Mr Okeroa was in Dunedin yesterday to attend the Mana Pounamu young achievers award presentation.
He had visited Invercargill in the morning.
Some leaders in the Maori community have criticised the Labour MP for not spending enough time in Otago.
However Mr Okeroa, who has the largest electorate in the country to cover, said his philosophy was about being consistent and committed and criticism of his appearances was unwarranted.
He would continue what he had been doing for the past nine years as MP and even an election campaign would not change his commitment to consistency.
Mr Okeroa said he disagreed with the Maori Party that treaty settlements were the major issue in Te Tai Tonga and said the party was focusing too much on limited solutions.
Suggestions by the Maori Party that it would get rid of GST on food were absurd, he said.
He instead thought more Maori people were worried about the economic crisis and what it would mean for them and said Labour offered realistic solutions.
It came down to which party had the best leader and who could be trusted, he said.
The Maori Party had criticised Labour for "being under the petticoat of a woman", but he said they failed to realise that one of the main leaders in Maoridom until recently was a woman.
