Tuwhenuaroa
Natanahira Political reporter
Labour
supporters have been told to harness their “hope and rage”
this election while National voters say fear the worst should
the left bloc take power.
Labour leader Chris
Hipkins joined a number of Labour candidates, including his
deputy Carmel Sepuloni, Phil Twyford and newcomer and
foreign affairs spokesperson Vanushi Walters in the
working-class suburb of Kelston in West Auckland, in the
auditorium of the local girls’ high school, attracting a few
hundred locals and party volunteers.
In her speech,
Walters said Labour supporters had a mixture
of “outrage and hope” to the campaign.
“Some of
you, like me, will remember going on a march not long after
the last election when they cancelled the smoke-free
generation for our children – if they win, there will be
marches for three years.
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“I ask you one thing: bring
all that energy, all of that hope and rage that you would
put into those three years ahead, bring it now,” she
said.
Hipkins took the stage donning a lei presented
to him on stage by Sepuloni, who has been the MP for Kelston
for over a decade.
He
used his speech to lay into Christopher Luxon – rolling out
his party’s new attack line claiming Luxon had left people
$6000 worse off – and laid out his party’s plan to make life
cheaper.
Jobs, in particular, got the crowd riled
up.
“Those on the other side who currently sit on the
treasury benches say it’s not the government’s job to create
jobs, well, they’ve certainly demonstrated that they don’t
think it’s their job to create jobs.
“Under our
government, we achieved record low unemployment despite some
of the most challenging economic conditions any government
in New Zealand has faced … we saved people’s jobs [and]
we’ve now got a government that celebrates losing them,” he
said.
Down south, the National party had their own
rally on the West Coast.
Leader Christopher Luxon proved
a popular figure among the estimated hundred supporters
in Greymouth, many clad in royal blue.
After speaking
for about 20 minutes, he then mingled with patrons and posed
for a number of photos.
Luxon
also heard staunch views from the locals as pre-election
tension ramped up.
Property developer Geoff Ball
endorsed Luxon but admitted he was “seriously concerned”
heading into the election.
“We’ve got a country that’s
in trouble,” he said.
“I’m not 100 percent confident
that National and the current coalition is going to get in.
I think it’s a big, big problem.”
Ball’s concerns
stemmed from the belief that three years was not long enough
for the coalition to boost the economy.
“I think they
made a bloody good start, but I personally think they’ve got
a long way to go,” he said.
“To me, the country’s got
to be run like a business. It’s not a handout
society.
“We used to be a country where we had a
reputation of number eight wire, and we get sh*t done. Now
we’re a country of red tape, bureaucrats, and
b*llshit.”
Local
man Brett Cummings had a post-speech one-on-one with Luxon,
where he said they discussed “a few things that needed to be
tidied up” on the West Coast, particularly around the repeal
of regional councils and the overhaul of the Resource
Management Act.
“There’s a whole lot of changes
they’ve been promising, but it’s taking a long time to
implement.
“All that land use and stuff, it’s a long
time ago. Not that long ago in my lifetime, you used to have
permitted activities to be gold mining.
“Now you’ve
got to get three consents plus a bond and all the rest of
it.”
RNZ asked both men to rate the past three years
under the coalition government.
Ball gave the
government a six, with Cummings offering up a
seven-and-a-half to an
eight.
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