Comment: Any opposition party putting together its candidate list after a term in the wilderness faces a delicate balancing act.
Bring back too many of your existing caucus, and you risk looking like you haven’t learned from your failures in government. Go for a dramatic overhaul, and you may be seen as too untested to return to power.
So it is perhaps little surprise that Chris Hipkins and Labour have had a bob each way, with a few first-time candidates vaulting high up a list that is otherwise somewhat lacking in sparkle.
The most obvious loser among the incumbent MPs is Ōhāriu’s Greg O’Connor, who lost his electorate in last year’s boundary review then made a last-minute decision not to run on the party’s list.
While Hipkins suggested that was O’Connor’s decision alone, it seems clear that the prospect of a low list ranking contributed to his decision to withdraw altogether, given his comments to several media outlets about a process that “makes the choosing of a Pope look transparent”.
It may be hard to believe now, but when the former Police Association boss put his hand up for Labour ahead of the 2017 election it was seen as something of a coup, given the chance to shore up the party’s bona fides on law and order.
While O’Connor has clearly served his electorate well, managing to fend off the challenge of National’s deputy leader Nicola Willis even as the tide went out on Labour in 2023, his parliamentary career has been defined by gaffes like criticising Jacinda Ardern’s handling of Clare Curran’s resignation in a live radio interview, then complaining on social media about Ardern’s decision to cut MPs’ pay during the Covid-19 pandemic.
But if O’Connor’s retirement could have weakened Labour’s position on crime, the party has offset that risk and then some by vaulting current NZ Police superintendent Rakesh Naidoo to 13th spot on the list – the highest position offered to any non-MP.
Currently serving as the police’s ethnic, iwi and communities relationships manager, Naidoo was conspicuous in his absence from the Labour press conference, with Hipkins saying the candidate was “having a conversation” with Police Commissioner Richard Chambers about the transition from the force to politics.
While former police are no strangers to Parliament, it is unusual to have someone make the jump directly from one career into the other at such notice. Indeed, both Police Commissioner Richard Chambers and Police Minister Mark Mitchell have since questioned whether Naidoo offered sufficiently early notice of his plans.
Chambers said it was “untenable for him to continue with his current duties”, while Mitchell expressing concern about the superintendent receiving sensitive briefings on government policy and attending events with him the afternoon before his candidacy was announced. The Labour leader pre-emptively defended his candidate’s integrity, but it is nonetheless not the launch either man would have wanted.
Those issues are niggly, but in the longer run should be offset by having such a senior officer backing Labour. Naidoo’s status as the first person from the Asian community to be appointed a police inspector is also noteworthy, given National’s efforts to court the Indian vote through its own candidate selections.
Trade unionist Chris Flatt (20th), Waitangi Tribunal member Kingi Kiriona (22nd), School Strike 4 Climate NZ co-founder Sophie Handford (26th), lawyer and activist Max Harris (29th), and senior KPMG executive Warrick Cleine (30th) are among others who stand a good chance of becoming first-time MPs.
But other promising candidates have not fared quite so well, with former CTU economist Craig Renney (51st) likely needing to wrest the Wellington Bays electorate off pseudo-incumbent Julie Anne Genter to ensure a seat in the House (Genter holds the soon to be disestablished seat of Rongotai, which makes up the bulk of the new Wellington Bays electorate).
A more radical selection process could have seen the likes of Renney moved up above incumbents like Jenny Salesa, Helen White and Phil Twyford who seem less likely to hold ministerial roles in a future government (although the party may be wary of selection challenges to those in safe seats, after the drama over Louisa Wall’s Manurewa electorate in 2020).
But it is understandable that Hipkins has taken a more cautious approach, even if the list has done little to win over the party’s critics on both the left and the right.
The party’s main challenge now is to deliver meaningful policy, after a long drought that Hipkins justified by citing the need to see the Government’s books.
With Budget Day now out of the way, the pressure will come on to not just oppose but propose – and with the Labour leader teasing a policy announcement later in the week, he will soon have an opportunity to show the party has ideas as well as candidates.
* June 8: This article has been updated with comment from Police Commissioner Richard Chambers and Police Minister Mark Mitchell
