As Chris Hipkins and Christopher Luxon threw their weight about on the campaign trail, it was a terrible day for some of the small parties
Chris Hipkins is working hard to be known as the bread and butter guy. So he really ought to know how much a simple sandwich means to voters. On a campaign walkabout in Auckland's Commercial Bay shopping precinct, the Labour leader and his entourage made a critical error. A middle-aged woman remarked, as she tried to get to her lunch spot, “I just want to get my lunch, I don’t care about the Labour leader or whoever it is”. In US electoral politics, 'it's the economy, stupid' is the guiding principle. On this day we discovered a new and enduring mantra for New Zealand politics: Don't stand between voters and their lunch.
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It was a dog of a day for Christopher Luxon. A canine yelp was heard as the National Party leader’s posse strode purposefully down Rangiora’s main street – High St, just after High Noon. Newsroom didn’t see the incident, but a photographer said it was Luxon who accidentally stepped on the dog's paw. At least the National Party leader had the good grace to stop and talk to its owner. It’s not known whether the dog was called Winston.
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Certainly it's true that Winston Peters plans to be the big dog on the block – not the tail wagging the dog in any government. He's rejecting panicked talk of a second election if a government can't be formed. "Stop behaving like childish schoolboys and start acting like adults," he told Luxon and Hipkins. And last night Peters posted a video on social media: "You the voters are the master here. Vote, and don't let them ever forget it." (Trust us Winston, we won't forget you).
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Smart work by the Greens' Marama Davidson in reminding her supporters of her commitment to the people of Gaza, without causing an election eve diplomatic incident. Davidson, of course, was arrested by Israeli military in 2016 as she and others on a protest flotilla tried to run the blockade into the occupied Palestinian territory. Yesterday she emphasised the Greens' support for recognise "an independent and free Palestine" – which is much the same as the two-state solution that all New Zealand parties back, but sounds so much better.
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Hats off to Rawiri Waititi. A new poll shows he's on track to hold his Waiariki electorate and with it, guarantee the return of at least two or three Te Pāti Māori MPs to Parliament. Last night's Whakaata Māori-Curia poll shows Waititi with more than twice the vote of the second-placed candidate Toni Boynton, of Labour.
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The Opportunities Party leader Raf Manji has been knocked back after proposing an electoral accommodation deal with National in Ilam. Just give me an opportunity, he pleaded. National's campaign chair Chris Bishop peremptorily rejected his request, prompting Manji to complain to media that the party had missed a trick by putting all its eggs in the National/Act basket. Manji says his centrist party would do a deal in Parliament to support whichever party had the numbers to lead a government; by allowing him through the middle in Ilam, he could bolster the numbers of any governing party without harming the number of MPs it brings in through its party vote. Manji is learning the hard way that TOP's mantra of "practical ideas" will never win against impractical partisan politics.
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Hosting TV shows didn't work out for Elizabeth Jane Cooney – she stunned TVNZ bosses by tearfully quitting the Breakfast show live on air in 2001. And her experiences in the nation's court have been similarly unhappy. The broadcaster-turned-politician who we know best by her screen name Liz Gunn had already been charged with assault and resisting arrest after she and a cameraman allegedly got into a scuffle with Auckland Airport security. Now she's failed in a High Court bid to run more candidates, after her small NZ Loyal party failed to register its list of name by the Electoral Commission deadline. Which suggests that any return to her original career as a litigation lawyer may be equally fruitless....
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