Party time: Soapbox capers earn a hearing

By JULIE MIDDLETON

What does Police Minister George Hawkins do on the campaign trail? He is popular in his low-income Manurewa electorate, but it has some of the country's worst crime figures.

The plan: reinvent the 1930s Labour politician on the soapbox, harking back to a more gentle time when crime wasn't at today's rude rate.

Pootling around his Manurewa electorate in a 1929 Dodge grocery van - it reads "Labour delivers" and is covered in red balloons - Mr Hawkins is holding five-minute "street corner meetings".

Toting a red-topped microphone, he drops on to the footpath in McAnnalley Drive, launching into a song that features the line "crime has dropped under Labour" and a chorus of "Vote George Hawkins, Labour Manurewa".

Passing cars honk, and locals regard their MP of 12 years with waves and smiles. Net curtains twitch, and curious people pad in their slippers to the ends of their driveways to see who's making the racket.

Also enticed is Glenbrook mill shift worker David Spender, who has never eyeballed a politician but "can't resist" the chance.

"At the last election," says Mr Spender, "92 per cent of the country said we wanted tougher laws. You've got the guy just around the corner [double murderer Ese Falealii] who shot those people [Marcus Doig and John Vaughan] ... he should have been locked away for life."

Mr Hawkins placates, saying that Falealii's crimes took place before new, tougher sentencing laws came into effect on July 1.

He asks Mr Spender's opinion on other Government activity. "I don't know," Mr Spender says. "Crime is what's been on my mind."

Returning home, Mr Spender adds: "It's good to be able to say things to a politician to his face.

"We want these guys to stay in jail. And it's very convenient that he [Mr Hawkins] came out here."

Quite. People are quick to share their worries with Mr Hawkins, who still limps from his 1992 stroke.

A wheelchair-bound state house tenant complains there is only one ramp in and out. What if there's a fire? Mr Hawkins promises to take the matter up with Housing New Zealand.

A middle-aged man says respite care for his handicapped adult daughter has been impossible to find.

A white-haired woman says young men have to be kept "kept off the street before they graffiti and try to pick things up that don't belong to them".

The routine varies on Churchill Rd as a leathery-faced older man in a knit hat strides towards Mr Hawkins, shouting "bugger off, George, bugger off".

It's hard to tell if he's cross, joking, or not quite there, so Mr Hawkins tries humour. "Look, we've found the only National voter in Manurewa!"

Onlookers - two Polynesian mums and an Asian man - laugh with gusto as the now angry old man strides away, popping two of the Dodge's balloons. Later, Mr Hawkins, energised by the spat, says he is glad to have encountered a heckler.

"He had more spirit than Bill English!"

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