Audrey Young: How a schoolboy beat three able women in National's Palmerston North contest

Successful contender for Palmerston North selection William Wood, aged 17.

Apparently you had to be there to understand why a 17-year-old schoolboy beat three able women, including a sitting list MP, for the National Party nomination in Palmerston North.

It is not a great look for a party that has trouble attracting the votes of women at the best of times to select someone who is not yet old enough to vote.

Clearly William Wood required special permission from the party to be eligible for selection.

Obviously no one in the party thought to tell him he had a promising future in politics but to go and get some life experience.

And clearly no one in the selection meeting thought to tell the delegates what message overlooking three women for a schoolboy would send.

Or if they understood it, they were not persuaded.

To give National its credit, its candidate selections are local and democratic, and they allow the news media to observe them.

Head office doesn't dictate to the locals and there is no expectation that the locals look at the bigger picture. It is not a party with quotas for women, Maori, youth or boomers.

National's 2017 candidate, Adrienne Pierce, sought selection again.

Imbalances are for the list to fix, not local selections.

William Wood stood out from the women not just because of his age.

According to those who were there, he was articulate, a skill honed as head of the school debating team, he was very knowledgeable, and was super-confident.

He was apparently so much more impressive than the competition that he won on the first ballot. He will turn 18 before the next election.

Losing candidates pledge before the contest not to speak, no matter how disappointed they are.

Adrienne Pierce was one of those with high hopes in Sunday's selection, a woman who moved to Palmerston North from Hawke's Bay in 2017 after winning selection for National.

She was a co-founder of PORSE home-based early childhood education.

Pierce will be very disappointed. She has been the party's face there for the past two years, running events and working hard to win the selection again.

That level of commitment is usually rewarded, although National for the first time in many elections did not win the party vote last time.

Ava Neal moved to New Zealand from Colombia some years ago, and is a Licensed Immigration Adviser who has run her own business for the past 15 years and is a member of the Manawatu Chamber of Commerce.

National list MP Jo Hayes.

But list MP Jo Hayes must be feeling the most disappointed, if not humiliated, and she has some sympathy in the caucus.

Hayes first stood in Dunedin South in 2011 but has never found a political home.

She sought selection in Wairarapa in 2014 but was beaten by Alistair Scott who won the right to stand for National.

Hayes was directed towards the safe Labour seat of Christchurch East and stood there in 2014 and 2017.

She set up an electorate office and has been such a visible face for National there, many thought she lived there.

Actually she comes from Feilding, not that far away from Palmerston North and presumably thought it would be better to stand closer to home, even though Palmerston North is a safe Labour seat.

The advantage Hayes got from the previous arrangement was that the Canterbury Westland region was able to secure her a winnable place on National's list for the past two elections – and that is not a given for any National candidate in the lower North Island region.

Having had a political career full of rejection may not have endeared the Palmerston North locals to Hayes - but she never seemed to get a break.

She may not have been a star but she has been a better parliamentary performer than many of her male colleagues, who like young Wood on Sunday, once left a great impression at a party selection meeting.