Rana Donald Waitai (26 November 1942 – 8 May 2021) was a New Zealand politician and lawyer. He was a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives representing Te Puku o Te Whenua, for the New Zealand First Party and Mauri Pacific Party from 1996 to 1999. He later served as a member of the

Wanganui District Council Whanganui District is one of the districts of New Zealand. It includes the city of Whanganui and surrounding areas. Geography Formerly spelled "Wanganui", the Whanganui District Council resulted from the amalgamation of Wanganui and Waitotara cou ...

Early years

His father was Te Rangi Koroingo Te Oreore Waitai (August 1912 – 1989) born and died in Lower Hutt. His mother was Mavis Lillian Waitai (née Winduss) (May 1912 – 1997) born in Nelson and died in Lower Hutt. Rana Waitai was the partner of Te Aroha Ann Ruru Stanton from 1966 to 1995 and they had four daughters.

Career

Following his secondary schooling at

Wanganui Technical College Whanganui City College is located in Ingestre Street, Whanganui. It became Wanganui City College in 1994. It was formerly the Wanganui Technical College established in 1911 and it became Wanganui Boys' College in 1964. Notable alumni *Peter Bel ...

, (now Whanganui City College), Waitai was a freezing worker at

Wanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whang ...

in 1961, a bushman in 1961 at

Karioi Karioi or Mount Karioi is a 2.4 million year old extinct stratovolcano SW of Raglan in the Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island. It was the earliest of the line of 6 calcalkalic volcanoes, the largest of which is Mount Pirongia (the oth ...

and also a factory worker. He later became a trainee probation officer at Wellington and in 1965 joined the New Zealand Police. In 1979 Waitai was the Duty Inspector at Police National Headquarters when

Air New Zealand Flight 901 The Mount Erebus disaster occurred on 28 November 1979 when Air New Zealand Flight 901 (TE-901) flew into Mount Erebus on Ross Island, Antarctica, killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew on board. Air New Zealand had been operating scheduled A ...

crashed on Erebus. He rang Chief Superintendent Brian Davies who was at home in the evening: "We seem to have a small problem.... We have lost a DC-10 sir." He retired from the Police at the rank of Superintendent after 31 years when he was elected to Parliament. After leaving Parliament Waitai trained as a lawyer and worked as a barrister and solicitor in Whanganui.

Political career

Waitai was involved in the New Zealand National Party between 1973 and 1992, quitting after a dispute with then Prime Minister,

Jim Bolger James Brendan Bolger ( ; born 31 May 1935) is a New Zealand retired politician of the National Party who was the 35th prime minister of New Zealand, serving from 1990 to 1997. Bolger was born to an Irish immigrant family in Ōpunake, Taran ...

. He rejoined the National Party in 2000.

Member of Parliament

Waitai was first elected to Parliament in the 1996 election as New Zealand First MP for the Māori electorate of Te Puku O Te Whenua as one of the ''

Tight Five The Tight Five was a nickname given to the five Māori MPs elected to the New Zealand Parliament in 1996 from the centrist/populist New Zealand First party. Formation New Zealand First had been founded in 1993 by Winston Peters, a former N ...

'', having previously stood for the Gisborne seat. In 1998, when New Zealand First splintered, Waitai was one of the eight MPs who left the party. He eventually joined with four other MPs to form the

Mauri Pacific Mauri Pacific () was a short-lived political party in New Zealand. It was formed in 1998 by five former members of the New Zealand First party. It has often been described as a Māori party. Officially, Mauri Pacific was a multiculturalist par ...

party. In the 1999 election, he stood in the electorate and was ranked fourth on Mauri Pacific's list, but the party failed to win any seats.

Local government

In 2005, Waitai attempted to re-enter politics as a by-election candidate for the

. Although soundly defeated at that attempt, he subsequently was successful in the 2007 New Zealand local elections and was elected to both the district council and the Whanganui district health board. He was deputy chairman of the council's Harbour and Maori committees. He was not successful in gaining re-election to the council in 2010, 2013 or 2014.

Death

Waitai died in Whanganui on 8 May 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waitai, Rana 1942 births 2021 deaths New Zealand First MPs 20th-century New Zealand lawyers New Zealand police officers People from Gisborne, New Zealand People from Whanganui Local politicians in New Zealand New Zealand MPs for Māori electorates Mauri Pacific MPs New Zealand National Party politicians Māori politicians Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Unsuccessful candidates in the 1999 New Zealand general election People educated at Whanganui City College