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CAMPAIGN JOURNAL: New Zealand’s loudest candidate debate was decidedly more subdued last night as the Tier 2 rules kept the Aro Valley candidate forum out of its usual antics.
In previous years, the firing limit to this small community room in Wellington was far exceeded, with hundreds of people packed to cheer and mock the various candidates in what is probably the most left-wing forum in the country.
Only 50 socially distanced seats were allowed on Tuesday night, along with a crop of candidates and supporters, who were not allowed to sit. Squirt guns were still allowed so that the audience could enforce time limits (and punish statements that were not their preference).
Unfortunately for host Bryan Crump, no one showed up from Social Credit or the Aotearoa Legalize Cannabis Party; in fact, NZ First didn’t even send anyone. Instead, Grant Robertson from Labor, James Shaw from the Green Party, Nicola Willis from National, Brooke van Velden from ACT, Abe Gray from TOP and independent candidate Jesse Richardson were present.
Ross Giblin / Stuff
Green Party co-leader James Shaw speaks in the hall.
A single caller on the outside porch would interrupt every minute or so, yelling “the best thing about Covid-19 is you can put ’84’ after,” praising candidates for being concise and exclaiming “I love Shakespeare!”
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But the mood was decidedly less fiery than in previous years: At one point, an audience member complained that she was falling asleep and asked that the candidates be more fun.
Richardson, 18, came up first, attacking the government for its record on climate change from his left.
“What we have shown with Covid is that New Zealand can be a country that is at the forefront in solving a crisis. We can be a more positive force in this world,” Richardson said.
“I care about your right to live on a planet that is not going to …”.
Shaw joked that Richardson had stolen his speech.
Ross Giblin / Stuff
An interlocutor provides some color from outside the hall, at one point yelling “I love Shakespeare!”
Aro Valley is Shaw’s childhood home, and the Greens have often won majority support in the voting booth in this hall, though they lost to Labor in the last election.
Despite the competition, Robertson and Shaw acted as friends throughout the night, yet Shaw said “what he said” after Robertson settled a tough issue between Israel and Palestine and sold the Greens as an important partner to the Labor in government. The friendship ultimately fell on rough terrain after Shaw brought up his anger at Jacinda Ardern who scrapped a capital gains tax for good.
Robertson, the incumbent, kept it very local, talking about the sandbox outside the community room and his breach of the “milk and brioche” promise in all Wellington cafes.
(The Finance Minister managed to mimic “make it rain” when Crump spoke about the difference between the fiscally prudent Robertson of 2017 and the more fiscally triggered Robertson after Covid-19.)
Stuff
The candidates mingle before the debate.
National’s Nicola Willis also started locally, criticizing Wellington’s rising rents, before widening the stage for a critique of Labor, saying it had “failed in every measure that was proposed.”
For a national candidate, Willis endured very little water from squirt guns, although there was open laughter when she said the Labor team was not as strong as National’s.
ACT’s Brooke van Velden arrived prepared in a raincoat, but faced much less opposition than last time, when the ACT candidate ended up yelling “I don’t even want to win this electorate.”
But this is still not exactly ACT-friendly territory: when a response on the weather finished, a single interlocutor asked, “Do you care about anything other than money?” applause.
Over time, the boos grew fiercer, with many more traditional “shame” taunts when Willis spoke about National’s promise not to raise taxes.
TOP’s Gray sought to lock himself into the electorate as much as possible, even though he recently moved from Dunedin. He said TOP was a whole party essentially founded on bringing Wellington Central’s views uncompromisingly to Parliament, as a Green Party “who cares about evidence.”
But the evidence from the night did not point to much support for TOP. In fact, the only candidate less likely than Gray to make it to Parliament probably won the most applause: the youthful independent Richardson, who said he could “say with more confidence that he had the most progressive fiscal policy of all in this scenario. “, and even won a proclamation of love from an audience member. You won’t see that in a Chamber of Commerce debate.
