Labour Party leadership candidate David Cunliffe has told a Northland audience that port reform and rail expansion are the keys to unlocking the region's economic and employment potential.
The meeting in Whangarei was the latest in a series of gatherings around the country to help Labour Party members decide which of the three candidates - Mr Cunliffe, Grant Robertson or Shane Jones - to vote for.
About 200 people attended the Whangarei meeting.
Mr Cunliffe said people in the north wanted, more than anything, to be working.
He said as Labour leader he would promote a solid programme of regional development, including a rail link between Northport at Marsden Point and the main trunk line.
Mr Cunliffe said under the last Labour Government, Northland was one of the fastest growing regions in New Zealand but under National it had gone backwards.
Mr Robertson urged a return to Labour's founding values, saying his inspiration was the late Labour leader Norman Kirk.
"Norman Kirk once said that what New Zealanders want is somewhere to work, somewhere to live, someone to love and something to hope for. That sounds like the Labour story to me and it sounds like New Zealand's story as well - a job, a home, a family and a future."
Mr Robertson said everywhere he went he was asked where the jobs were and employment must be at the centre of everything Labour does, in tandem with regional development.
Mr Jones told the meeting the Labour Party has become irrelevant to far too many New Zealanders and he had what it took to reconnect with those people.
He said Labour had plenty of activists and intellectuals but what it needed was the votes of ordinary people who didn't see it these days as their "waka of choice".
Hear more from the Northland meeting