From the trenches: The battle for Northland

Listen to Wayne Brown discuss this column on NBR Radio

A week certainly is a long time in politics!

Last week I attended a candidate meeting up here for the first time in decades to listen to the local aspirants wanting to fill the normally safe National seat vacated by Mike Sabin.

Unlike normal such meetings, this one was full, even if the two main runners never rocked up.

Of the division two candidates, the only ones worth commenting on were Joe Carr, of Focus NZ, representing well- off Nat sympathisers fed up with getting nothing back for their support; Reuben Porter, of Mana, reminding us what a waste Maori seats are; and Labour’s Willow-Jean Prime lecturing on her favourite subject, herself.

New bridges
Since then the battle has focused on the new Nat, Mark Osborne, a capable, nice big guy but very new to this level of conflict; and the wily old campaigner Winston Peters, who is exploiting the total lack of local results from decades of slavish Nat support.

As if to underline just how poorly the government has treated Northland supporters, all of a sudden new bridges from equally new (Simon) Bridges, the fresh-faced, telegenic Minister of Transport, pop up in front of us.

Poor Mr Osborne has been instructed to stick with the party line about all the good things that the Nats have brought us.

But, like us, he knows that other than an unwanted prison, all we have got is crap roads, crap broadband, crap cell phone coverage, unhelpful new laws like the hated HAIL (Hazardous Activities Industries List) and an unwanted local government amalgamation with Whangarei when clearly the Far North wanted to be its own unitary authority.

Strategic voting is such a new concept up here that many voters just don’t get that they are in the new Epsom and could actually make a change.

The National Pparty is more like an iwi with lifetime devotees regardless of what they have done.

Winston will have to shift them but he has got coverage, promises of bridges and who knows what new bribes will be forthcoming.

Labour’s Andrew Little is bravely trying to rein in his self-obsessed preening peacock of a candidate without looking as if he is dealing with the devil.

The Nat machine is rolling with Cabinet ministers everywhere and we locals are fielding calls from list MPs we have never heard of trying to convince us that the Nats have really helped.

This works well for John Key, who just sticks to a smile and a reassurance that all is well. But not everyone can pull that off.

The poor sod who rang me got a long list of things they had done that have made my latest task of getting a resource consent for a new export factory harder than ever.

Job much harder
Recent government changes to Resource Management Act, safety laws, Building Act, Overseas Investment Office tweaking, and the hated HAIL have all made my job much harder.

Nobody believes the 7500 new jobs claim and the money for the holiday highway to Wellsford would be way better spent three-laning all the way to Paihia.

So can Winston exploit years of neglect, will Labour work out strategic voting like Act has or will the Nats’ party machine roll over the opposition as it has done for decades?

Who knows – but voting has never been so interesting here before.

Listen to Wayne Brown discuss this column on NBR Radio