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As the Prime Minister pressed his elbows on Tauranga and Judith Collins strutted through the streets of Hawke’s Bay with hordes of aid and party loyalists in tow, Matthew Coleman posed in his mother’s classic caravan in his front garden.
His campaign poster in the window makes his speech: “someone real like you.”
When Covid-19 arrived, confused beneficiaries arrived at Coleman’s door, stressed and asking for advice.
An idea came up, why not get a full time job doing this?
The unemployed father of three is running as an independent candidate in the Hamilton East electorate, as far away from the national political contest as possible.
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This is the first time he has signed up and he will cast a vote, presumably for himself.
“This year I worry, I worry a lot.”
The headquarters of the Coleman campaign is the Rototuna house where the 32-year-old lives with his parents and brother.
He’ll face off against the city’s most established candidates, Labor’s Jamie Strange and National’s David Bennett.
Is not easy. Coleman recently put up about five campaign posters in the neighborhood. Four were shot down shortly after, he said.
But Covid-19 sparked real political momentum in Coleman, he said, it was “chaos” for beneficiaries.
The start of the shutdown saw the Labor and Revenue offices shut down, phone lines were blocked, and people were not sure they could access their payments.
CHRISTEL YARDLEY / Things
Matthew Coleman, an independent candidate from Hamilton East, said he wants to help other recipients vote.
“All our neighbors asked me: ‘what’s happening, what’s happening?'”
Coleman has had an intermittent benefit at Hamilton for the past eight years.
Other customers seek him out because he understands the system and knows how to communicate with WINZ, he said.
He has tested scaffolding and his own scrap metal company and his last job was milk production, he said Stuff that role lasted four months.
“I am just another person and I have never tried to be anything other than what I am, I have struggled to keep a job.”
He has never found his passion, so nothing is stuck.
“I guess I haven’t found anything that I’m passionate enough to deal with the numbness of that job, or the effort I get paid for.”
Coleman said he has “been too concerned” about helping other recipients to continue working full time.
He receives $ 680 a week in his job seeker’s support benefit that he said goes toward rent, electricity, fuel, food (he shares custody of two children) and a pack of cigarettes.
CHRISTEL YARDLEY / Things
Matthew Coleman said he was inspired to run for parliament when he saw the effect of Covid-19 on beneficiaries.
He admits that he has been in trouble with the law.
Coleman stole a vehicle and violated community detention conditions twice several years ago, he said.
And last year, he was convicted of stealing property of less than $ 500 when he seized a disused scrap metal furnace, located next to a container on the side of the road, he said.
But he thinks his past could be an advantage.
“How many other members of parliament can say they have experience in this way?”
He will not judge voters who have been through difficult times in the past, he said.
“I can see through most scams right away, because there was a time when I was younger when I was a criminally minded person.
“I know this is unpleasant for some, but I am the person that I am.”
Its main objective is to help other beneficiaries to vote.
“To register to vote online, you need a photo ID, that’s about 80 percent of them, they don’t have licenses or photo ID.”
Manually submitting forms is also difficult, Coleman said, because many do not have access to printers or Internet data.
And putting an address, where beneficiaries are not supposed to live with a partner, deters some, he said.
“[beneficiaries] they are too scared to register to vote because they don’t want to lose their benefit, they are stuck not voting.
“They are trapped without a voice.”
Coleman said he has helped about 27 Work & Income clients enroll so far by submitting forms and scanning their documents.
He has no ulterior motive, he said.
“I don’t want them to vote for me to be a member of parliament and say ‘you have to put me in that position’, no.
“I want to show the beneficiaries that voting is important, because there will be problems in this election that will affect them.”
She also wants more services for beneficiaries in the Labor and Income offices, like seminars and budget consultants.
Although he hasn’t voted for or held a long-term job, Coleman believes full-time politics is for him.
“I realize it would be a complete job, but I think having the right attitude and passion is key.
“Supporting and helping the community woke me up during Covid-19 and inspired me to step up and run.”
