Key electorate: Waitakere

By ANNE BESTON

So far the gloves are still on in the fight to win Waitakere, but there are signs they could be whisked off in a flash if need be.

The leading three candidates are women:

* Labour's Lynne Pillay, a former nurse, now an organiser with the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturers Union;

* National's Marie Hasler, a former Cabinet minister who underlines her 20-year West Auckland residency with a WEST T number plate;

* Alliance leader Laila Harre, Minister of Women's Affairs and Minister of Youth Affairs in the last Government.

A fourth candidate in the re-drawn, left-leaning seat is also a woman, the Greens' Dr Meriel Watts. That has prompted New Zealand First's Arthur Albert to describe himself as "a thorn among the roses".

Ms Pillay and Ms Hasler both say it is Ms Harre who could remove the gloves first. But so far the Alliance leader is staying strictly "on message". With her party polling below 1 per cent, a win in Waitakere is almost certainly her only political lifeline.

The Alliance leader is in no doubt who her chief rival is.

"West Auckland is traditionally a Labour-voting area and their brand is very, very strong," she said. "It doesn't matter who they run as candidate, they start with a huge advantage."

Suggestions that two strong women candidates on the left could split the vote to allow National to come through the middle are dismissed by Ms Pillay and Ms Harre.

"Laila will not split the vote because we will not let her," Ms Pillay says.

Ms Harre says: "We've done some careful counting on that basis and we are sure Marie Hasler cannot win the seat."

Population growth in Albany and Rodney forced a revamp in West Auckland this election. Three seats - Te Atatu, Waitakere and Titirangi - became four: Te Atatu, Waitakere, Helensville and New Lynn.

The Waitakere seat, in the heart of Auckland's "eco-city", reaches from the wild west coast beaches of Karekare and Te Henga over the Waitakere Ranges into the blue-collar suburbs of Henderson and Ranui.

The seat now pulls in more than 21,000 voters from the old Titirangi seat and almost 19,000 from the old Te Atatu electorate.

On paper the seat is Labour's by about 2000 to 2500 votes. But Ms Pillay's position at 39 on her party's list is a key plank in the Alliance campaign strategy. The party wants to persuade voters they can have two MPs in Parliament - Ms Pillay on the list and Ms Harre as local MP.

It is debatable whether Waitakere voters will get the message.

For Ms Hasler, a former Titirangi MP and now a list MP, the re-drawn seat is "unpredictable and unknown". While she is optimistic she can win, it is crunch time also for the former Minister for Culture and Heritage and Minister for Radio New Zealand. She has been bumped down National's list, from 24 at the last election to 32 this time. On present polling, that offers no guarantee of a return to Parliament.

The Greens are not campaigning for the electorate vote in Waitakere. Dr Watts, who says she could be Parliament's first "out" lesbian if elected, believes the controversial $11 million, six-month aerial spraying campaign to eradicate painted apple moth will be an issue this election, but Labour and the Alliance do not see it as a vote-decider. Ms Harre says: "It's an important issue but I don't think it will be a paramount one."

All the candidates cite education, health and transport as issues that will motivate voters out west. Dr Watts is campaigning strongly on genetic modification but in this Labour-leaning electorate, voters could decide the party's cautious approach on the issue is enough.

The importance of Waitakere in this election is its potential to give the Alliance a presence in Parliament after July 27. Can the party's leader pull off a big upset here to save her political skin?

She says: "We can win it, but we need every day of the next four weeks."

Candidates announced so far:

Arthur Albert - NZ First

Laila Harre - Alliance

Marie Hasler - National

David Parkyn - Progressive Coalition

Lynne Pillay - Labour

Meriel Watts - Greens

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