Good crowd appreciates meeting the candidates

November 17th, 2011
[by David Armstrong]

Secret tape recorders were not needed at the Meet the Candidates debate in Memorial Hall yesterday, with the five candidates giving clear accounts of themselves to an appreciative audience of 65 people.

The meeting, well hosted and run by Grey Power Motueka, included many lively moments but at no stage looked like degenerating into a shouting match, with MC Valerie Rae keeping questioners and speakers mostly within the agreed rules.

The five candidates standing in the West Coast Tasman electorate were given 10 minutes each to present their case and to give their party's policies on seven questions, including sale of state assets, lowering debt, youth unemployment and the gap between rich and poor, MP's salaries, and financial assistance to carers of family members.

The floor was then open to more than an hour of questions to specific candidates, prompting many interesting answers and revealing more about their attitudes.

The only hiccup was the late arrival of Green's Kevin Hague and Labour's Damien O'Connor due to the late operation of their plan flight from Auckland. This prompted some enjoyable ad-libbing for a while but did not eventually detract from the quality of the meeting.

This was the second time the candidates debated in Motueka before this election, the other being a somewhat more light-hearted show at the Sprig & Fern last month. Grey Power are to be commended for organising this presentation, which was attended by residents across a range of ages.

Steven Wilkinson, of the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis party, began with an impassioned plea for his party's special lobby interest, but also gave some sound arguments on the other wider policy questions while speaking personally. Although most in the audience would have rejected his argument on cannabis, many were impressed by his opinions on the other issues and the clarity with which he expressed them.

Robert Terry, representing the Aotearoa Youth Party, attempted to provide the entertainment and shock value of the meeting, winning the Motueka Online awards for "best obscure jokes" and "best showman". Most of it was as distant from the point as could possibly be, and designed to highlight his own run-ins with the justice system.

Chris Auchinvole, the National party incumbent, spoke of the contentment of life that the greying members of the population deserve, but also spoke of the other two stages - the working life of adulthood and the education of children - as vital. He gave National's already well-publicised answers to criticisms of asset sales and debt, and praised the fact that Motueka had taken up the government's Youth Employment Scheme the fastest in the country to good effect.

Fresh (and hot) from a dash up SH60 from Nelson Airport, Kevin Hague asked for the people to not vote for him in the electorate vote but to vote for his Green party in the party vote. Given he had not seen the policy questions before the meeting, his answers were more general than other candidates, and he emphasised the Green core message of "jobs, kids, rivers".

Labour's Damien O'Connor spoke with fervour that matched Robert Terry's effort but made sense as well. He gave clear, unequivocal answers to the questions posed, positioning himself as a local who, not standing on Labour's list, would be a wholehearted advocate for the district. He spoke especially about how much this was needed by the horticulture industry at present, and indicated he had ideas to improve their lot.

Motueka Online has chosen several other awards for performance. First, there was nothing in it for "most applause" after the set speeches. The audience were too polite and intelligent to get involve in orchestrating extra applause for their favourites so all candidates were given generous applause.

During the question time, and especially toward the end, Damien came out a clear winner for applause, speaking strongly on several issues which resonated well with most of the audience and speaking about them with sincere conviction and enthusiasm. Motueka Online asked 10 random members of the audience anonymously of their opinion - eight said Damien won and two said they were all about equal.

Two of those questioned thought Steven was very impressive - they didn't approve of cannabis use but though Steven had expressed his general opinions well.

Being the incumbent, Chris tended to get the harder questions, some of which were put by trenchant critics. He managed to maintain a smile throughout, and drew nods when he was critical of how much money MPs are paid, and defended the RSE scheme for employing Pacific Island workers in orchards.

"Best interjection" came, however, when Chris, defending state asset sales, recommended we all read the "brilliant" editorial in the latest Listener magazine; from the audience: "Is that the one that says when you're in a hole you don't sell the ladder?"

Chris won our prize for "best blooper" when he referred to his experience in Whangarei in proximity to Parihaka (in Taranaki - maybe he meant Whanganui?). Chris also wins "best snide remark" when answering the question of bringing the troops home from Afghanistan - while the other four candidates said 'yes, they should come home', Chris said "I would not support any policy put forward by the Mana Party".

"Biggest clap" when to Damien's passionate answer on the need to build up the minimum wage and youth rates in order to stop young people skipping to Australia. He also got the second biggest clap when, asked about introducing a Financial Transaction Tax, said it was time to look at this seriously now as more and more other countries are starting to adopt it.

Do you want to have your say on the election, on this meeting or on this report of the meeting? and we'll post your comment below the photo.

From left, Steve Wilkinson, Robert Terry, Chris Auchinvole, Kevin Hague and Damien O'Connon

Comment by Philip Grimmett:
[Posted 20 November 2011]

Thanks for an informative article. Mot online is a great online resource for absentee Motuekans. What about John Key's cycleways running out of money at Mapua and no money for Mot's main street issues?

Comment by Mark Scales:
[Posted 21 November 2011]

Your report of the meeting is very good. The audience were generally well behaved and well moderated as you say. Aside from Chris Auchinvoles lack of knowledge of New Zealand's geography and history; (re his ignorance of both where Parihaka is and more importantly what happened there), Damien O'Connor was at his passionate best, not relying on just a smile and a wave as others do, but actually speaking from the heart and with conviction.

Candidates with his political experience and his knowledge of the history and economy of the West Coast Tasman electorate are few and far between, and because Damien is not on the party list, this region will lose a strong advocate if he is not elected.

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