Pillay ready to claim Harre's vital patch

By CATHERINE MASTERS

If Lynne Pillay is remotely worried about Laila Harre winning Waitakere, there is little sign of it on the hustings.

Apart from some who cannot decide and a twosome wearing rings through their noses who just cannot be bothered voting, the Labour candidate for Waitakere encounters no Alliance supporters as she shakes hands outside the Glen Eden shops.

In this traditional Labour stronghold most are friendly and say they are already voting Labour.

If this proves correct, come Saturday night Ms Pillay will be able to claim more than just the electorate. A loss by Laila Harre would oust the Alliance from Parliament.

The spotlight was back on Waitakere at the weekend after the Alliance released a poll, carried out by a research company owned by Ms Harre's husband, Dr Barry Gribben, putting Ms Harre at a commanding lead.

It was immediately ridiculed by Ms Pillay and Prime Minister Helen Clark, who claimed it had been made up.

But yesterday, Helen Clark acknowledged that a poll had been conducted, after complaints by two people who had worked on it, although she did not apologise for her earlier comment.

"I accept Barry's word that they did a poll. I just don't think the result really bears out what's happening on the ground."

The tracking poll was carried out over five days at a time when Ms Harre had a high television profile, and the Alliance was pushing the message that Ms Pillay would be elected off Labour's list anyway.

Back at the car, an older man accosts Ms Pillay. He has a bone to pick: he has yet to see a single Pillay pamphlet in his letterbox.

The other day he rang the Labour Waitakere office to offer to deliver them himself but was told it was in hand.

But all he got was a Harre leaflet through his door.

"It's not damn good enough," he says.

During a somewhat long and involved story, the diminutive former nurse turned union negotiator chats away and at one stage tells him her dad was Billy Aitken, a jockey in the Manawatu, where she grew up.

The conversation lurches to horse-racing in the old days.

Ms Pillay makes her exit, leaving a pile of pamphlets with the now-happy Labour stalwart to give out to his neighbours.

Despite having a meeting to rush off to, voters cannot be hurried at this stage of the campaign.

It's a lot like that out on the campaign trail, says Ms Pillay, 51, who believes her credentials prove she is genuine in her desire to represent Waitakere in Parliament.

She has been a nurse, is the mother of two now-adult half-Indian children, and has worked in West Auckland for the past six years as an Engineers' Union (EPMU) organiser.

She knows the people and the issues well, she says.



She saw the "devastation" of the Employment Contracts Act and is passionate about creating jobs out West.

Labour's apprenticeship programme is already creating skills, says Ms Pillay. She is hot on health services for West Auckland and education and training.

The new Westie has just moved to Titirangi from Remuera.

Remuera? Surely that's a bit posh for someone with such staunch Labour roots?

"I think grassroots people see I'm not a Remmers girl," she replies. "I happened to live there."

She and her former husband dreamed of doing up an old house and found one in Remuera, then raised their children there.

They stayed about 20 years but she is happy to live now in beautiful Titirangi.

Her partner Mike Sweeney, the Northern regional secretary of the EPMU, is, not surprisingly, "incredibly" supportive of her trying to get into Parliament and she knows she will enjoy the challenge.

Well, Ms Pillay has been an MP before - for 10 days after the last election, but she lost on a count-back to the Greens.

For this reason she urges people not to listen to Ms Harre's plea for people to vote for her because Ms Pillay is 39 on Labour's list and will get in anyway.

She thought she had a safe list position last time and look what happened.

Full news coverage:
nzherald.co.nz/election

Election links:
The parties, policies, voting information, and more

Ask a politician:
Send us a question, on any topic, addressed to any party leader. We'll choose the best questions to put to the leaders, and publish the answers in our election coverage.