No-hope seat but Simich soldiers on

Clem Simich, universally rated as Parliament's most courteous member, out and about in the Labour stronghold of Mangere. Picture / Martin Sykes

Clem Simich is renowned for being the most gentlemanly, courteous member of the parliamentary playpen. He holds doors open, addresses strangers as "sir" and "ma'am" - even the young ones who don't get it - and jumps up to fetch napkins to mop up coffee spilled by clumsy reporters.

He reckons his manners came from his mother, "a wonderfully well-mannered lady". He wears the shiniest black shoes and sharp black suits, and there is usually a silky black hanky arranged fetchingly in his breast pocket.

None of that changes when he is trawling for votes, his former policeman's long, unhurried gait going up and down the Mangere Bridge shops. His rules: talk to shop owners, not customers, lest he annoy everyone.

Mr Simich never utters the words "vote for me" or "can I count on your vote?" You don't need to state the obvious, he says. He asks them how business is going instead.

As the guy behind the hardware store counter predicts, Mr Simich, 66, "hasn't got a show" of taking Mangere from Labour.

"Even I wouldn't be that optimistic," admits Mr Simich. "The party vote's the important one."

So much so that none of the 35 billboards he has put up in Mangere name or show him.

At number 18 on the party list and his parliamentary place all but assured, you might think Mr Simich's motivation to be short. He demurs: "This all helps."

What a good foot-soldier. Mr Simich went quietly from the cosy Tamaki seat he has held since 1992 to give Rangitoto College principal and political novice Allan Peachey a safe start.

Mr Simich says he is not miffed about losing Tamaki. "I've always been satisfied with who I am, and what I am, and I'm happy with my lot." Born to be mild, evidently.

He has been promised the Speaker's job in any National government: he is already Deputy Speaker and enjoys the job. "There are no blow-ups when I'm in there. Some people like to carry on in an inappropriate way, and I let them do that and make fools of themselves. That's the best thing."

Mr Simich was once quoted as saying list MPs didn't do much, but reckons the job has evolved, so list MPs "actually do very similar things to constituency members".

Thus he will keep his Tamaki office and help out Mr Peachey, who is doing "a mighty job".

This isn't, by the way, the first time Clem Rudolph Simich has wooed Mangere voters. He was the National candidate for the Mangere byelection in 1977. A chap called David Lange won.