Story: Tōrangapū – Māori and political parties

Sandra Lee (later Lee-Vercoe), with her granddaughter Omiha Pearl, greets her elders on Waiheke Island in 2002. She was announcing her retirement from politcs. She had been elected to the Waiheke County Council in 1983 and became its chairperson in 1989. She entered Parliament in 1993 as MP for Auckland Central, and served two more terms as an Alliance Party list MP. After her retirement from parliamentary politics in 2002 she later became New Zealand's High Commissioner to Niue.