Epsom nod for Banks

John Banks has swapped to Act. Photo / Janna Dixon

John Banks has the support of at least one resident of the electorate he wants to represent in Parliament.

Former National MP Sir Douglas Graham, who lives in the Epsom electorate, yesterday praised him as a good contributor.

"He's a very hard-working fellow who works assiduously on his portfolios and I would imagine he will still do that."

Asked whether he liked Banks enough to vote for him, Graham said: "I hadn't thought about that too much." But he added: "I would be much more likely to vote for John Banks than for Rodney Hide."

He said it came down to his background and personality.

Banks was unveiled as Act's Epsom candidate at a media conference yesterday.

The announcement came after a turbulent time for the party in which Don Brash ousted Hide as leader.

Banks had already been named as Brash's preferred man for Epsom, but the party's board only officially endorsed him at its meeting in Auckland yesterday.

Until this month Banks, 64, was a 38-year member of the National Party, including an 18-year stint as the party's MP for Whangarei. He put in his application to join the Act Party at the same time as putting in his nomination for the Epsom seat.

Yesterday he wouldn't go so far as to say he felt sad about joining another party: "It's surreal really because it was the late Sir Robert Muldoon that gave me the opportunity to run for Parliament in 1978," he said.

"The National Party has given me a lot of opportunity - you won't hear me bagging individuals within the National Party." Instead he would focus on talking about "policy differences on the margins" and values that Act believed would "substantially help the people of this country".

He intended to run a "dignified" campaign, and joked that unlike Hide, he would be doing no Dancing with the Stars.

Brash refused to say which electorate he would be run for - if any. There has been speculation would stand in Tamaki,

He said Act intended to field candidates in every electorate apart from the Maori seats.

Labour leader Phil Goff yesterday went door-knocking on the street made famous in a publicity-seeking visit by then wannabe Prime Minister John Key.

Key labelled Auckland's McGehan Close a "street of shame" in 2007.

Yesterday, Goff visited the street, which is in his Mt Roskill electorate, to promise residents a higher minimum wage and the removal of GST from fruit and vegetables if Labour wins the election.