Nats' Tamaki candidate keen to tackle violence

Simon O'Connor. Photo / Supplied

Tackling violence in society will be a focus for National's newly selected Tamaki candidate, Simon O'Connor, should he be elected, says the opera-loving, motorcycle-riding monarchist and former trainee priest.

Mr O'Connor prevailed in a field of five contenders on Wednesday night, the contest coming down to him and former United Future president Denise Krum, who missed out on selection for National for a third time in the past few months.

He put his success down to his experience, "particularly in the voluntary and community sector". He has also held a variety of roles within the National Party including managing list MP Cam Calder's unsuccessful 2008 campaign in Labour stronghold Manurewa.

Mr O'Connor unsuccessfully contested National's candidacy for Maungakiekie before the 2008 election and ended up at No 73 on the party list that year. His progress from there to Tamaki was "a good example of how National operates".

"Hard work and aspiration can pay off."

Mr O'Connor, 35, was born and raised in Whangarei. He completed training as a Catholic priest, but chose not to be ordained.

"It's like a lot of young men who go through it - it eventually didn't feel like the right fit for me and I felt I could probably use some of the skills I had in a wider context, in this case outside the priesthood, so went pretty quickly into politics to make a difference that way."

Qualities developed in his training - honesty, integrity, discipline, respect for others - were assets for a political career, he said.

Whangarei-born and raised, Mr O'Connor lives in Grey Lynn but has pledged to move to Tamaki. The former spokesman for Monarchy NZ is unmarried, enjoys opera and riding his Kawasaki 250 motorcycle.

There is little doubt he will win Tamaki - his predecessor, Allan Peachey, had a 17,000-vote majority in 2008.

He was reluctant to say which policy areas he hoped to contribute to once an MP.

"The first thing for me is just embedding into Tamaki and engaging with the electorate. The policies will be those of National for now."

But violence in the community was "certainly something I would be interested in personally", he said. "For me the priority is to show I'm a competent, hard-working person and hopefully future MP. What gets off my chest comes after that."