the Hauraki Māori Weathering Cyclone Gabrielle study, sets the record straight on her role in disaster response and the international impact of the research that followed.

Denis Tegg, a retired lawyer and former Thames Coromandel representative on the Waikato Regional Council, is right when he says most mayoral candidates in Thames Coromandel have stayed silent on climate change. What his piece missed is that one candidate has already proven climate leadership in practice: Denise Messiter.

I know this because I worked alongside her as lead researcher on Hauraki Māori Weathering Cyclone Gabrielle. This study documented how Hauraki Māori communities survived when the cyclone struck and cut the peninsula in half. It was a moment that exposed not only the fragility of infrastructure but the failures of governance and leadership. While many were absent, Messiter was there. She helped coordinate food deliveries to families who were stranded for weeks. She stood with kaumātua and rangatahi at marae that became emergency hubs. Her role was not symbolic. It was hands-on and essential.

Communities surviving despite systems failing

When State Highway 25 was blocked and the district split in two, Civil Defence plans collapsed. The official system did not reach isolated whānau. Our research, based on kaupapa Māori methodology and testimony from both community members and council personnel, showed that survival came from whakapapa networks and intergenerational knowledge, not government systems.

Hauraki Māori whānau mobilised with almost nothing. Kai was carried on foot across slips. People relied on stored food and water at marae. Neighbours checked in on kaumātua. The work was hard and under-resourced, but it kept people alive.

One participant told us: “We have been reading these weather patterns for generations, but no one listens when we warn about potential flooding.” Their knowledge was ignored, yet it proved critical when the storm hit.

Messiter saw this failure up close. She recognised that the problem was not only poor coordination but structural exclusion of Māori knowledge. That exclusion left people at risk.

Findings that cannot be ignored

The research confirmed systemic failure. Māori communities received little or no support from civil defence. Emergency systems designed without Māori input left them to manage alone.

Economic conditions deepened the crisis. Many whānau are land rich but cash poor. They hold whenua but lack ready money to rebuild. Housing regulations designed around individual property ownership created barriers for collective Māori recovery. Families who wanted to rebuild through papakāinga or shared housing models faced bureaucratic walls at the very moment they needed support.

The disconnect between local authority planning and Māori ecological knowledge was striking. Communities with generations of environmental wisdom were excluded from decision making, while councils repeated planning models that had already failed.

Impact beyond Hauraki

This report is not sitting idle. Thames Coromandel District Council has committed to implementing every recommendation. Waikato Regional Council is using the findings to shape hazard and resilience planning. International Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessment programmes are applying the work to train Pacific Island delegations who face the same storms as us.

That reach matters. The survival strategies of Hauraki Māori communities are now influencing resilience planning from the local level through to international policy. Denise Messiter was part of that process from the beginning, bringing her lived experience of crisis into research that is being acted on across multiple levels.

What leadership looks like in crisis

Messiter’s leadership is grounded in what she did during Gabrielle. She worked with whānau on the ground, listened to knowledge that authorities had dismissed, and supported marae as emergency infrastructure. She has seen how communities survive through collective effort when official systems collapse.

This is not hypothetical leadership. It comes from broken roads, from food carried across slips, from nights spent at marae coordinating relief. It comes from standing in the middle of crisis with her community and understanding exactly what resilience means when theory gives way to reality.

Why this matters for the election

Most candidates have been silent on climate change. Silence is easy. Generalised policies are easy. But storms are intensifying, and the Waikato Regional Council has confirmed that Thames Coromandel faces the highest hazard risk in the region. The next disruption is not a matter of if but when.

Voters must decide whether to put trust in candidates who avoided the issue, or in someone who already knows what survival looks like when the roads are gone and the lights are out.

Setting the record straight

This is why Tegg’s assessment needs correcting. He was right to call out the silence of most candidates. But he was wrong to overlook the one candidate who has already shown leadership when the climate crisis became real.

Denise Messiter has already demonstrated what climate leadership looks like in Thames Coromandel. She did it through direct action, alongside her community, during one of the most severe climate events this region has faced. That is evidence of leadership that voters cannot afford to ignore.

Paora Moyle is the lead researcher of Hauraki Māori Weathering Cyclone Gabrielle. The report’s recommendations are being adopted by Thames Coromandel District Council, informing Waikato Regional planning, and guiding international climate resilience training programmes.

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