Fresh faces are on the way for the Bay of Plenty electorate at the upcoming general election – and they're both eager to take the reins as an MP this October.

National Party candidate Tom Rutherford and Labour Party candidate Pare Taikato are both Tauranga-born and bred, and are passionate about helping those in the community.

They are filling the boots of current MPs Todd Muller and Angie Warren-Clark, with Muller resigning at the end of this term and Warren-Clark making the move to Whangārei.

Rutherford has been a volunteer firefighter at the Mount Maunganui Fire Station, a New Zealand Hockey umpire, a Bay of Plenty rugby referee and has captained the Greerton Cricket Club. His previous role was the executive of communications for Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell.

Taikato has spent time at the Port of Tauranga and in horticulture at a number of Māori land-owning trusts, and currently works as an MP support to Education Minister Jan Tinetti. She has also spent a number of years overseas teaching English second language classes in Japan.

Important issues

When asked about the Bay of Plenty's most important issues, Rutherford says the cost of living crisis, transport and local democracy would make the top of the list.

'The cost for people to go to the supermarket, the price at the petrol tank, mortgages with exponentially rising interest rates are really expensive for a lot of people living in our Bay of Plenty community.

'We've also got some major challenges with transport, particularly with State Highway 29 over the Kaimai Range and State Highway 2 through Te Puna and Ōmokoroa, where there's some big issues there connecting our local community.

'There's also the issue of local democracy, which is an issue for a lot of people. We've had the comissioners here for a while, and people are really keen now to have some local voices around that table, and getting back to having some local body elections.”

Taikato says the top three issues facing the Bay of Plenty are infrastructure, housing and health.

She says the region's problems with infrastructure are not only related to roads, but also include 'affordable water services, power and all the things needed to stand up housing development”.

'There is still a lot of focus on the Takitimu Northern Link however, this is a commuter residential issue. It is not a trade or freight in and out of the port issue.

'My position is to continue to support the work the Government is doing in those spaces, and to ask for more of it, and faster.”

Full profiles

In Taikato's current job providing MP support, she says many locals come to Jan Tinetti's office in Greerton and ask for more work to be done with housing.

'Yes in the Bay of Plenty [the issue] is the roads. But we also need the infrastructure for housing to be advanced and set up.”

To read the full profile pieces on both candidates, visit SunLive.co.nz