National Party’s Manurewa electorate candidate Siva Kilari is a man of great conviction, hard work, and resilience. National Party primarily chose him to stand from Manurewa electorate as he is well versed with the issues/problems of that area since his business situated in that suburb. Siva is very confident and convinced that he is the best person, who can find solution to problems that the people in his electorate face, since he knows this issue first hand. He says this is one of the reasons he decided to join politics and join National Party.
On being asked why he chose to join National Party only, Siva said it’s because the great Indian values that are instilled in him resonate with the values of National Party. National Party believes in equal opportunities for all, taking personal responsibilities, strong families, and caring community. He said this country has given him so much and now it’s his time to give back to the community. He said honesty and hard work are the basic values of National Party and this is what we Indians believes in; hence the National Party was his obvious choice.
Arriving in the country on a student visa in 2002, Siva remembered his early days of struggle and the hard work he did to establish himself in a new country. He did many odd jobs, whatever came his way just for the survival. He worked in farms while studying at Massey University in Palmerston North and after completing studies moved to Auckland. Even after moving to Auckland his struggle continued, while he worked in a company in the daytime, he would drive taxi during night and in the meantime kept trying to start his own business. After facing a couple of failures, he finally started the business of importing granite & marble which today is known as Universal Granite. Today, it’s one of the most successful, medium size businesses in New Zealand and employs 27 people in the company. Now, his company is known for the wide range of products and the top quality, and it is currently executing many prestigious projects.
He said his electorate is made of approx 70% migrants from different countries majority of which are from pacific nations. Most migrants in his electorate do many jobs to meet both ends but they are still not able to save anything. Since in most families both parents are working, the children of such families tend to get neglected. Siva believes none of these hard-working people have come to New Zealand to depend on government support, but their works life balance gets disturbed due to doing many jobs. This creates situation for unruly children/ dirt bikers on the street since they do not attend school or study and parents are unable to attend to them. He says National Party has plans to reduce taxes for the low wage earners and to ensure those children missing the school go back to school and lead a disciplined life. This will bring down crime in the area since currently only 65% of children go to school in south Auckland area.
Siva was very critical of Labour party, who take suburbs like Manurewa for granted. He says the current local MP doesn’t even have an office in that area because they believe people will vote for them anyway. He says if he gets elected he will solve the common man’s problems since he himself has faced all those issues first hand. Today people can’t even share their problems with the current MP of the electorate since there is no place to contact. Siva says he is a community person and a strong guy and his party has policies and plans to work for the people and for the betterment of country. He says if National Party comes back to government it will ensure to fully utilise country’s resources and that people feel secure and safe in the country wherever they live. Siva appealed everyone in his electorate to register to vote in the upcoming elections and vote for the right party that can make New Zealand a safe place to live. -Yugal Parashar